Check ahead on industry calendars, and you'll see Salesforce.com Inc. and VMware Inc. (NYSE: VMW) are holding their customer events during the week of Aug. 29.

One source was telling Light Reading that the companies were even duking it out to hold their events at Moscone Center in San Francisco.

Imagine the effects of all that cloudiness descending on the city at once. It would be like a cross between The Weather Channel and one of those epic lightsaber duels from the Star Wars movies. (Exactly like that, we tell you.)

VMware apparently lost out; its VMworld is being held at the Venetian in Las Vegas, while Salesforce.com's Dreamforce will occupy Moscone.

How did they settle the conflict? Rock-paper-scissors? Rock-paper-scissors-lizard-Spock? Paintball wars?

Sadly, a VMware spokeswoman says there wasn't even a dispute. In booking for 2011 years ago, VMware saw that Moscone wasn't available, so it moved VMworld to Vegas. Later, Moscone became available for that week, and Salesforce.com snatched up the opportunity.

She also explained, quite sympathetically, that no paintball was involved. Maybe next year.

— Craig Matsumoto, West Coast Editor, Light Reading

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Interested in learning more on this topic? Then come to the Carrier Cloud Forum, the latest event in Light Reading's Service Provider IT (SPIT) series. Collocated at Interop in Las Vegas, May 9, 2011, the workshop is free for attendees meeting our prequalification criteria. For more information, or to register, click here.

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