"Best Lotusphere ever"

January 28 2005

In the comments on the previous posting, David Bailey said, "This year was the best!"  This feedback was fairly consistent last night -- among customers, partners, and colleagues.  Almost everything seemed to work this year -- messages, technology, speakers.  A huge shout-out to my colleagues on the content team -- the core team of Kristin, Ragan, and Roy, as well as the dozen or more people who helped us (yes, including you, Rocky) -- for putting together such a great show.  

From special events like the innovator's panel and "Gurupalooza", to new speakers from the partner/blogging community and Lotus field support services, to the Workplace Forum subevent, the content was clearly the most compelling we've put together in a long time.  Almost all the session were well-attended -- we didn't really need to turn anyone away, but the rooms were really full for every session.  The evaluations, with maybe three session exceptions, were mostly excellent.  The bottom line -- as we gathered on the 20th floor last night following the closing session (did Steven Wright really say "snatches"?), the Lotusphere production team realized that only one thing was missing this year -- no controversy.

Thank you all for making this the best Lotusphere ever.  I enjoyed meeting so many of you in sessions, hallways, meals, etc.  I wish I could have talked with more of you...not exactly the best week to lose one's voice.  Still, we interacted -- via blogs and wikis, e-mails, and discussions, and will continue to do so for weeks to come.  (Aside on that -- Ambuj and Mike Rhodin both asked me to summarize some of the blogosphere Lotusphere buzz for them...they are paying attention).

In the coming days, I'll have several blog entries to dive deeper on the week that was here in Orlando.  For now, safe travels and recovery to all, and looking forward to a successful working relationship in 2005.

Ed Brill | WDW Dolphin, Orlando FL USA Category:  Lotusphere 05  Add/View Comments [21]

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  1. 1  anonymous coward  | 1/28/2005 7:09:12 AM

    Ok, now that LS is over - what was the significans of 1149 (or whatever the number was)?

  1. 2  anonymous coward  | 1/28/2005 7:11:53 AM

    Sorry, should have checked before posting. The magic number is "1468".

  1. 3  John Voigts  | 1/28/2005 8:56:53 AM

    My name is John. I don't fill out evals during conferences. If it would still be helpful at this point, I would fill them out today and mail them in, just need to know where to send them. Better yet would be the ability to fill them out on-line (we're the on line collaboration pros, right? Why is this not on-line?) It was my first LS and I loved it.

  1. 4  Sean Burgess http://www.phigsaidwhat.com | 1/28/2005 9:16:12 AM

    1468 was the number of companies that switched from a competitors product to Lotus Notes/Domino in 2004. See Ed, I was paying attention after all.

    Sean---

  1. 5  Karl Martinsson  | 1/28/2005 11:07:49 AM

    The evaluation was online, go to the Lotusphere Online website and it should be there...

    /KHM

  1. 6  Greg Walrath http://www.univarusa.com/ | 1/28/2005 12:04:39 PM

    Sounds like everyone had a great time, I wish I could have been there.

    Based on the blog entries, there was one sessions, "Advanced Domino Web Techniques", I think, where they did turn people away, even from the overflow rooms. I don't know if it was repeated.

  1. 7  John Voigts  | 1/28/2005 12:29:16 PM

    I can't find a URL for Lotusphere 2005 Online. I've looked on the IBM Lotusphere pages, Goggle doesn't turn it up and the conference guide does not provide a URL. Seems as if maybe it was only availble from the Lotusphere site, which doesn't help me as I wanted to complete my session evals from my office computer today now that I'm back home. Not a big deal, but I would do it now. I just never got to it while I was there. Seems as if I was always rushing off to another event that I was already late for.

  1. 8  norm  | 1/28/2005 12:58:13 PM

    Any word of what the competition is saying about Lotusphere and the announcements made this year? I've found surprisingly little in the press so far...

  1. 9  Karl Kingston  | 1/28/2005 1:08:24 PM

    Try www.online2005.net

    I didn't go to the 'sphere this year but remembered that last year, it was www.online2004.net so....

  1. 10  coward  | 1/28/2005 1:15:01 PM

    Did Steven Wright close down LS? How cool is that!

    It is quite interesting that IBM is no longer the big dinosour, and MS the new tech savy kid on the block (like when I graduated CS at UNI 15 years ago). Now IBM is the cool wise grandfather, MS the dinosour, and Google the new tech savy kid on the block.

