Will Virtualization Congress 2009 be a Citrix copy of VMworld?

Simon Crosby, the former CTO of XenSource and the CTO of the Virtualization and Management Division at Citrix Systems is a huge fan of virtualization.info and no so happy with the way his session was scheduled at the VMworld in Vegas.

Alessandro's goals for the Virtualization Congress are to make it the industry's premier showcase for virtualization technology, products and business strategy.   If you're under the illusion that VMware's VMworld serves that purpose today, you probably also failed to notice that at VMworld even gold sponsors (like Citrix and Microsoft) are only offered one opportunity to present at the conference, and that 99% of the sessions are dedicated to VMware's technology and products.  Indeed at VMworld in Las Vegas in 2008 I found that my session was somehow miraculously scheduled to occur in the last hour of the last day in the meeting room furthest from the elevators and escalators, and with barely enough seating.  The Microsoft folks complained of similar treatment.  (The highlight of the show for me was the huge showing of the press, who afforded Citrix generous coverage for the launch of Citrix XenServer 5).

So, will Virtualization Congress 2009 be a Citrix copy of VMworld?   Absolutely not.  Indeed Citrix has no influence or control over  the Virtualization Congress program whatsoever.   Alessandro and his independent program committee (which does not have any representation from Citrix), together with the readers of virtualization.info, will independently develop their agenda, select speakers and run the event.  Like other vendors, Citrix has submitted session proposals, but I have no idea whether or not they will be accepted.