I don't get his answer either.  Last year seemed horrible just trying to walk the halls.  The lunch room must have been 1/20th the size of what we've got in Vegas.  Every session seemed so much smaller.  The event staff in SanFran was so unorganized compared to the staff in Vegas.

VMworld outgrew SanFran a long time ago.  It's just cheaper for VMware becuase all of their HDQ employees are down the road.  They have to bring them out to Vegas and pay for hotels.

I think I'll be skipping next year.  Hopefully they'll come back to Vegas (or somewhere else) the following year.

This is just my opinion.  Not the opinion of my company.

This was my first VMWorld (long time VMware customer). It was a bit too large (as in, amount of people). I can only imagine the size it will be in 5 years or so with the amount of people jumping on the virtual bandwagon.

The amount of people was the downside to this trip for me. Navigating the halls, the extremely large classes, etc. was a bit overwhelming. It almost made it "too large" to network as well.

For a better value for the attendee(s) as well as comfort, I could see regional or "satelite" versions (we have the technology - streaming, etc.) all held at the same time in strategic points across the nation.

Vendors could split up their booths into smaller booths at these various locations, and still have the exposure they need.

As far as Vegas, it is plenty the size to handle large crowds. The navigation sucked though and the mile long hikes was a pain.

Other than that, no other complaints. Had a good time and learned quite a bit. Solutions Exchange was my highlight.

I attended my first VMWorld in 2011 @ Vegas. What an amazing experience! I would love to repeat in 2012 but there is no way I am going to San Francisco, even if it is only 1 hour away.  So maybe I'll see you at VMWorld 2013, VMware.  I have read the reviews, and experienced enough conferences in SF first hand. You can count me out every single time you book this for San Francisco.

So this year I'll use my conference budget and head to NYC for the Virtualization Conf & Expo - and check in on what Microsoft is up to with Hyper-V.

Yes, pretty sure it was confirmed at the keynote.  I am very surprised that they figure las Vegas was too small for the conference.  This was my 3rd VMworld the other 2 being in San Francisco.  I found in Vegas, it was easier to get around, the hotels and food was much cheaper, in fact mst of my food was comped by my hotel (maybe I did a little too much gambling, but I left with more money than I came with).

Sessions in Vegas were larger, I got into everything I wanted to, in San Francisco the session rooms seemed smaller, and I seemed to have spent a lot of time in standby lines. 

I found the venue staff and food in Vegas to be much better, they never had any lunch left after walking a few blocks to gt there in San Francisco.  mind you Vegas was a bit of a walk just all indoors, however Vegas had a lt of food.

For me Vegas would be my first choice, as well as my bosses he has an easier time sending us to Vegas over sfo. 

At the end of the day, I feel the conference has a lot of value and I will fight hard to go no matter which city it is, in my opinion I feel Vegas overall was a better value.

Shawn