The VMware Explore 2026 content catalog dropped this morning and I did what any infrastructure engineer with a Full Event Pass and a long memory does on day one: I opened every filter, checked every box that mattered, and stood there staring at 160 sessions like a kid who just wandered into a technical candy store. The shelves are full. Everything looks good. And I have absolutely no idea yet what I'm actually going to eat.
That's the honest state of play right now, and I'm not going to pretend otherwise. The catalog is live. Pre-scheduling doesn't open until July 21. Between now and then, this is a browsing exercise — and an important one. The practitioners who show up on July 21 with a prioritized favorites list get the sessions and labs they want. Everyone else gets what's left.
Walking into this catalog brought back the exact same feeling I had at Explore last year. Like a kid in a technical candy store — shelves full, everything looks good, and the real decisions come later.
So here's where I actually am: four activities favorited, a clear filter strategy applied, and 160 sessions to work through before July 21. I'll share the real session picks once I've had time to go deep on the catalog. What I can share today is my approach — because the filter logic matters as much as the final list.
The Four Activities I've Already Committed To
Activities are different from sessions — these are the event infrastructure that shapes the week, not the technical content. I've hearted four, and my reasoning is specific to each.
Full Event Pass registrations include one VCF certification exam voucher. The Exam Center runs Sunday afternoon through Friday morning in the Lido Ballroom on Level 3. This isn't a maybe for me — I'm already scheduled to sit the 2V0-16.25 VCF Administration exam at the event. Four days of deep VCF immersion in the labs and sessions, then a cert exam while it's all still fresh. That's the plan and I'm committing to it.
The exam is already on my calendar. Explore is the sharpest possible prep environment for 2V0-16.25 — I'm not leaving Las Vegas without sitting it.
Kick off the week in The Hub — partners, VMware product demos, communities, and fellow attendees. Included with the Full Event Pass. Day one energy is high, the week hasn't ground anyone down yet, and The Hub on opening night is genuinely where useful first conversations happen. I'll be there early.
The Welcome Reception is worth protecting on day one. It's the lowest-friction moment to meet people you'll run into all week — before the schedule gets intense and everyone's heads-down.
This one surprised me. Pizza, chips, candy, drinks, and an evening of lightweight engineering with a team. The VMware{code} Hackathon is the kind of thing I wouldn't have looked twice at a few years ago — but the more I've leaned into the technical community side of these events, the more I've found that the unstructured, low-stakes engineering sessions produce some of the most useful conversations of the whole week. I'm going in curious and open.
I didn't expect to heart this one, but here we are. Sometimes the sessions that aren't on the official agenda are the ones worth showing up for.
Included with the Full Event Pass. Food, drinks, entertainment. I'm hearting it because it's there — but I'll be honest: by the end of a full day at Explore, I'm usually running on empty. Four days of sessions, labs, and Hub conversations is genuinely exhausting, and unless I've met someone earlier in the week who gives me a compelling reason to be there, I'm more likely to be back in my room recovering, processing notes, or getting a head start on the next day's blog post. If the right conversation happens, I'll stay. If not, I'll be rested for day three.
Favorited, but held loosely. Explore is a marathon, not a sprint — protecting sleep is a legitimate scheduling decision.
How I'm Filtering 160 Sessions
Before I can pick sessions, I need to know what I'm filtering for. Here's the logic I applied to get from the full catalog down to a workable 160.
Tracks Selected
Cloud Infrastructure
Innovation
Security
App Modernization
Core Products
VMware Cloud Foundation
VMware NSX
VMware vSphere
vDefend Distributed Firewall
vDefend Advanced Threat Prevention
VMware Live Recovery Cloud
VCF Operations
VCF Automation
Azure VMware Solution
VCF Private AI Services
Why App Modernization is unchecked: Tanzu, Kubernetes, and application-layer content are my weakest areas in the VMware stack — and with 160 sessions already in scope, adding App Modernization to a jam-packed schedule would mean spending limited live time in territory where I can't maximize the investment. I'd rather go deep on what I know and apply daily than spread thin across the whole catalog. There's a difference between curiosity and good scheduling — I'll catch the App Modernization sessions on demand after the event.
The real picks come July 21
160 sessions is a starting point, not a schedule. Between now and pre-scheduling on July 21, I'll be working through the catalog, applying the recorded-vs-not filter, and building a prioritized favorites list. The actual session picks — with my reasoning for each — will be Post #6 in this series, published when pre-scheduling opens. That's the post where the candy store excitement meets actual decisions.
What I can tell you now is that the catalog is genuinely deep this year. VCF 9 content is well represented, the security track has matured significantly from last year, and the Private AI on VCF sessions are going to be worth at least one live slot regardless of where they fall on my primary list. The Exam Center alone justifies the week.
Check back on July 21. That's when the real schedule drops.
Remaining Key Dates
July 21, 2026
Pre-scheduling opens — session picks post drops same day
July 28, 2026
Hotel booking deadline and refund cutoff (6:00 PM PDT)
Aug 31 – Sep 3
VMware Explore 2026 · The Venetian · Las Vegas
RG
Robert Greenlee
Systems Engineer · Sacramento, CA · robertgreenlee.com