VMware Explore 2025 was the best conference that I’ve ever attended.

VMware Explore 2025 was unforgettable — my Hackathon team placed 1st, I presented or co-presented 5 Expert Led Workshops in the Hands-On Labs, topped the HOL leaderboard for High-Quality customer conversations, Recorded a Virtually Speaking Podcast, and I had an awesome dinner with two of my role models. Energized by positive customer discussions and the amazing vCommunity!

VMware Explore 2025

I want to start by thanking Delta Airlines for a smooth travel experience to and from Vegas this year. No delays, no cancellations—everything ran on time. Travel can sometimes be unpredictable, so this hassle-free trip was a welcome relief.

Staying at The Palazzo Hotel was a great experience. The suites were spacious and comfortable, and the walk to the conference was quick and convenient. I also enjoyed some excellent meals during my stay, with standout dining experiences at Bouchon, Delmonico, TAO Asian Bistro, Noodle Asia, and CHICA.

The VMware Explore 2025 Conference was, for me personally, one of the best I’ve attended. Overall, it was a very positive experience.

• My Hackathon Team earned first place
• I presented or co-presented five Expert-Led Workshops in the HOL area.
• I gave a presentation in the Discovery Theater alongside Don Horrox
• I recorded a Virtually Speaking Podcast about the Hackathon
• I enjoyed a nice dinner with Brock Peterson and Cosmin Trif, two people who have been great role models in my career
• In the Hands-on Labs (HOL) area, conversations with customers were very encouraging. Many were eager to learn about VCF 9, and a large number attended HOL sessions as part of their preparation for the VCF certification exams

I felt the energy at VMware Explore 2025 was very similar to the earlier years when the conference was known as VMworld. While overall attendance may have been lower, the quality of the event was noticeably higher than in the past year or two. Personally, I’ll take quality over quantity any day.

Many of the people I spoke with were taking the VCF 9 certification tests offered at the conference. That’s a strong sign of the growing interest and momentum around VCF 9 across the industry.

Hackathon

The Hackathon is always a fun and rewarding event for me. This year, I had the honor of serving as a Team Captain, and our team finished in 1st place. After placing 2nd for the past two years, achieving first this year was especially meaningful.

Our project, a PowerShell MCP Server, was an absolute blast to design and test. One of our main goals was to enable the re-use of existing PowerCLI scripts within an MCP Server—something we were excited to bring to life during the Hackathon.

Hackathon Team Members:

Our Hackathon team was made up of Don, Amos, Cosmin, and Willie. Don and Amos joined as soon as the Hackathon was announced, while Cosmin and Willie jumped in the evening of the event. It turned out to be a fantastic group, and I’m happy to call all of them friends.

I always look forward to the opportunity each year to have conversations with the Hackathon Judges, Alan Renouf and William Lam. Back when I was a customer, if either of them had sessions at VMware Explore, those were always the first I registered for.

To now have these role models serve as Hackathon judges—and to have them select the project I captained as the winning entry—was an incredibly proud moment in my career.

Hackathon Links:

Announcing Hackathon Explore in Las Vegas

Broadcom News article about the Hackathon

Hackathon Pics:

Here are some screenshots of the Dashboards our Hackathon Team created using the PowerShell MCP Server:

• The MCP Server provides the connection to the data
• We connected to VCF, vCenter, VCF Operations, and a Network Switch
• Data is retrieved through prompts, and reports are generated automatically based on those prompts
• No additional coding is required to create the reports
• Beyond retrieving data, we also built MCP Tools that can send email, create DNS records, and save HTML reports directly to a specified web server folder

Pics from the Hackathon Event:

We also walked away with some awesome prizes and a really cool Hackathon T-shirt—a fun bonus on top of an already amazing experience.

Hackathon Comic Book:

• I created the Comic Book to show how prompts can create some amazing results
• I used ChatGPT-5 to create the Comic Book

Hands-On Labs

I was a member of the Hands-On Labs Expert-Led Workshop (ELW) Team at VMware Explore 2025. Our team of eight included Christopher Lewis, Shannon Fitzpatrick, William DeMarigny, Cosmin Trif, Scott Bowe, Brock Peterson, Alexis Rondeau, and myself.

I had the opportunity to present or co-present with Shannon Fitzpatrick, William DeMarigny, Scott Bowe, and Brock Peterson.

When I wasn’t involved with the ELWs, I spent time in the Self-Paced HOL area, helping customers choose courses, get logged in, and ensure they had a great experience. The conversations I had there were very positive—time after time, customers shared how eager they were to learn about VCF 9 and get up to speed with the latest version. Their excitement around using VCF 9 was encouraging.

Not every customer feels that way, but after a few days of talking with so many engaged attendees, I left feeling really good about the vCommunity.

