With less than a week to go until VMworld, life has been pretty exciting around the Virtual Computer offices as we put the final polish on our latest NxTop product functionality demos.  Today, the excitement level reached a fever pitch, as we announced our new “Get Smart About Desktop Virtualization” program that will formally kick off at VMworld.  The “Get Smart” program will highlight how a PC management approach that leverages client-side virtualization provides significant cost-saving benefits versus both server-centric virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) models and traditional agent-based PC management approaches.  The best part is that when the dust settles, one lucky IT professional will walk away with a cool new car that is….well, smart!

The “Get Smart” program will feature a number of activities at VMworld where attendees can learn about NxTop’s unique PC life cycle configuration management capabilities, as well as interact with some of our key partners who help bring it all together.  The more you interact with us and our partners, the more chances you will have to win the car.  Keep reading the blog and come by and see us at Booth #1940 next week to get all of the details, including some “extra credit” opportunities for all of you star pupils out there.

Travel budget blues keeping you away from VMworld this year?  There are still plenty of opportunities to get involved.  In conjunction with the “Get Smart” program, we have launched a new online community site that includes a very nifty total cost of ownership (TCO) calculator.  The tool is highly configurable, so if you don’t like our cost assumptions, simply plug in your own.  Think our overall methodology is flawed?  Stop by the forums and say what’s on your mind.  While you are at it, sign up for one of our upcoming webinars on “The New Economics of PC Management,” which will provide another chance to see NxTop in action, along with an in-depth review of our TCO methodology.  Online forum contributions and webinar attendance will earn VMworld attendees additional chances to win the car and provide those playing along at home with a chance to win.

Stay tuned more more contest details as VMworld gets under way.  See you in San Francisco!

Silicon Valley is generally considered to be the center of the startup universe.  However, with its blue chip educational institutions, top notch venture capital scene, and rich computing technology heritage, Massachusetts has quietly played home to some of the most innovative and successful companies the average consumer has never heard of.

Fortunately, there are some great efforts afoot to raise awareness of all of the amazing innovation going on in the Boston area.  Scott Kirsner’s Innovation Economy blog (recently relocated to Boston.com) has become required reading for Boston area startups, and the folks over at Xconomy and Mass High Tech also do a fantastic job highlighting the innovative companies on the rise in Massachusetts.  Additionally, while we often catch flack for letting Facebook fly the coop from Harvard to Palo Alto, we have actually figured out how to use social media here on the east coast. 

Case in point is Mass Innovation Nights (MIN), an organization that has emerged as the confluence of Massachusetts high tech innovators, the social networking world, the mainstream media, and the marketplace.  The organization holds monthly events at the Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation in Waltham (You can’t find a more appropriate location than that!) where the hottest young companies is Massachusetts show off their latest innovations.

This month, MIN will be conducting its first “virtual” innovation night on Wednesday, August 12.  The event will kick-off at 6:30 p.m. on Twitter using the hashtag #MIN5.  (If you are new to Twitter, the MIN site has some good tips and tools for following hashtags.)  From there, the event will evolve into a phone-based “speed dating” style format with the help of some neat technology from past MIN participant BlitzTime.

One of the three rules for the virtual event is to play nice, but we are far too competitive for that at Virtual Computer.  So, we are putting out the challenge to the Boston startup community.  Do you think you have a more innovative product than us?  If so, the stage is set.  Let’s see what you’ve got!  We’ll be in on the virtual event, as well as jockeying for a spot in a future live Mass Innovation Night.  So, you better bring your biggest innovation, because we’ll be bringing NxTop.

This holiday season, we wanted to give something back to the community, so we held our first annual Virtual Computer Food Drive and also provided a very nice assortment of gifts to a family in need.  Even though we still have a relatively small team, the generosity of our employees was overwhelming.  Our food collection box was overflowing the day after we launched the drive.  It was also very rewarding to support a deserving family – in our case a couple with foster children – and make their holidays a bit brighter.

I would like to recognize the two non-profit organizations we worked with, the Greater Boston Food Bank and The Home for Little Wanderers for the important work they do year round and for making it easy for companies like ours to get involved.  A special thanks also to Kyla Kenney from our team for stepping out of the day-to-day chaos around here long enough to make it all happen.

As our company grows, so too will our positive impact on the community.  We have a number of ambitious community outreach plans on the table for 2009, so stay tuned!