It is ofcourse all under NDA, but i think i wont get shot if i just say that there is a lot of cool stuff under way, some which most likely will be announced this wednesday/thursday at Synergy keynotes, and some may be for Synergy in Berlin later this year.

So today for me it is Citrix Summit time, the Citrix Partner event and that is also under NDA, luckily though this afternoon kicks off Citrix GeekSpeak. First with a couple of Citrix GeekSpeak Live! sessions and then follow up sessions in the Expo hall in a more relaxed form, Citrix GeekSpeak Easy.

i wrote more about GeekSpeak here.

You can see more about the GeekSpeak this year here: http://www.citrixsynergy.com/agenda/geekspeaklive.html

/René Vester

One cool thing i want to bring to your attention is the fact that GeekSpeak is heavily available with this years Citrix Synergy. I like GeekSpeak and the format of being unfiltered sessions delivered by the most passionate to anyone who will listen.

GeekSpeak is available in 3 shapes this time:

• Geek Speak Tonight: The fan favorite that we ran at Synergy 09 returns, where a combination of Citrix Technology Professionals (CTPs) and CTOs lead discussions and debates on pre-determined topics, and the audience takes center stage and joins the conversation! This event will kick off Synergy on Tuesday, May 11 at 4:30 – 6:45 p.m., giving you a chance to begin the conference with a breath of fresh, unfiltered air. Refreshments will be served. Get there early to claim your seat!

• Geek Speak Track: Not your typical formal breakouts! These sessions are complete with open, unfiltered discussion on a variety of technical topics led by CTPs, Citrix CTOs, and other respected industry thought leaders. Held May 12-14 alongside the formal breakout sessions.

• Geek Speakeasy: Geek Speak Live! comes to the Solutions Expo Hall with a relaxed lounge format for conversational sessions, and a lab format for "bring your own laptop" sessions with industry leaders and technical experts from the community. So grab a snack and head over to the Geek Speakeasy for an action-packed set of sessions from May 11-13!

And the invitation was laid out by Laura Whalen like this:

Are you:

• Tired of dark, stuffy conference rooms where you can hear a pin drop?
• Interested in desktop virtualization, client hypervisors & cloud computing?
• Looking for uncut, unfiltered, and unprecedented discussion and debate?

Do you:

• Want to speak your technically focused mind, and all you need is a stage?
• Enjoy mixing it up with master discussionists of the IT universe?
• Write you name in binary code for fun & watch "The Matrix" for the 5th+ time, just because it’s on?

Time for GeekSpeak?

I for one will be there as much as i can.. its usually great, so if you are at Synergy og Summit, do go join the GeekSpeak sessions

For more information have a look at Laura Whalens blogpost here: http://community.citrix.com/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=141099044

Rene Vester

This time however i have the pleasure of presenting, and i am very much looking forward to that. We are just now finishing up on second presentation draft, and i think it is going to be, like Tony would say, Greeeeeeeaat!

I have the pleasure of Co-presenting with a good friend Jacob Berg in a session about Macs and iPhone in the corporate infrastructure. To me it is a topic which often comes up when discussing future solution architecture. A lot of our users have grown happy with the Apple way of doing things, some starting from the graphical industry, others just falling in love with the iPod ..

Our session will be: SYN321- Supporting Macs and iPhones in your corporate infrastructure

Session Description:
Mac computers and iPhones are getting more and more popular among the users of corporate IT infrastructure. BYOC concepts are introducing more Mac’s into "no-Mac" companies. With the introduction of more operating system platforms, IT organizations face new challenges to handle these non-Windows user devices. In this session we will layout the options with live demonstrations of Mac/Citrix use cases to show how this new type of user device can be incorporated into existing or planned Citrix infrastructure.
In this session you will learn:
• How Citrix technologies complement the Mac and the iPhone
• How to get the most out of Citrix on Mac/iPhone
• Best practices on how to implement Citrix solutions on Mac

So.. that is going to be fun i think, and hopefully you will join us

Aside from that i have been given the great pleasure of participating in a panel discussion on cloud at the GeekSpeak Tonight! event more info here: GeekSpeak Tonight! for me the GeekSpeak atmosphere is always a blast, unfiltered discussions.. its what we all need

And last but not least i have the pleasure of presenting in the Expo-Area in the GeekSpeak Easy lounge with Alexander Ervik a good friend and fellow CTP from norway. We will take you through “The essentials to a virtual datacenter”, but more on that when you get to San Francisco

Hope to see you there!

/René

Desktop Focused CTPs:

Carl Webster
Denis Gundarev
Gabe Knuth
Simon Bramfitt
Tim Mangan

Datacenter & Cloud Focused CTP:

Alessandro Perilli

Network Focused CTPs:

John Smith
Joseph Melika
Rick Rohne
Robert Morris
Timco Hazelaa

you can find more information about the program here:

http://community.citrix.com/display/ocb/2010/04/21/Meet+Our+Newest+Citrix+Technology+Professionals+%28CTPs%29

/René

Recently i was honored to be awarded the Citrix Technology Professional Award and now i am in the final stages of preparing for the CTP Conference in Fort Lauderdale, Florida next week. I will be attending the conference and hopefully gain some insight to the product development and thoughts behind the Citrix strategy.

On a personal level i have quite a few questions i am looking forward to ask to the appropriate people, ranging from XenDesktop plans, feature requests in general and what is being done to improve the support and service or QA.

Do you guys have anything you would like to get addressed which have not been answered on twitter already by the many active Citrites, feel free to drop me a line in Email or on Twitter.

Rene Vester

Along with me Citrix also recognized several other very cool and experienced people and have now created a new branch of the CTP program with a focus on XenServer. The new awardees are here:

XenApp CTP Awardees

• Alaa Jallad
• Claudio Rodrigues
• Helge Klein
• Javier Sanchez Alcazar
• Nico Luedemann
• Pierre Marmignon
• Rene Vester
• Thorsten Rood

XenServer CTP Awardees

• Chris Rogers
• Chris Wolf
• Kirk Manzer
• Ron Oglesby
• Shannon Snowden
• Thomas Krampe

Congratulations to all of you, i must say i am very proud to be a member of this group.

To review the entire list of current CTPs visit: CTP bio page

To learn more about the CTP program and requirements: http://community.citrix.com/display/cdn/Citrix+Technology+Professionals

Should you be the next in the group, or know someone who should be use this link to check out the nomination form: http://community.citrix.com/display/cdn/Citrix+Technology+Professional+Nominations

Rene Vester