VMware Explore Las Vegas 2026 Day 3

Last day

Although this was the last full day of the conference, there was still plenty to see and do. The General sessions and Hands on Labs consumed much of the day, and like the first two days, Day 3 flew by in no time at all.

Tips and tricks on running VCF 9.1 in a Homelab

Great to see William Lam and Alen Renouf's session on running 9.1 in a Homelab. The session covered some of the new features in 9.1 that are specifically tailored to allow you to choose to ignore, rather than have to find workarounds, for some of the requirements for VCF 9.1, when running in a homelab environment. The session also covered Holodeck and the new VCF Inspector Tool written by Alan. The current version covers upgrades from VCF 5.2 and 9.0 to 9.1, but the next version will include support for upgrades from vSphere 8 to 9.1

Reconnecting with old friends

One of the highlights of the week was reconnecting with Alan Renouf. We're both from the same home town in England, and worked together when we were about 16 years old. We hadn't seen each other for over 30 years, and it was great to catch-up after all that time. Alan is now a Technology Product Manager at Broadcom and wrote the book on PowerCLI.

The Obligatory Swag picture

As well as the official backpack and T-shirt, there was plenty of other swag on offer at the event. The only problem now is getting it all back to the UK 😂

The Closing Party

The closing party on the Wednesday was held at Tao Beach, a rooftop venue at the Venetian. The food, the location and the atmosphere was great! A final opportunity to catch up with the many connections I'd made over the course of the event.

Representing England in Giant Jenga at The Explore Party