Why hello there! It has been far too long since Team Kandy has provided an update on exciting things we’ve been working on. Kim has started a new role in the Cloud Incubation pre-sales team at VMware as a Staff Solution Architect earlier in 2021, and prior to that, we’ve just been crazy busy helping customers!

If you aren’t already registered for VMworld, this year is another fantastic opportunity to attend virtually free of charge. You should go do that now, right here!

Once you’re logged in and registered, be sure to add these sessions to your Session Builder.

How VMware Drives Innovation Through Diverse Collaborative Teams [IC2070]

In today’s complicated technical landscape, it can be a struggle to keep up with the pace of innovation necessary to stay competitive. The demand for highly skilled technologists makes building effective, diverse teams more challenging. Even when you have a team full of rock stars, molding a cohesive, innovative team is difficult at best without a culture of collaboration. Evidence shows that teams are better at solving problems than individuals. As we begin returning to the office, we need to embrace deliberate techniques to encourage collaborative team dynamics. In this session, you will hear from a multifaceted panel of leaders from across VMware about how they drive innovation utilizing diverse, collaborative teams.

Side note, there is a VMworld 2020 session you can watch in advance to provide more context for this panel here.

• Kimberly Delgado (she/her), Staff Cloud Solution Architect, VMware
• Mandy Botsko-Wilson (she/her), Principal Architect, VMware
• Susan Aoki, VP/GM (she/her), Skyline Proactive Intelligence, VMware
• Ravi Soundararajan (he/him), Principal Engineer, VMware
• Jane Li (she/her), VP Corporate Intelligence & Planning, VMware

The Tweet That Launched a Fleet of Inclusive Language at VMware [IC1476]

The murder of George Floyd in May 2020 brought new and urgent attention to the importance of social justice and equality in all aspects of our life, including how we speak in the corporate world. What many companies found—VMware included—was that exclusionary and insensitive language was embedded in our technology, how we speak to one another, and even how we recruited new talent. Discover how one tweet laid the foundation for a wave of change across VMware, starting from marking and information experience and rolling out to all employees and the entire product line. You will also learn VMware’s inclusive language guidelines, which you can take back to your company and start avoiding racist, sexist, ableist and violent language.

• Kimberly Delgado (she/her), Staff Cloud Solution Architect, VMware
• Vincent McNeeley (He/Him), Sr. Member of Technical Staff, VMware
• Kate Wilkinson (she/her), Sr. Program Manager, VMware
• Em Turner (they/them), Technical Writer, VMware

Becoming a Force for Good: A Panel on Adapting to a Changing Tech Community [IC1352]

Being a force for good is more than just a saying at VMware; it’s embedded in our culture. Join a diverse group of technical VMware colleagues for a thought-provoking panel on what it means to be a force for good. While each panel member has their own work-related accolades and deep technical expertise, at VMware, employees are called to look beyond their functions as individual contributors and develop creative solutions. Each member of the panel will discuss their career journeys, how they continue to stay motivated despite constant challenges, and their desire to continually build up those around them. This panel will help you and your technical team better understand and embrace the dynamics of an increasingly diverse technical community and, ultimately, lead to success.

• Kimberly Delgado (she/her), Staff Cloud Solution Architect, VMware
• Sebastian Carrasco (he/him), Senior Consultant, VMware
• Bryan Liles, Principle Engineer, VMware
• Hasini Bandara, Solutions Engineer, VMware
• Brianna Williams (she/her), Senior Consultant, VMware

Last but not least, I want to put in a plug for my teammate Aaron who is co-presenting at his first VMworld in this year, in this session with a customer:

Day 2 Best Practices for Customer Success with VMware Cloud on Dell EMC [MCL2028]

In this session, VMware and customer experts will share best practices for Day 2 operations and how to maximize consumption of local cloud as a service with VMware Cloud on Dell EMC. This session will explore networking tips, workload migrations, and programmatic control of the software-defined data center (SDDC) with VMware Cloud APIs. This session will be technical, and you will hear directly from Liberty Mutual technical team members who operate their VMware Cloud on Dell EMC implementation.

• Aaron Brongersma, Staff Cloud Architect, VMware
• Matthew Herreras, Director, Technical Marketing, CSBU, VMware
• STEPHEN YAKOVAKIS, Solutions Engineer, LIBERTY MUTUAL

We hope you enjoy these and many more fantastic sessions and opportunities to network while in the comfort of your office or home office.

-Kim & Mandy