Yep, IBM Ireland have agreed to sponsor lunch on the 16th June.  I think that this (along with the IBM speakers) is a great way to assist in funding the day, without causing complaints from the cynics that scream "Its a user group day – IBM shouldn’t be involved etc etc etc".  You can’t complain when your mouth is full

But someone else is also coming to the ILUG day.  

This is turning into a "one off" event, with the best speakers you are going to get outside of Lotusphere.


Register.

Now.

Last year, we held a geekdinner in the
same hotel as the presentation..  I think that worked well, so I will
be doing the same again this year.  For those that don’t know, its
a "pay for yourself" event and I will book a table at the hotel
restaurant..  So, if you want to go and talk "geek" for
an evening, whilst getting drunk, you are more then welcome!.  Email
me or post a comment to book a seat.  I would like to know approximate
numbers.

Yup… secret is out now.  Ed is coming back to speak at the event on the 16th June for us!.   Add into that, Daniel Nashed giving a Domino/Linux presentation and then all the other speakers we have lined up.  I honestly cannot believe the speaker line up we have now.  Full schedule and event information will be posted in the next few days, after
Mrs Doyle and I finish getting it ready.

Event Details here.

I have provisionally set out the date
for the next Irish Lotus User Group meeting for the 24th March 2006.  So
far, there are two primary sponsors (TeamStudio
and M@ilmeter).
 Looks like I will have the means to make this a 3/4 or full day event,
and am now putting together the session list.  Any suggestions on
some interesting topics?  Also, anyone interested in speaking should
let me know (I am sure some of the fellow bloggers wouldn’t mind coming
over to Dublin for a weekend next March).  It would be great to get
the same
turnout as last year.  Hopefully,
I will be able to get a beta of Sametime
7.1 and show it off on the day.
 With the clock ticking on Lotusphere,
I know that very little will be done on this event until the end of Jan……..

Check out the most politically correct T-Shirt of all time from the only
person that I figured would wear it.  See if you can guess who it
was (head not included).

Click
here

Well, what a day.  First of all,
there are many people that I just can’t thank enough for their help and
time.  Ed, Bill,
Sean Murphy, Any Parr for speaking.  RIM for sponsoring the event
and giving me the freebies to hand out.  Also IBM and TeamStudio for
giving me some merchandise to be snapped up at the back of the room.  In
addition, Declan (for taking the photos), "fat boy" for helping
me shift everything and a taxi driver I "know" for collecting
Bill and ferrying him to the event from the airport in time.


At one point, there were 82 people in
the room.  Even though I received all the registrations, I honestly
was not expecting more then sixty.  It was a fantastic turnout.  The
event began on time and Ed kicked off with a strategy presentation that
helped clarify IBM’s roadmap for all watchers.  After this, Sean came
on to demonstrate the Department of Justice’s usage of Domino in their
environment.  Any Parr to discuss Blackberry and the next releases
was then next.  At this stage, the event was running behind, and we
were conscious that it was a Friday evening and most of the attendees did
not want to stay too late.  So, Bill and I cut down our ND7 presentation
drastically to make some time.   This didn’t bother me too much as
Bluewave is running the ND7 "live" launch in a few weeks which
will go into far more detail.  Then onto the bar…..
 

In the Davenport hotel now.  Ed
is upstairs being interviewed by the press and I am trying to be patient
with a misbehaving beta server.  Oh, and by the way, I claimed the
Plaze here about 10 minutes before Ed came in .

Should be a good day, and night.  

I am proposing a geekdinner on 26th
after the ILUG event.  About 7.30pm somewhere central (possibly even
the same hotel as the event).  As usual, its a "pay for yourself"
affair.  So, if you are going to be around, drop me a line or post
a comment and let me know if you are game….

Due to great interest in hearing Ed
and co. I have had to move the location of the ILUG session to the Davenport
Hotel.  More
details here