As blogged, we decided to head to NLLUG on two wheels, just for a change.  The weather for the past few weeks had been good, and fingers were crossed that it would hold.

Obviously the wrong fingers.  At one point the night before heading off, the flood/storm/you must be fucking nuts warnings were taking hold and I was going to just book flights for the Thursday.  But, decided to wait until the morning.

5am – Get up in Belfast.  Weather looks ok.  Wind is now not at hurricane strength and rain was manageable.

5.30am -  On the road from Belfast to Larne.  Very dark, lots of trucks.  Lots of water on the road.  Not fun but ok.

7.00am – Ferry to Troon.  Said goodbye to Larne.

Two hours later – said hello to Scotland.

A distinct lack of sunshine, dryness and/or heat.  Compensated by a sideways wind that was ‘interesting’.  Onwards to Dalkeith via Glasgow and Edinburgh and finally a very damp arrival at our meeting point.  Bill turned up later own, trying his best to impersonate a mermaid.  If you look closely enough you will see the waterline on his t-shirt.

Onwards to Newcastle, where it changed from rain to downpour for about an hour.  In fact, it just stopped raining about 4 miles away from the ferry, where we stopped to shake off water.

After that, the sun shone as we entered the ferry, ditched the bikes and the gear and went straight to a bar on the rooftop.

Food was great, entertainment was.. well.  Here is a few seconds (after the bingo).

Bed by 10pm.  So tired that Buchan’s snoring only work me 4 times.  Awake to see the sky had decided to barf pure fluid on us for the last part of the outward trip.  Here is me at the same bar from earlier.

Leaving the boat took a while as I was trying to figure out how to unstrap my bike…

…and muppets at the front of the bike queue turned up after we were all ready to leave, but then the interesting rain, traffic and sat nav instructions on my iPhone got us eventually to our hotel, where our bikes and us are drying out.  Onwards to the conference!

NLLUG is on this week, and considering the speaker line-up, agenda and planning being undertaken, this is going to be a fantastic event.  I will be there to present a session on DAOS and also my Adminblast session from Lotusphere 2010.  This is my first time speaking at an event this year (Lotusphere excluded) so I feel like I haven’t been doing enough on this front.  With NLLUG, Admincamp and ILUG before the end of the year, I should be back in presentation form for Lotusphere, if I get a session.

That said, I’m not taking a plane to NLLUG.  A few months ago Bill Buchan and I made a plan to head to NLLUG on bike, so that’s what we are doing.  In the morning (at shit o’clock am) I head to Larne harbour to catch a ferry to Troon.

View Larger Map

From there, it is a cross country trip to Dalkeith (south of Edinburgh) to meet Buchan.

View Larger Map

From there, it’s onto Newcastle for the ferry to Amsterdam.

View Larger Map
It’s an overnight ferry so Bill and I will be sharing a berth.   I will need to be drunk.  If you don’t know why, just ask Bill about last time we shared a room.  The next morning, we cock about Holland for a few hours then head to NLLUG HQ to help in any way we can.  Just like ILUG, these guys don’t get paid for their time, so help is always appreciated.

So, if you are in the vicinity, you should pop in to a fantastic looking event.  If not, feel free to follow me on twitter and/or latitude and we will try to photo-blog our mid-size jaunt.

Ed
just blogged this, and I thought
I would re-hash the information from the previous years about this session.
 IDOL submissions are open until 24th December.  You have PLENTY
of time.  You will be informed if you are successful before the end
of the year.

Do you want to speak at Lotusphere?

Have you never spoken at Lotusphere
before (or not in the last three years)?

Do you want your speaking skills reviewed
and judged?

Do you want to have fun in the process?

Lotusphere IDOL is on again for LS2010.
 The format stays as it was last year, but for those that do not know
what Lotusphere IDOL is about, read on….

Every year, the Lotusphere content managers
are on the hunt for new, "young blood", with good technical and
presentation skills.  Sometimes, the problem is being noticed by track
managers.  This is not as easy as you would think, and being accepted
for a session by the content team at Lotusphere is difficult to achieve.
 Helping on the SNT track  really opened my eyes to the volume
of submissions.

Last year was the second Lotusphere
IDOL…. the fruition of a "talent hunting" idea that was discussed
for months.  So, what’s it about?

The format is very simple, and I simply
cannot beat the description put online by Rocky
Oliver.  So, in true plagiarism
style, here are the rules…

Lotusphere Idol FAQ

How exactly will this work?

There will be three steps to earn your
spot as the Lotusphere Idol winner.

STEP 1: Anyone who is interested
in competing in Lotusphere Idol will email a small abstract – 3-5 sentences
- to our special email address (submit@lotusphereidol.com).
Besides your abstract, include: your submission "area" – is a
"Developer" submission or an "Administrator" submission;
and contact information – both your normal contact info and any contact
info you can provide for you while you are at Lotusphere.  Information
about yourself too!  

he judges will choose 2-3 Administration
contestants and 2-3 Development contestants.

But before you submit, there are some
requirements. First, you must NOT have spoken at Lotusphere in the last
3 years, if ever. This is for those people who have never had the opportunity
to speak at Lotusphere, or who haven’t in a long time. Second, you MUST
commit to creating a full, 60-minute presentation in about 24-36 hours
(or best, have it already done) – more on that in a bit.

