I know I’m late, but spending an extra 4 days in Prague was a blast and the jetlag kicked in hard after being awake over 26 hours coming home!

First off, Thanks to @Rick Vanover @Madi.Cristil @safiya @NikolaPejkova  Nikki Adkins, and everyone else for their hard work. As this was my first summit (and first time out of NA) I had no clue what to expect and a bit nervous about the trip. Everything exceeded my expectations from the hotel, the sessions, events, the venues and swag ! I already want to go back to EU and explore more. 

The flight there was a bit rough. Having someone take their shoes and socks off and bump you with their foot for a few hours is not my idea of a good time, but I was able to keep my cool and power through. I met @Chris.Childerhose and @Matt Crape at the airport which made my trip to the hotel stress free. We were all a bit more tired than expected so the Uber instead of transit was the right call. I was pretty happy with the weather in Prague when I checked my camera at home.

I opted in for go karting on day 1 which was a great experience. It gave me some more time to meet a few more Veeam100 and see more of the city. I wasn’t expecting such competitive racing and it was a blast.  I think everyone was trying to win! After falling behind a few laps, they stopped the race and noticed I had a flat tire. My car was much faster and the handling improved quite a bit after this.  I ended up in 6th overall which was better than I expected with these maniacs. jk!! 

Walking in to the reception that evening I was happy to see a few faces I had met in Miami and meet some new people as well. I really enjoy these “Pre Event” meet ups where you get to chat and talk to other people before hand. I was impressed how @Rick Vanover can recognize and remember people so easy, and how he makes the time as he runs around and says hello to everyone. 100 people at 1 minute each is nearly 2 hours so he would have been busy!

After the event I did some light walking and exploring getting a feel for the neighborhood. I also found out about @Thiago dos Santos Nunes injury and hope he’s feeling better now.  

The Day 1 sessions were very informative. Others have provided detailed posts about each individual session so I won’t get too deep, but as a first timer it was really interesting hearing the new features from the Veeam employees themselves. The Q and A portions were great too. I even though the sponsor sessions were educational, and didn’t feel like a sales pitch. Hats off to both Object First and Wasabi for their great sessions.

The 12.1 Features and roadmap is exciting. I can’t wait to enable some of the new security features in my environment, along with some serious testing to see the CPU consumption on our monster VM’s. 

The toast was a new experience as well. I opted out due to being gluten free, but it was fun to witness and if I’m lucky enough to return I’ll bring a bottle of something next time to make sure I can partake. (Not that it is needed )

This evening I met up with a few Veeam100 members I met in Miami at VeeamON and we grabbed a bite to eat not to far away from the hotel.  It was an early bedtime as I was still very tired.

Day 2

Wow.  Veeam ONE, Cirrus, M365. Talk about a big morning. As I don’t use all this I did my best to soak it in seeing that Veeam ONE is something I have been pushing for, and we are currently working on our 365 migration. Cirrus seems like an interesting product.  I am on prem as my company doesn’t like to share our data and we like full control, but I think there is a time and place for everything. The ransomware session was another one of my favorites in the afternoon. 

The room split at this point, but the following Kasten and repository sessions were great in the Ballroom.  The VCSP summit sounded interesting as well. 

The after party was crazy. Racing sim games, fantastic food, cool venue, and a DJ? I’m not sure what else we could ask for.  Lets not forget a room full of great people.  I got to have a few really good conversations at this event . It’s amazing when you get a group of people with something in common together.  

Next year I think we have more than enough for a Veeam Canada photo!

And now, the last day. The public cloud session was very interesting, and the break was cut short for what it seemed everyone was waiting for. the AMA.

I have never experienced an AMA before, and this was a very special opportunity. Hearing the questions and answers I was impressed by both sides. The transparency was very cool, and some of those questions that were slightly off the wall were great to hear answered.  I enjoyed the format of switching product as I think this could have got heavy into only a few topics otherwise. 

It was great putting names to faces of people I have chatted with in both the community or R and D forums. Commenting on posts feels more like a conversation with a friend now than just posting something on the internet with strangers. 

The group photo is HUGE. I think Rick and I might have a different definition of slow and steady growth 

I spent the next 4 days exploring Prague a bit more.  A few highlights were the Castle, wandering around Vyšehrad, and Kutna Hora. I was happy @hinmeister416, @Tyler Jurgens and his wife were able to stay as well. We all took a tour and it was a great experience. 14th Century churches are not something I get to see in Canada. The 3 of us had some great discussions as well and I learnt a lot about their side of the industry.  Venturing outside the city was also pretty cool as it felt slightly like being back home in the Canadian prairies. haha. My only regret is we didn’t get a group photo on the adventure. 

Photos were not allowed in the bone church, and these were not taken by me personally, but what an experience. 

I even got to attend Nightmare bar. Cheap drinks, 2 stories underground, and heavy metal playing. I could have spent hours down there. The decor was awesome, perfect around Halloween! 

I went for a few long walks and found many sets of stairs contributing to 20k+ steps a day on my adventures.

I only got lost 1 time as well which ended providing a very different vibe after taking the subway, crossing a few bridges and ending up in an isolated area but managed to get back on track quickly.  Google maps may have been partially to blame, but I’m sure it was the operator of the device and my wife would agree with that.  

With the new knowledge I have and things I have learnt I came back refreshed (still tired) and excited for the new features I’ll be implementing soon. I even reached out to someone after a conversation we had about a current pain point in my environment and a potential solution. 

Thank you to everyone at Veeam and the 100 Community for this unique and special experience.