Always wanted to run in Central Park, NYC.  No idea why.  Finish up with a juice and a dander around the Apple store on 5th Avenue.  Now back in my hotel packing for the next leg.

A lot of prep work, silo’d wireless environment created, demos complete, 350 slides written, VMs, emulators and third-party software used that pushes traveler beyond its remit, seven hours of speaking, 7 android devices, 7 iOS devices, phones from 1994, custom configurations deployed and the first Mobile War and Peace session is over.  Nice to start in NYC with a full room of engaging delegates.  It seemed to go well, and hopefully they took home a some of the advice given.  I need a drink.

Nope, nosirr.  Nada.  No way.  Nosiree.  Not one. No.

Some of the kit for the Teamstudio/Bluewave event today.

Heading to Dublin today, to take the early flight to Boston in the morning.  Then, north (staying in Salem) to work with the Teamstudio gang.  On Tuesday evening, we head to NYC to present the Mobile War and Peace workshop.  After that (and the Lotusbeer), I head south to Orlando to see a client.

After an all-too-brief stay in Larvik, I am back in an airport waiting for a Ryanair flight to London to meet customers tomorrow.  The team at LSBG put together a fine event, and should be very proud of themselves.  The hotel is fantastic, and it is hard to beat such stunning scenery.  A relaxed atmosphere, magician, good fun (and beer) with Ron Sebastian made for a great night.  This morning I presented the adminblast session and a session devoted to clustering recommendations.  Good questions, good conversations.    A return visit must be planned, with an extended stay.

Next week I will be NYC for a night after the heavily booked Teamstudio “Mobile War and Peace” event (BTW -If you are looking at traveler or discussing mobile device deployment in your company, this should be a good day for you).  Far be it for us to avoid a potential drinking session so a mini Lotusbeer is planned for Mustang Sally’s bar.  It is very near the event location.  About 7pm on Wednesday 18th May.

Anyone interested?  Just a few beers.  Nothing planned.  The exhaulted Mitch Cohen, the infamous Victor Toal and the “local” Kathleen McGivney will be there.  All welcome.

Simple, quick and you only pay for the time you use.  Here, is also where Lotus Notes excels with database replication.

Hell begins after this finishes.

In between customer meetings in London this week, I will be heading to Oslo to present at the Norwegian Lotus User Group event.  It is a new one for me, as I had to sadly cancel my attendance last year.  On the Thursday morning I will be presenting the Lotusphere 2011 Adminblast presentation and then a separate session on clustering.  Oh yes, and I get to take my first Ryanair flight this year!  Joy.

• Vegas is an impressive place to host a conference.  Cheap, massive capacity, lots to do, but a *lot* of distractions that easily fragment the attendees.  If you want to maximise your education at an event, I don’t think Vegas is for you.  If you want to entertain (or be entertained) it’s impossible to beat.
• Symantec Vision is a very well organised event.
• The bags and swag are way better than Lotusphere
• At IBM events, I typically know a lot of people.  Some of them know me.  At this event I am a total newbie.   Strange feeling.  It is easy to say there is no sense of “community” here, but there are gangs of people eating and drinking together.  There is a “community” but I’m just not a member.
• It’s hot.  Very very hot.  That said, going outdoors rarely happens.  I miss fresh air.
• Everyone is polite to the nth degree.
• Mobile device management sessions were standing room only.  Symantec are entering this space very soon.
• I introduce myself as a person working with Enterprise Vault first, then IBM technologies.  I don’t mention Lotus as (to be honest) it is embarrassing with this crowd.
• Most people discussing Lotus notes include “we are thinking/planning migration” in the sentence.  When I ask why, the answers are vague.
• Everyone admits there is massive amounts of data still in Domino applications on thousands of sites.  Enterprise Vault would be wise to leverage the ability to archive this data.
• I’m very used to travel, but a 2-day trip to Vegas from the UK is harsh.  A 10 hour flight awaits me to Gatwick.