STEP 2: The chosen contestants
will present a 5 minute "audition" of their session during our
"LOTUSPHERE IDOL LIVE" session . It will be a fun-filled session
with great auditions, laughs, and more. The judges will make their decision,
and then the winner will be announced LIVE at the end of the session!!

STEP 3: The winner will then
have a little over a day to prepare their session – with the support and
help of the Lotusphere judges. Then the Lotusphere Idol winner will present
their session  where they will wow the crowds with their knowledge
and speaking skills, and bask in the glory of the Lotusphere stage!

Will the Lotusphere winner get any
help?

Yes! Some of the judges will offer to
help the winner in crafting their presentation.

Who will be the judges?

We’re still determining who will be
on the stage, but additional "judges" will be in the audience
as well. These "audience" judges will be comprised of the content
team track managers; therefore the entire judging panel will be the track
managers and the people onstage. The stage judges will be announced very
soon – stay tuned! And our Master-of-Ceremonies will be none other than
Ed Brill – this should be fun!  Keep in mind some of the judges may
be a bit *harsh*… its all in good fun.  Also keep in mind they are
actually picking the winner based on your session, so they will be paying
attention.

Anything else?

The winner of Lotusphere Idol will also
be asked to submit a session for next year’s Lotusphere – no guarantees
it will be selected, but we’re always looking for new talent and finding
a new speaker like this is a very good way to get noticed.

So, that’s it. Get your submissions
in early, and we’ll pick the contestants by the end of December.

Sitting in Terminal 4 in JFK waiting for
my flight to Dublin.  I land at 5am local time so will pop into see
(sleep at) my mums before going to a few meetings that day. THEN, heading
to Belfast and going home.  TristateLUG was my last trip this year
to the USA.  Its funny now how a transatlantic flight feels like a
short hop these days.  Comparing it to my travels this weekend coming
to the Philippines, it really is.

TristateLUG was worth it at every level.
 On a very limited budget, Kathleen McGivney and Mitch Cohen ran a
full day, 3-track event in a great location, to schedule and had everyone
fed and watered, followed by free beers.  Most people I spoke to were
amazed that a UG event like this had never ran in Manhattan before, and
I am sure it will become a more regular placement in their diaries in future.
 I met all new people and it gave some battle weary notes professionals
a "shot in the arm" of enthusiasm.  Some of them really
needed it.  As ever the "usual suspects" of speakers came
to the event and presented in their typical fashion.  The exception
to this is Mr Rob (travel weary) Novak who ran his free beer session without
beer.  As no alcohol is permitted in the IBM building, he went with
Root (route ;) ) beer instead. Never tried root beer before.  Won’t
be trying it again.

Bob Picciano gave an excellent session
covering the Lotus market place and as ever engaged the audience both in
his session and afterwards.  He continues to impress me every time
we meet.  I also saw "Lotusknows" advertising in NYC.  Not
timesquareesq Windows 7 advertising, but nonetheless a good start in getting
the message out.

Finishing my speaking engagements for
the year on TristateLUg was an excellent opportunity, and I hope to see
TristateLUG, IamLUG and the Midwest UG collaborate and assist each other
with date co-ordination in the future.  That will give the US THREE
strong events every year, aside from view conferences and Lotusphere.

Note to IBM – If possible, run the Lotus
Comes to You events more like the usergroups.  I think they would
be much more popular that way (my 2c).

My session on DAOS is available from my
resources
page.

I have made them available on my resources
page.  They include DAOS
(with some Danish!), a version of Worst Practices and a BOF-like introduction
to Social networking session I gave.  The focus on that session was
on how to introduce some of the social networking tools into the business
marketplace.  Not directly related to any product.

My last presentation of the year is tomorrow
at TristateLUG in New York.  Currently sitting in Dublin airport,
waiting for the direct flight to JFK and to meet up with some friends for
dinner, followed by a full day conference tomorrow where I will be presenting
twice.

DAOS
- Step by Step

and

"Meet
the grumpies": Eschew Obfuscation!

Looking forward to my brief trip the
USA.  The keynote is being presented by Bob Picciano (I reckon he
thinks some of us are stalkers at this stage) and then a full on day of
geekery and I’m sure some socialising too!

On SAS flight now to Heathrow (oh joy)
before heading to Belfast.  Danotes is a fantastic user group.  And
it is a real user group, organising multiple events yearly and forums for
Danish users to discuss Lotus Notes.  This forums are built on Domino,
Sametime and Lotus Connections.  It is very obvious that the people
organising the event are very interested in their local community and want
the user group to grow and flourish.

The event itself ran like clockwork
and the facilities and food were outstanding.  The attendees are fun
and social with good technical knowledge and questions.  It was a
pleasure to present there and would love to see more of Denmark next time
I get there.

I have been asked to present at the
DANNOTES conference on the 3rd
November and also the TristateLUG
conference in New York on 9th November.  More details on each conference
will be blogged here as I get them, but both of those will be a first for
me, so I can’t wait.

UKLUG was, to put it simply, the most professional
LUG conference I have been to.  Brilliant logistics, excellent food,
everyone taken care of, great sessions, fantastic atmosphere, and a speaker
list that you would only see at the biggest IBM conferences.  Its
hard to put it any other way.  Simply brilliant.  Warren et al
outdid themselves.  I remember a few years ago people complaining
about "no Lotus conferences".  On Friday I heard a complaint
about "too many Lotus conferences".