In Orlando Airport right now making
use of the free WiFi available airside and trying to assimilate the past
week. I’m pretty sure that I aged about 5 years in the past 5 days,
Looking in the mirror this morning, there was someone staring back at me,
but most definatly not someone I would like to see often. There are
so many aspects to Lotusphere these days, that five days are just not enough.
That being said, it could not be extended any further as IBM would
kill their customer base! I met some of the gang for dinner last
night, but I think during the main course I was just asleep whilst eating.
Gab, being as lovely as ever just said… "get out of here and
go to bed". I took the good advice. So sorry for not meeting
everyone for a final blow out… but I was throwing an NSD and fault recovery
was just not happening.
The message…
Technical advancements announced in
OGS were strong and progressive, albeit underplayed. There was a
lot to announce in such a short time, and some of the features that were
just mentioned will have people dancing in the aisles, when they get more
information. Admins… research the Directory freedom stuff coming
along soon. This gets rid of many many problems for user management.
)
The unusual thing for me about the message
this year is that the non-technical message meant more to me. IBM,
according to the OGS "now understand what an SMB is" and are
focussing their products and tools on them. Products are being aimed
at the sub 500 user environment, which is a welcome relief to me. I
only hope that IBM in my region cops on to this message, and pays attention
to smaller sites instead of trying to stuff Websphere down the neck of
big boys.
The technology…
The labs were amazing (from what little
time I had in them) and some of the features in there just astounded me.
There is significant, heavy investment in the product, and server
/ designer features are now in the sights of Lotus, after spending significant
time on the UI for the client. Connections 2.0 looks very impressive,
and I look forward to playing with it when it is released. The look
and feel of all the products has been standardised, and interact with each
other very very well. I really really wanted an integrated iPhone
client, but even playing with Bruce/Gayle’s iPhone made me just want one
anyway.
Lotusphere2008 was the year of the Mac.
They were EVERYWHERE. I loved presenting with it there, and
so did the AV guys when you came up to them. TekChek guys would look
at you and say "right… we need to test the vis….. Ah… you have
a Mac. Don’t worry about it).
The sessions..
I didn’t get to one full session this
year. I did present quite a few, and was lucky enough to be involved
in Lotusphere IDOL and a few other behind the scenes things. I have
never been this busy at ‘sphere, and the pace was hard, but as I sit now
(exhausted) it all felt worth it. People seemed to like the sessions,
and I ran out of business cards by the end of speedgeeking. I have
the evaluations for my sessions, and they seemed to go down well. Only
at Lotusphere Orlando are you going to have 2000 people willing to stand
and take a pledge, and just "get into the week" and have fun
aswell as learn. I will post the presentations with updates in the
next day or so. Have patience.
The people…
There were so many people that I got
talking to this year. This included customers (Sorry for the embarrassing
moment, Leah ;) ) delegates, fellow bloggers I knew already (Duff/McDonagh
- always a pleasure), co workers (Warren), and bloggers I never really
knew that well (Gab / Andrew). Getting to talk with Charles Robinson
for the first time was great. A very witty man. Also, people
who just make the event for me (Greyhawk / Genelle). I met Mike Rhodin
and a few others from IBM / Lotus and they actively tried to talk/listen
to us. Considering this is the busiest week of the year for them,
any time they have for the likes of us is always appreciated. Rocky
/ Ed / Alan Lepofsky were just their usual selves, trying to do 57 things
at once and managing to pull it off. Presenting with Susan and Warren
for the first time was a pleasure. Presenting with Bill, is as always,
an adventure. Its just a shame Francie was not there to complete
our "Die Hard session". She is the strength behind that
one. Next year girl…..
Whats next
Well, I am participating in 4 "Lotusphere
comes to you" events in the coming months. Then Admin2008, ILUG2008
(Stay tuned next week), Collab Uni, UKLUG and more. If this year
goes like last year, I will blink and be having to think of an abstract
to submit for Lotusphere 2009. See you all next year.
zzzzzzzzzzzz
