It has been few weeks traveling for me, but I couldn't skip the invitation from community managers to share our experience at the Veeam 100 Summit
Those who know me are familiar with my physical limitation and how my hearing starts to perceive distorted and incompressible sounds when discussions shift to technical topics, so my experience, I am sure, is quite different from the rest of participants.
First. What is Veeam 100 Summit?
Veeam 100 summit get together our most active community members (Vanguard, Legends MVP). This year the most active this VUG Leaders were invited for the very first time.
What happens in Veeam 100 Summit?
During the summit, Veeam has the chance to engage face-to-face with community members, sharing exciting products, news, that are not publicly available while receiving immediate and spontaneous feedback.
You might wonder “Oh ok? So what were you doing there doing there if you are not a Veeam Legend or MVP, and not a product expert?”. Well I am in charge of the Go To Market for our Training and Certification Services (or should I call Veeam University PRO, already? Stay tuned) aka #LadyVMCE. Education and Community have been historically very well connected and intricately intertwined.
Our perspective on learning at Veeam is based a tree points: formal training, hands on experience, peer support. The community better than no one excels at addressing the need for expert / peer connections, which is why we actively promote mutual support. Many of the community members participate in our beta classes, as experts, or attend special sessions designed for them. At the same time, you can find numerous posts about members’ certification experiences, including outstanding Veeam User Groups focused on study halls for VMCE, led by
This summit was particularly special for me as I had the opportunity, for the first time, to present on stage the immediate future of the training and Training Services. I also had the opportunity to meet 1:1 members who had already attended our sessions and recorded their firsthand testimonials about both the VMCA and VMCE courses (Self-paced and instructor led classes).
The three-day agenda was packed with plenty of sessions featuring awesome content as well as opportunities to connect and network with groups from all over the globe!
Day 0
Ok guys, I must mention this: A part of Certification Services Business Manager, I volunteer in the core team of Women In Green, the Veeam Employee Resource Group dedicated to attracting, retaining, and developing female talent in this wonderful house. Everyone should be aware how much
Day 1
Day started with a general session held my Madalina, Nikola, Safiya and Rick. It is always a wonderful moment to meet the community managers it is always nice to see their lovely faces on stage and have the opportunity to hear from all of them what happened to the community lately and how they plan the program will keep progressing and future plans.
Afterward, the audience was divided into groups, allowing for focused discussions, particularly successful were the session on Wasabi and Object, the sponsors of the event, who presented their product updates. It is interesting to see how many of the session held this day were marked with red tags, indicating that the content was under a confidentiality NDA and attendees cannot disclose this content, as a testament to how much Veeam values and trusts this community. Main topics run around VDP, VDC and one of the latest Veeam acquisition Coveware.
This was a special day for me, as I mentioned before, I had the opportunity to feature on stage, for the first time in public, the new program we have been working for many months, now. It will encompass in one single brand the three tiers of the education program: FREE, partners and PRO. Also, we had the opportunity to present a parallel program that will go hand in hand with our traditional instructor led and that will be part of the Veeam university landscape. I was privileged to have on stage with me Tim Mayers CEO of Tsunati who is a key player in the self-paced program and he described our upcoming offerings. Thanks Tim!
I was surprised on engagement of the audience especially since Craig Delirample was already preparing for the traditional toast, capturing everyone's attention Craig gave a heartfelt farewell to the community, marking this as a significant moment for him and for all of us who have admired his contributions over the years. I proudly contributed to the toast with two famous Sardinian drinks, Mirto and Abbardente (commonly known as filuferru, meaning "iron wire”— ask me if you want to know why).
Evening was especially nice as I had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with some of my closest friends in the community and had the opportunity to get closer to others. I had booked a table at one of my favorite restaurants in Berlin weeks in advance, and I was very much looking forward to having dinner there. However, our group became quite popular in the last hours of the event, with a lot of last-minute enrollments. When we arrived as a group of 15 at the small, cozy restaurant, we faced a less-than-enthusiastic reception. We ended up eating fried fish instead, but I happily renounced my original plan to stay with this nice group, and I was right: the company was great.
Day 2
OMG Can you believe it’s already the second day? We continued with multiple engaging sessions and I took more time to gather testimonials from the members on their experience on trainings. Our community students were not the only ones to have the opportunity to bring their testimonial This meeting gave 
). Italian audience, stay tuned because by the time you read this, the conversation may already be published. >>> https://youtu.be/JQA3Ep76NbI
The day concluded with a festive party at a private Beer House, providing a great opportunity for deeper conversations with community members. I particularly enjoyed my time with
A nice walk back to the hotel allowed me to discover this spot that I did not know about. I love Berlin and I admire Germany and I love very much for their culture at work and in the society, but I am especially impressed, and I admire this country for how it honors its history, especially regarding Nazism, with a mature and thoughtful perspective.
Day 3
On the final day, my friend
direction.
Summarizing: The immediate value for me to be there.
- I could present the new training program on stage and receive immediate feedback. Thanks anyone!!!!
- I could record almost 20 wonderful members who generously and spontaneously took the time to record and share their testimonials, despite their packed agendas between sessions. I could not have imagined gathering so much feedback, nor could I have envisioned a better group of experts to speak about our program. A special thanks to each of them for their valuable time, patience, and expertise
- I had the opportunity to be interviewed myself. Thanks
@PValsecchi and see you soon on YouTube. - I could interact with the community and Veeamers and share experiences and ideas. having the opportunity to interact closely with people, I collaborate with throughout the year but rarely see in person. These connections showcase the community's value as a platform for meeting peers and sharing new ideas, that will see the light, hopefully.
Last but not least, I want to recognize and thank four wonderful people: 
