I’m excited to share that the VMware vExpert 2021 EUC subprogram application process is open as of today, with a deadline of March 5th. We will announce the folks who are accepted by the end of March. 

In this post, I’ll provide a bit of background and color around the program, especially since there have been some changes over the past few years. 

First, if you’re not familiar with it, VMware’s vExpert program (vexpert.vmware.com) is a way for us to publicly recognize and support experts who spend time sharing, giving back, and generally improving the larger VMware tech community. It’s partly our way of saying “thanks” to people who share their knowledge and our stories, but also a way for us to bring them into the fold to help us shape VMware’s strategy and our product plans. (And, frankly, we also want to make sure that the people who are out in the world talking about VMware have “Bat Phone” access back into VMware to get any questions answered or clarified.) 

If you’ve heard of the Microsoft MVP or Citrix CTP programs, the VMware EUC vExpert program is similar in concept to those. Actually, VMware’s EUC Community Manager Josue Fontanez, fellow EUC Office of the CTO colleague Ron Oglesby and I talked about the VMware EUC vExpert program in an hour-long VMware Tech Zone community video podcast on YouTube last month: 

This was a fun stroll down memory lane, as Ron and I recalled our first experience as Microsoft Terminal Server MVPs back in 2004, with fun reminiscing of early 2000s geek tech. (Funny that Josue was at Microsoft in that era and I was an MVP community manager too. Small world!) 

Wait, didn’t I see a bunch of newly awarded vExperts on Twitter last week? What’s this additional application for? 

Within VMware, there’s a difference between a “vExpert” (the larger VMware corporate program) and an “EUC vExpert” (the EUC subprogram). 

The larger, corporate-level VMware vExpert program was launched over a decade ago. There are thousands of vExperts in the world, and that’s the program that was accepting new applications a few months ago and which announced the new members a few weeks ago. 

However, since VMware is a large company with several business units that all have slightly different needs for a community program, VMware smartly decided to let each business unit operate their own subprogram underneath the larger corporate vExpert umbrella. 

So over here in EUC land, we leverage the greater overall vExpert program for the standard stuff, like NDAs, swag, software licenses, support, etc., while also being able to customize how we work with our EUC vExperts. That includes monthly calls with EUC product managers, newsletters, Slack channels, VMworld dinners, the VMworld Beer & Junk Food community geek event, panel invites and so on. 

VMware EUC Champions —> VMware EUC vExperts 

One of the big changes for 2021 is that because we now have the ability to shape our own EUC subprogram under the larger vExpert umbrella, we no longer need to maintain the separate VMware EUC Champions program. The EUC champions program was created by us in EUC several years ago because we wanted to engage with external EUC experts in ways that the larger vExpert program didn’t allow. It wasn’t an ideal situation since we had our own EUC Experts, plus the vExperts, and some people were in both, some weren’t, and the whole thing was fairly nonsensical. 

But once we were able to make our own EUC vExpert subprogram, all of our existing VMware EUC Champions have been rolled into the larger vExpert program as well as the EUC subprogram. None of the benefits or way we engage was changed—it’s really more of a name change and an administrative change on our back end. 

Want to be a VMware EUC vExpert in 2021? Start here! 

So, all that said, if you’d like to be a VMware EUC vExpert for our 2021 program year, we’d love for you to apply! You can read the official program details at vexpert.vmware.com, but I’ll give you the gist here. 

• If you have been awarded a general vExpert for 2021, but you want to join the EUC vExpert program, then you need to apply here in the next two weeks. 

• If you are NOT a current vExpert, this is ok! You can still apply directly to the EUC vExpert program, and if you’re accepted then you’ll automatically be added to the overall corporate vExpert program too. (Note: If you don’t have a vExpert login, then you can apply via this alternate link: https://via.vmw.com/euc_application)

Bottom line, if you’re an EUC nerd, apply in the next two weeks! 

What’s it take to be an EUC vExpert? 

If being recognized as a vExpert sounds like something you’re interested in, here’s what you need to know about what we’re looking for. 

First, the VMware EUC vExpert program is meant to recognize people who contribute and “give back” to the community. We don’t have specific criteria for how this is done. Maybe you’re a blogger, or podcaster, or book author, article writer, public speaking, YouTuber, conference creator or something else? The key is that you’re sharing your knowledge with the world. 

We do not care whether you have any certifications, whether you work for a customer, or a partner, or are independent. We don’t care if you’ve been working for 20 years or 20 weeks. 

Since the VMware EUC vExpert program is an annual program, we are specifically looking for contributions you made over the past 12 months. Current EUC vExperts are reevaluated each year based on things they’ve contributed the prior year, and it’s not uncommon (and totally fine!) for someone to be a vExpert one year, then not the next year (maybe they got busy with a project), then to be recognized again the following year, etc. 

We don’t have a specific number of contributions we’re looking for. (This reminds me of the “minimum pieces of flair” from Office Space.) Rather, we know approximately how many VMware EUC vExperts we want, and we’ll take the top contributors. 

We would love geographic and technical diversity! 

That said, our current EUC vExperts are heavily concentrated in the United States and Europe, so I absolutely encourage those from other parts of the world to apply. 

Also, about 80% of our current EUC vExperts focus on VMware Horizon (VDI, etc.). That’s awesome! But VMware EUC is so much more than VDI these days! In addition to the classic mobile device management, Workspace ONE UEM now manages physical Windows 10 machines, Macs, Linux and IoT devices. We also have Workspace ONE Intelligence, Workspace ONE Access, our Workspace ONE Intelligent Hub and Employee Experience offerings, Zero Trust, intrinsic security, multi-cloud management capabilities, remote support, digital employee experience management, our secure access services edge… There’s so much going on at VMware EUC these days! 

But again, most of our current EUC vExperts focus on Horizon. So, while we encourage everyone to apply, if you have expertise and share content in areas other than Horizon, we really encourage you to apply! 

The Bottom Line 

I’ll leave you with three takeaways. 

First, at VMware, working with recognized community experts is important to us. You can help us shape the future of VMware, and we can help you amplify your message and make sure you have access to the people and tools you need to be successful. 

Second, remember the VMware EUC vExpert program is NOT about finding the biggest experts in the world. We want to recognize the people who share their knowledge. If you are just a beginner, but you write lots of cool blogs for beginners, that’s awesome. Please apply! 

And finally, if we don’t know about you, we can’t recognize you! Please, reach out with any questions! 

Apply here by March 5th, 2021. Thanks!