Just finished the upgrade.  Painless
as ever.  At least I wanted until the conference is over (just to
keep Eileen/Tom/Kitty happy).

I have posted the sessions
(zipped – 23MB) and the sponsor
materials (including test software
- 180MB) for download.   Enjoy

Bill in my house post ILUG

Best.Geek.Tool.Ever.

Its Saturday afternoon.  I’m sitting
at my dining room table on the laptops with Buchan opposite thudding his
blingmaster.  Apologies for not joining you all for the bus tour this
morning.  We had to move the kit out of the hotel and pack up.  As
for the extra trip we lined up this afternoon, apologies again, but we
are wiped out and trying to get some more bits and pieces done.  I
will do a full round up blog post later in the week, but wanted to get
a few bits out there.

The event

Could not of gone any better.  The
people got engaged from the start and kept the pace for the two days.  Smart
questions, lots of people talking solutions.  The ground staff at
the hotel keeping up with our huge demands for tea/coffee/lunch/room changes.
 Over 250 attendees.  Very few "no shows".  Just
to be open aswell, the "no shows" are automatically waitlisted
next year, unless a good excuse is given (sorry but you were warned….).

The people

Everyone seemed to enjoy it.  Very
few complaints made (if any really) so it was great to seem all realising
that the Lotus Notes product can do so much, and so easily.   IBM
put out a free bar and food until 11PM!! on Thursday night.  And it
was wellllll used.  Everyone loved it.  Photos are starting to
appear on Flickr.  Click here
to see them.

The speakers

Fantastic.  Just cannot thank you
guys enough… ever.  Every single session was a success.  Also,
they got to do things that were a little experimental, like:

Presenting in a Top Hat and tails

Buying a round of Guinness for everyone
at your sessions, and getting them served it aswell… during the session!

Presenting in jeans….

Cursing…. openly and frequently if
required!

The organisers

Bill, Eileen, Duff, Warren, Kitty, Matt
(the roadie), Deb, Gayle and Kelsey (Rocky’s daughter) got stuck in from
the start and kept everyone moving….. It was 6am starts and late finishes,
but I believe a sign of a good event is that the people didn’t notice the
work that went into this behind the scenes.

The Sponsors

All the sponsors were happy, so hopefully
they will come back!  Not only that, many of them got into the event
aswell, and were only too happy to help out when we needed it.

The round up

In 24 hours, over 1000 people are trying
out Beta3 of Notes.  At some stage today I will upgrade clients and
servers.  Alan and Mary-Beth gave an excellent and quick roundup for
us at the closing session.  Then the prize draws by the sponsors ran.
 And guess what, I won a trip to Malta!   Well, its not fair
that I won it, so after a quick chat with Integra, we are putting it up
for auction for Eileen’s hike in Peru in September.  EVERY attendee
will get an email from me with a request to sponsor, and also a request
to bid for the holiday.   If you want to sponsor her hike now (we
need to raise 5000EURO) click here.

Eileen and I had planned "asking"
for help on this as part of the closing.  That is all we wanted back.
 A few token gifts from Eileen and I for the co-organisers were presented,
and was meant with heartfelt thanks.  Then……apparently everyone
knew that there was a gift planned for us.  Eileen was given a "piggy
bank" with money, to be spent on herself.  I actually know what
she would really really like, so will be ensuring she spends it on that
later this week (its a flat screen tv guys).    And, I end up
now finally owning a macbook.  Opened for the first time this morning,
I have absolutely NO idea how to use it, so will be annoying many people
*cough* Volker*cough* about how to use it.  My deepest thanks.  
There was no need for anything.  Getting you all involved and to attend
is reward enough for us.

While it is fresh

Official eval email will be sent out
this week, for all attendees to fill out for us.  But if you have
some fresh "good/bad/ugly" thoughts now, please feel free to
comment here.

Again… we are more amazed that a couple
of geeks with a 3 month skype chat could pull it off.  To the sponsors/speakers/organisers,
I don’t think that I can really thank you guys enough.  ILUG2008.org
is registered…… but for now, some brief rest and prep for Admin2007
in Boston next week.

Thank you all.

Before the OGS of ILUG2007

Too many questions!

A PACKED room here in Dublin.  Over
250 people.  I have just finished the welcome speech and now Alan
Lepofsky is presenting they keynote and giving a fantastic session on IBM
strategy.  New staff consider email as "old technology".
 Boy do I feel old.  Alan will be followed by Mary Beth Raven
giving the ND8 client presentation.  Since the new beta software went
live yesterday, we are currently burning cd’s for everybody.  A fantastic
coincidence to have that software out on this day.

Moving back a wee bit, this morning
started at 5.30am, with me waking the Mooney household.  Seeing Bill
in speedos can be described in one word.

Wrong.

More later….