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Lotusphere 2007 Wrap-up
Let me start by saying I have never been at a more exhausting and exhilirating event in my life. Here are some of the thoughts that stick out in my mind:
- I am no longer worried about how IBM is going to respond to Microsoft Sharepoint. Prior to arriving at Lotusphere, I was really concerned that IBM was ignoring the impact that Sharepoint was having in the marketplace. The response from my sales contacts was that Sharepoint was really a competitor with Quickplace and not Domino. But in my mind, Quickplace was lacking a fair number of features to make that a reality. All those doubts and fears disappeared when I saw Quickr. Here was everything that I wanted from IBM as a response to MS.....and then some.
- In case it wasn't made abundantly clear to everyone, Quickr is Quickplace 8.
- Getting certified at Lotusphere is the way to go, if you can swing it. I was able to accomplish in one week what might have taken me 6 months or so to do in the real world.
Signing up for Lotus Exams at Lotusphere - Half price
Getting access to the CertFX practice exams - Free
Going 7 for 7 and getting a double certification - Priceless
My only real complaint was about the hours of the Certification Lab. I honestly think that the prep room and exam room need to be open longer. I would like to see the prep room open starting Sunday morning and running from 8am - 9pm each day. You shouldn't have to skip a session you want to attend to be able to practice for your exam. Heck, if you don't want to keep the lab open longer, then just put a time-limited practice test on a flash drive and let the users use their own computer. I know many exam takers would have gladly paid a few extra dollars for that service. I also think that the exams should be able to be taken on Sunday and that they should have at least one night of "Late Night Exams" so that people won't have to kill themselve to get it in during the day. - The Lotus community is thriving! Some of the scuttlebutt that I overheard was that the final number of attendees was over 7000, with more than 2000 registering within the last 3 weeks prior to the event. And the number of attendees that did not speak english as their native tongue was quite amazing. Walking down the hall was more like walking through a European city than it was anything else. I wonder if the enthusiasm for a Lotusphere Europe has reached a point where it becomes feasible again.
- I cannot express enough how important good shoes and socks are. Make sure you bring multiple pairs of shoes so that you can switch each day to give your feet a break.
- The floor of the product showcase was humming at all times this year. There wasn't a time that I walked through it that I wasn't trying to navigate around throngs of people. I was extremely happy to see that my favorite mail gateway vendor, Proofpoint, actually had a booth on the floor. I also stopped by the Sun pedestle to chat a little bit about archiving with Steven Gray. Their solution wasn't one that I had investigated before, but it seems to be as complete as any other one on the market, even iLumin's. The piece they understood was that archiving should be seamless to the end user, even ones that replicate their mail locally.
- If you want to be able to truly impact the direction of a Lotus product, this is the one place you can do it. There were several occassions in which I was interacting with a person who actually wrote the code I was talking about. Makes the entire relationship with Lotus seem much more intimate. Many thanks to Mary Beth, Alan, and Ed for taking the time to really get out there and interact with all of us.
- I still can't believe the progress IBM and Lotus have made in the UI arena. No announcement made me smile more than when I heard that external auditors were being used to check that their design actually worked. The decision to make the interfaces almost identical between Connections and Quickr should really help with end user training.
- Never think that what you know really well is common knowledge. I was thoroughly surprised at the reaction to my session by some people that I considered vetran bloggers. The point this made is that we all have expertise in something and it may be something that no one else does. With that being said, I expect everyone to submit an abstract for a session next year.
- There is a fine line between being persistent and making an ass of one's self. The key is to understand that everyone has an opinion and that it doesn't mean they don't care and aren't stupid if they don't agree with you. In the end, all you can do is to make your point in a respectful way and leave it at that. Going beyond that can burn bridges and take you out of the game that you care so much about.
- I had so much fun hanging out with the other bloggers. Finally being able to meet Kitty and Warren, Jess and Matt, Phil, Rob, Rob, Bill, Paul, and Alan was so nice. The one thing I would caution us about is to find a way to be a little more open and a little less cliquish. I am not exactly sure how to do that, but I can see how an non-blogger or one who doesn't know any of us in real like might be a little intimidated. Many of our personalities are largers than life and we tend to congregate together all the time. That's not a bad thing, but it can be a little daunting to someone who wants to join in and have their voice be heard.
- Finally, I was really excited to learn that some Disney rooms come with multiple mini-bars. I think John was just as surprised to learn about that as any one. Repeat after me John: Friends don't let friends borrow their room key!
Discussion for this entry is now closed.
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Created 1/29/2007 8:15:01 PM email | website
It's about Me, or was it You. Good to meet you Sean. Thanks for the tips in your session. I messed with the Blog template some today and signed up for CoComment. Have a great 2007!
Created 2/2/2007 3:45:12 AM email | website
Lovely to meet you too Sean, really, really great.
I agree about the whole 'bloggers group' thing and us making sure we do not appear impenetrable - need to think of some ways of breaking that it. I'll drop some thoughts into a post when they have had time to collate in my brain.
Created 2/3/2007 5:30:35 AM email | website
@Sean,
I see your comment about Quickr being a competitor to SharePoint. Did you see at Lotusphere a response to all the application templates available in SharePoint and not available in Domino or Quickr? I must admit that I spent the majority of my time learning content I can use now. I did not review much in the new products.
Thanks.
Created 2/4/2007 3:00:41 PM email | website
@Curt
I didn't see anything specific about a set of templates for Quickr to go head to head with the ones for Sharepoint. I am not sure what IBM is going to do with this, but I am willing to bet that more than a few will show up on OpenNTF.
Sean---