*cough* drum roll…

"Barcelona Spain – December 3rd
2007

To meet the demand for top quality IBM
Lotus Notes consultancy throughout Ireland, UK and Europe, Blue
Wave Technology Limited has acquired
BE
Systems Limited, specialists in providing
top quality IBM Lotus technology services and support throughout the UK.

The acquisition strengthens their combined e-business expertise across
both the IBM and Microsoft platforms, delivering complete end-to-end solutions
to SMB, government and enterprise customers via a single supplier."

The rest of the Press Release will be published
on both sites today here
and here,
but as of last week, all the details are signed and sealed and Blue Wave
Technology has acquired BE Systems.  To say the least, both companies
are pretty pleased with themselves.  This raises the tally of Blue
Wave staff now to just under fourty people.  We started with six in
2000.  That feels like a lifetime ago.

I first bumped into Warren at Lotusphere
2004 (I think) and got to know each other through the community and the
blogs (and quite a few pubs).  After a while both our companies started
to assist each other with projects and deliveries and a fairly consistent
professional relationship arose that has now spanned about two years.  The
skills in BE Systems (lots of varied solutions including mobile device
products / portal products) complements Blue Wave’s comprehensive catalogue
in the Domino , Websphere, Blackberry, SQL, Integration etc range.  This
is a nice fit, and the intention is to retain focus on "high skill"
solutions with our same approach and attitude as we have had since we began.

Outside of the day jobs, Warren and I have
worked together on ILUG, UKLUG and lots of other initiatives and there
has rarely been a challenge (be it technical or otherwise) that we have
not been able to deal with.   On the speaking front, Warren and I
have presented at many events over the past 2 years.  It seemed fitting
that we make this public at one such event (the very well run Admin2007
event in Barcelona) while we are here.  For the record, Warren and
I run the user groups on our own time, and never advertise our companies
(except for when we are presenting), so nothing will change there.

So, congrats to all at BE Systems and very
well done to them.  We will be arranging a social event in January
in the London area, so if you can make it, you are more then welcome.  

A short lived battle – Keynote is a
joy to work with.  Powerpoint has repeatedly broke my heart and patience
over the years (I used to choose Freelance up until a while ago).  Why
this rant?

Well, Lotusphere speakers have two choices
for presentation format.  ODP or Powerpoint.  This is fine and
makes sense,  Hats off to IBM for considering the presenters and offering
them an option.   When it comes to presentation day, we can use Keynote
if we like, so that keeps all options open for us.  

I use Keynote by choice but obviously
the format we have to upload to IBM is either Powerpoint or ODP.  So
what do you do…. Simple.

Beat the first Microsoft salesman you
can find over the head with a bat.  Repeatedly, until you manage to
track myself or Bill down and we say it is ok to stop.  Bill and I
are finalising the "Worst Practices" presentation.  I worked
in Powerpoint 2004 for the Mac, instead of keynote, so uploading to IBM
wouldn’t cause issues.  Bill works in Keynote and exports to Powerpoint
format.  Of course, Powerpoint format cannot be read correctly by
Mac Powerpoint 2004.  So Bill is working in the Windows 2003 Powerpoint
format, which is also not compatible with Mac Powerpoint 2004.  Standards
me arse.  

Update:  While writing this,
I can see the rounded, older, wiser half of our little double act has already
bet me to the rant.

I cannot believe I left the wee monkey
in my house.  Susan’s
gonna kick my ass when she sees
me.

Sitting in the bar in Dublin airport
waiting for my flight.  Five laptops are visible to me from where
I am.  Two professional looking gentlemen, and one lady all working
off Macbooks (2 Macbook pros and 1 Macbook).  Then, me with my black
one.  The other is a Dell.

So, there are 4 Mac’s and 1 PC based
laptops.  

Interesting times……

Its my first time to ever travel to
Barcelona in any capacity, so I am looking forward to the trip.  The
line up is very similar to the Admin event that was held in Boston earlier
in the year.  That, of course, means that the usual suspects will
be here aswell.  So… commence geekiness and boozing as ever.  And
as Duffbert
famously said, what goes on tour
ends on Flickr.