Disclaimer:
I actually wanted to publish this post earlier, but I had a small health issue that delayed my plans a bit.
In this post, I mainly want to share a few brief thoughts. There are already so many incredibly good and informative blog posts about the recent Veeam 100 Summit in Prague. Therefore, I will focus less on technical details (which cannot be fully shared anyway) and instead provide some impressions from my personal perspective and perception
What is the V100 Summit?
The Veeam 100 Summit takes place once a year and is now hosted at different locations on a rotating basis. This year, it was held in Prague – a truly beautiful city!
Veeam invites all Veeam Vanguards, Veeam Legends, and VeeaMVPs to come together, network, and exchange ideas on the latest topics. In addition, a lot of information is shared that is not public, giving us, as members of this exclusive group, the opportunity to actively contribute to the development of Veeam products.
Arrival:
Luckily, my hometown of Münster has a small airport, so I was able to fly comfortably to Prague with a short stopover in Munich. After arriving, I quickly checked into the hotel and then headed straight to the nearest restaurant to meet familiar faces such as Markus and Chalid (VBeeR), as well as other V100 members. Even Shane had already traveled a long way and joined us.
I arrived on Sunday, as we decided as a group to attend a SureBackup workshop on Monday with limited seats.
After a relaxed dinner and pleasant conversations in a steadily growing group, the day ended calmly, with many impressions of the beautiful city of Prague and rather cool, but nice weather.
Day One (Workshop Day):
Fortunately, breakfast was included with the trip and the hotel, so the first official day of the Summit started with a joint breakfast. By now, we were seeing more and more familiar faces and looking forward to what was ahead. For Markus, this was already his second Summit, while for Chalid and myself it was the first one.
Before the workshop phase officially began, we were able to pick up our individually pre-selected swag and store it in our rooms. I was lucky enough to choose swag both as a Vanguard and as a User Group member – good thing I had left enough space in my suitcase!
After another meet & greet, the workshop finally started. The topic was “SureBackup,” and we received insights from Veeam technical support as well as both basic and more in-depth information about the technology. We were also able to note down many useful tips and tricks.
Just like on arrival day, the evening naturally ended in a very good restaurant (Prague has plenty of those), with lots of beer – but above all with very nice, international conversations. As the V100 group had now almost fully arrived, the big networking officially began.
Day Two:
The agenda of the main event – after the workshop day – was packed with content. There were general sessions for everyone in the main hall, followed by at least two parallel breakout sessions, allowing everyone to build a very individual agenda.
The sessions are categorized using a so-called “traffic light system.”
Green means the content can be shared freely.
Yellow means the content may be shared after a certain date or event (for example, an official release by Veeam).
Red represents the highest level of confidentiality. Content classified as red is often very vague and may be changed or even discarded by product management, as it can include ideas, suggestions, or unfinished projects.
Fortunately, there was a lot of “red content” this year – and let’s be honest: those are usually the most exciting topics.
What I really appreciated were the generous breaks, which gave plenty of time for networking and conversations with people you might only see very rarely, often only at events like this. It was very emotional and simply a lot of fun.
Needless to say, this evening also ended in excellent restaurants and bars, with networking continuing nonstop.
Day Three:
The third and officially last day with a fixed agenda was structured very similarly to the second day: general sessions combined with many breakout sessions in between.
The technical highlight of the Summit for many – including myself – was the AMA session with Veeam management. We were able to ask anything, and for almost two hours the leadership team answered questions in an open and direct dialogue. This session was, of course, classified as “red.”
The personal highlight of the day was clearly the joint V100 party, which also marked the official end of this year’s Summit. This year, we celebrated at the Pilsner Urquell Brewery in Prague and had the location exclusively booked, including a brewery tour.
The evening did not end at the brewery, of course. Together with many other Veeam employees and community members, we continued the night in a club and gave it our best.
Day Four (Final Day):
Markus, Chalid, and I decided to start our return journeys on Friday and extend our stay by one additional day. We wanted not only to process all the emotions from the Summit and the meetings, but also to explore the city of Prague.
Together with Nico Stein (a German-speaking Vanguard who has been living and working in the USA for many years), we explored Prague at dusk and took a boat tour.
Naturally, this evening also ended with a shared final dinner, where we said goodbye until next time. Since we all live quite far apart (with the exception of Markus and Chalid), this is always the hardest part of such a trip – especially because future events are often not fully planned yet.
My Highlights:
What impressions did my first V100 Summit leave behind? That is a deep, but at the same time relatively easy question to answer. I am a young Vanguard in my first year of the program. I returned home with many impressions, ideas, motivation, and very good, inspiring conversations. I was truly happy to experience the strength and enthusiasm of this community in such an exclusive way.
Especially in IT, business is still done by people, despite all the advanced technology – and the Veeam Community proves this every single day. In Prague, I did learn new things from a technical perspective, but above all I was able to build, strengthen, and deepen connections with people, friends, acquaintances, and colleagues.
My Further Journey: #Veeam
As many already know, I am very proud to be starting a new chapter. Since December 1st, 2025, I have been working for Veeam Software in the role of Enterprise Architect.
I am not only grateful for the past year as a Veeam Vanguard, but I also look back – with one laughing and one crying eye – on an incredibly great and formative, yet far too short time in which I was able to be part of this community as a Vanguard.
Since I now work for Veeam, the Vanguard title is no longer available to me. I hope that one day I will be able to officially become part of the V100 again as a VeeaMVP and, hopefully, attend many more Summits.
I am certain that this community has contributed significantly to where I am today – and for that, I am very grateful.
Cheers to the Veeamazing Community!