    Congratulations IBM.

  1. 11  John Voigts  | 1/28/2005 2:46:57 PM

    @7 - still hoping to enter evals for the sessions I attended. Thanks @9 - the correct URL was the the one you suggested with 2005 subbed for 2004- however, Lotusphere 2005 Online has only the overrall final eval as far as I can tell. I'll give up now unless someone steers me to the individual session eval forms on line or provides a mailing address for me to send them to.

  1. 12  Ed Brill www.edbrill.com | 1/28/2005 2:57:51 PM

    @1/2/4 -- Sean is correct.

    @6 - I think I said "mostly" so apologies if there was a session where we couldn't accomodate everyone. In previous years, this has happened far more often

    @8 -- Try this link for the press { Link }

    At this moment, I've only seen one competitive comment from Oracle, and nothing from MS. Rumour had it that MS was making some announcements in this space yesterday, but I haven't seen any output from that, either.

    @11 - No idea if I can find a way for you to fill out evals for your sessions at this point... but I'll ask on Monday.

  1. 13  jonvon http://jonvon.net | 1/28/2005 3:50:51 PM

    i've only been to four of them now, but from what i can tell it WAS the best ever! fantastic. hope to do some catch up blogging as well over the weekend...

    :-)

  1. 14  Simon Barratt  | 1/28/2005 4:05:49 PM

    I tried to summarise some of my thoughts here { Link } , but I am sure I've missed out too much. It will all come back to be during the next week

  1. 15  Richard Schwartz http://smokey.rhs.com/web/blog/rhs.nsf | 1/29/2005 11:37:06 AM

    @11 - Session evals are actually very useful for speakers during the conference. The IBM staff works very hard to make sure that they are collated and available for review by the next morning -- if not earlier, and speakers do go through them and adjust things for repeats or additional sessions that they are giving. As much as I understand that filling out those evals in the closing minutes of a presentation are a bit of a pain -- I hate rushing it myself -- I'm not sure I'd want to encourage everyone to delay until later. If the wireless network were more reliable, then maybe filling them out online during the conference would be a useful option, but I'm afraid that the technology isn't quite reliable enough -- I think it would be more of a frustration than a help at this point.

    -rich

  1. 16  Chris Whisonant  | 1/29/2005 12:07:04 PM

    This was my 3rd Lotusphere and like many of the attendees I spoke with there was a sense of relief for customers. The past two Lotuspheres left customers somewhat confused with whether ND would be replaced by Websphere in 03 or Workplace in 04. The clarity this year was great to hear.

    Remember, we ARE on the offensive now!

  1. 17  Lance Spellman http://www.workflowstudios.com | 1/29/2005 2:14:10 PM

    From the perspective of a long time Lotus Business Partner (and now very happy IBM Business Partner), my opinion is the same. Of the 6 spheres I've been to going back to r4 days, this was the best of them all. I not only sense that IBM is on the offensive, but that it's on the verge of creating the next transformation in the way we work, ala Notes of the early days.

    Congratulations to the team for a clear, strong message, and the products to back it up. Well done!

  1. 18  John Voigts  | 1/31/2005 8:20:48 AM

    @15 Thanks, Richard. This explanation makes alot of sense. I will take this to heart and plan to fill out the evals at the conclusion of sessions next year. And thanks for your leadership and helpful input in a number of sessions that I attended.

  1. 19  The Turtle http://www.weightlessdog.com | 1/31/2005 5:20:36 PM

    You know, after all these years, it's actually pretty hard to judge "best Sphere ever," because while years like 1996 and 1998 were pretty good, they were good in a totally different environment, and with totally different products and needs, than Sphere 2005. This one was a really good one, one that I think changed a lot of people's minds and some lives, but I can't say that it's any better (more appropriate, timely, relevant, etc.) than, say, LS95 or LS99.

    Turtle

  1. 20  Richard Smith http://www.basic.co.uk | 2/3/2005 12:28:57 PM

    Having been to several 'spheres, this year was better than than a couple of years ago. I agree with the Turtle though there are several that stick out.. . LS96 and Ls99 standout in my mind. I remember the days that presentations of new features for R4 and R5 met with LOADS of applause. This year I heard presenters say... "thats worth some applause....", but there weren't many clapping. Maybe our expectations are so much higher!!! Thankyou for a great LS2005 though.