Oh god, not another Vegas event. SF has its problems, but many would prefer it over Vegas.
Explore (always VMWorld) in the US was a mess. A LOT of money was dumped into it. Did we really need three-story signs on buildings a block away? There were some very notable business units missing. Some product lines had a few kiosks in the booth, but all of their presentations were rejected internally.
The internal management was a mess. No call for papers --- marketing would decide what would be presented. Then there was a pseudo-call for papers, but not announced and marketing ran it. None of which was advertised; it was passed down only in leadership meetings. There was a distinct separation between what attendees wanted to learn, what C-levels wanted to hype, and what Product Marketing wanted to show off.