What is a vExpert? – I am on IT

It’s again this time of the year – no, it’s not Christmas (yet), the application for vExpert (second half of the year) has opened on June 1, 2020. The application is open for 30 days.

As not everyone knows what a vExpert is, let me share the program description with you.

Program Overview
The VMware vExpert program is VMware’s global evangelism and advocacy program. The program is designed to put VMware’s marketing resources towards your advocacy efforts. Promotion of your articles, exposure at our global events, co-op advertising, traffic analysis, and early access to beta programs and VMware’s roadmap. The awards are for individuals, not companies, and last for one year. Employees of both customers and partners can receive the awards. In the application, we consider various community activities from the previous year as well as the current year’s (only for 2nd half applications) activities in determining who gets awards. We look to see that not only were you active but are still active in the path you chose to apply for.
Source: vExpert

In short, a vExpert is someone very knowledgeable about VMware’s products and services who shares his/her knowledge with the world wide vCommunity, who helps others to gain knowledge themselves and who supports the vCommunity.

Being a vExpert offers some great Program Benefits (Source: vExpert)

Invite to our private #Slack channel
vExpert certificate signed by our CEO Pat Gelsinger.
Private forums on communities.vmware.com.
Permission to use the vExpert logo on cards, website, etc for one year
Access to a private directory for networking, etc.
Exclusive gifts from various VMware partners.
Private webinars with VMware partners as well as NFRs.
Access to private betas (subject to admission by beta teams).
365-day eval licenses for most products for home lab / cloud providers.
Private pre-launch briefings via our blogger briefing pre-VMworld (subject to admission by product teams)
Blogger early access program for vSphere and some other products.
Featured in a public vExpert online directory.
Access to vetted VMware & Virtualization content for your social channels.
Yearly vExpert parties at both VMworld US and VMworld Europe events.
Identification as a vExpert at both VMworld US and VMworld EU.

Some vExperts recently shared their experiences, journeys of being a vExpert when the current application opened. Following are some of the blog posts I came across:

If you are considering to apply, take your chance now! Reach out to any of the vExpert PROs for help with your application. As mentioned before, helping others is one thing vExperts do to support the vCommunity.

And no, I’m not a vExpert (yet) ;-). I consider myself not to be fully ready to apply for vExpert but I’m preparing for an application in 2021 :-).