The Wednesday before VMware Explore, the local VMUG hosted a vBeers event, and the conversations there carried the same theme. The local VMUG chapter has asked me to start doing VCF 9 presentations, and attendees expressed interest in meeting more frequently. It’s great to see the community’s energy continuing to grow.

Hands-On Labs Pics:

Expert Led Workshop Team:

Self Paced HOL Area:

• I Love the HOL Command Center
• All the Dashbaords are created with VCF Operations
• I want to walk into a Customer NOC someday and see a wall that looks like this…

Top 20 HOL Courses Attended During VMware Explore 2025:

When I joined VMware, Brock Peterson was the one who covered my account while I was still a customer. After I accepted my role at VMware, I sent Brock a text saying, “Maybe someday we’ll get the chance to present together.”

At VMware Explore 2025, that became a reality—we co-presented an HOL Expert-Led Workshop. The feedback from attendees was overwhelmingly positive, and I truly hope we’ll have the opportunity to do more presentations together in the future.

In addition to working with Brock when I was a customer, Cosmin was also a good resource who supported me along the way. VMware Explore 2025 was the first time the three of us were together in the same place. We shared a great dinner and some meaningful conversations.

Brock and Cosmin are the best kind of coworkers—talented, supportive, and genuinely great to work with.

My VMware Explore 2025 Discovery Theater Session

• Enhancing VMware Cloud Foundation Operation Management Packs with PowerShell | CODEQT1121LV

Session Description:
In this session, we will explore how to create VMware Cloud Foundation® (VCF) Operations Management Packs (MPs) using PowerShell to retrieve the data. We will demonstrate how to use PowerShell to run scripts to gather information that can be used to build custom MPs, especially when APIs are not available. PowerShell, with the addition of PowerShell Modules, is a powerful way to get data sources into your MPs, expanding the scope of your monitoring capabilities. Learn how to think outside the box by creating MPs that go beyond traditional API integration and access data that is not readily available via standard APIs. This session will empower you to innovate and create custom MPs tailored to your specific operational needs. Discover how a PowerShell script can serve as an API frontend for your automation workflows.

Details:

I shared the Discovery Theater Stage with Don Horrox, Systems Engineer. I first met Don when he was a VMware customer that I worked with, and I was immediately struck by his deep passion for VMware technologies. Since then, it’s been a pleasure collaborating and presenting multiple times with him. Check out Don’s blog, vChamp, to see what he has been sharing with the vCommunity.

The questions and feedback we received from the presentation were excellent. I feel we were able to share some new ideas that attendees hadn’t considered before and get them thinking about their own use cases. Management Packs (MPs) can open the door to many interesting and creative monitoring possibilities.

CODEQT1121LV Announcement:

Don and I on the Discovery Theater stage:

VMware Explore 2025 Swag:

• I was able to bring home some very cool VMware Explore swag this year. For me, these items are more than just giveaways—they each carry personal meaning.
• The Raspberry Pi was awarded for serving as captain of the Hackathon team that finished in first place.
• The Hands-On Labs power brick was awarded for having the most high-quality conversations with customers in the HOL area.
• Not only does the Virtually Speaking podcast deliver some of the best content you can listen to, but they also give away the coolest power bricks around. I received mine after recording a podcast about the Hackathon. It was a great experience working with Pete and John.

Venetian Conference Center

The Venetian Conference Center is great because it offers the convenience of having everything under one roof. The rooms are comfortable, and the conference food for breakfast and lunch was particularly good this year. There are also plenty of options for a nice dinner. I had dinner at Delmonico one evening, and as always, the food was excellent.

VMware Community Podcast

After VMware Explore I had the pleasure of being a guest on the CMTY Podcast 738, Wrapping Up VMware Explore Las Vegas, 2025. We discussed the VMware Explore Hackathon and other vCommunity activities. You can listen to the podcast on YouTube. Link to Podcast

Final Thoughts:

• I hope I get the opportunity to do it all again next year. VMware Explore is always one of my favorite weeks of the year. I appreciate the chance to give back to the vCommunity, which I believe is incredibly strong. I’ve never encountered another user group where the members are as passionate about a product as the VMware community is.
• The Hackathon Project has a lot of details I can share. I am going to dedicate a Blog to the topic.
• My Discovery Theater presentation, Enhancing VMware Cloud Foundation Operation Management Packs with PowerShell | CODEQT1121LV, also has a lot of details I can share. I am going to also dedicate a Blog to the topic.

What is it:

Is this an ear of corn—or a cheesecake disguised as an ear of corn? If you’re ever in Vegas, stop by CHICA to find out… 😉

• If you found this blog article helpful and it assisted you, consider buying me a coffee to kickstart my day.