Lotusphere 2007: Session preferences e-mail out, accept/reject notices out

November 9 2006

In the last 24 hours, those registered for Lotusphere have been sent a link to the session preferences voting site...your preferences help us decide what time slots and rooms are appropriate for the hundreds of sessions that have been selected.

I know that in the last 30 minutes, the official accept and reject e-mails have gone out.  I know that means there are literally more than 1000 disappointed people right now.  I know it's tough from both sides.  Rocky covered some insight from the mind of a track manager earlier today, and I agree with much of what he says.  

As with prior years, I've had a small twinge of discomfort that there has been public discussion of proposed sessions, rejections, etc.  We know all of you are passionate and want to share that passion when you submit proposals to Lotusphere.  But I suggest taking any rejection professionally, not personally -- which I know you realize it is.

At any rate, congratulations to all of the speakers -- looking forward to what will be the best Lotusphere yet, just a bit more than ten weeks away!

Ed Brill | Highland Park, IL USA Category:  Lotusphere2007  Add/View Comments [19]

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  1. 1  Pete McPhedran  | 11/9/2006 4:20:44 PM

    Ed,

    It was a nice rejection notice, thanks for that!

    Actually, would it be possible to see accepted submissions, I mean, as they were submitted, vs what they will look like at the 'Sphere? Thanks,

    --Pete

  1. 2  Ben Langhinrichs http://www.GeniiSoft.com/showcase.nsf/GeniiBlog | 11/9/2006 4:34:08 PM

    I really do appreciate that rejection letters are sent out for every session. That wasn't done some years, and it was really hard to hear other people get accepted without knowing for sure... and not wanting to sound like a chump by asking. So, thanks for all four rejection letters (and, actually, the one acceptance letter was pretty nice, too).

  1. 3  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 11/9/2006 6:38:01 PM

    @1 Pete, the majority of abstracts in the infrastructure track are posted "as is". In some cases, they've been edited for brevity, or to clarify topics being covered, but most are posted intact.

  1. 4  Keith Brooks http://kbmsg.blogspot.com | 11/9/2006 8:25:58 PM

    I too received a DOS (Denial of Speaking) email, although to be fair it was for a topic I did not think would make it but would have been fun presentation, maybe I will blog my thoughts on what i wanted to do.

    On the other hand I did not get anything about my other submissions. Hope is alive, for now.

  1. 5  Alan Bell http://www.astoryforbedtime.com | 11/10/2006 2:47:15 AM

    Agree with Ben, last year there were no reject notices. It is much much better to know that a session is rejected than it is to be unsure. I did get a session this year (and a bunch of rejects) and I am looking forward to seeing you all in January.

  1. 6  Tony Lee  | 11/10/2006 4:59:46 AM

    Wow did you mean that 1000 different session ideas were rejected or that 1000 distinct people will get rejections? I'm asking to clarify because that seems very high (and great for you and IBM/Lotus/Lotusphere)

  1. 7  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 11/10/2006 5:21:10 AM

    750 session ideas were rejected (approximately), many having more than one speaker.

    It is true that many people submitted more than one session idea. Unfortunately, a few seemed to take the splatter approach -- throw enough in and something will stick. I can't speak for all the track managers, but as the senior member of the team, I can say that this is the quickest way to sniff out someone who just wants a ticket to Lotusphere. Thankfully, that's the rare exception, and most of these sessions are just the ones that we wish we could accept, but can't.

  1. 8  Cesar  | 11/10/2006 7:11:46 AM

    I loved the survey, I think it's a way to get us participants involved and excited. I really had a hard time selecting the sessions, there were a lot that looked VERY interesting.

    Hopefully the session list will be out soon and we can start "feeling" Lotusphere more and more.

  1. 9  Charles Robinson http://cubert-codepoet.blogspot.com | 11/10/2006 9:01:40 AM

    Since the official acceptance and rejection notices have gone out and I haven't received anything, what does that mean? I've never done this before so I'm not sure what the process is.

  1. 10  Chris Aniszczyk http://mea-bloga.blogspot.com | 11/10/2006 10:31:03 AM

    I agree, I have submitted something and haven't received a notice :(

  1. 11  Keith Brooks http://www.kbmsg.blogspot.com/ | 11/10/2006 10:36:46 AM

    @7 Sure it looks to the inside people like we are all trying to get free passes, but maybe we really have some good ideas as well.

    When I sorted topics for Berlin, I think I did Bird of a feather sessions, I found many compaies submitting their product or soluton info, which was really not helpful.

    So I know the process isn't easy but it is nice to know at least a reply is sent this year which shows someone, however short, reviewed ones request.

    Great customer service from the Lotusphere team implies good things for Orlando.

  1. 12  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 11/10/2006 10:37:30 AM

    Notifications haven't gone out for customer case studies that were submitted. FYI, there won't be solo customer sessions at LS07, what we plan on doing is inviting customers who submitted sessions (and others) to participate in a few focused panel discussions. Stay tuned.

  1. 13  Charles Robinson http://cubert-codepoet.blogspot.com | 11/10/2006 10:59:42 AM

    @11 - What does the height of the reviewer have to do with anything? ;-)

    @Ed - Thanks for the update. I submitted a BoF topic, not a case study, but I'll just keep waiting anyway. :)

  1. 14  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 11/10/2006 11:04:00 AM

    Ah, BoFs -- as I think the session preferences e-mail said, the BoF decisions are being strongly influenced by session preferences voting.

    The interesting thing about the votes so far is that it really shows that this conference is still "Notes-sphere"...most of the top vote-getters are Notes/Domino-related. But the Lotus Software Strategy session is in the top 10, too. :-)

  1. 15  Dan Silva http://dansilva.blogspot.com | 11/10/2006 7:01:11 PM

    Hi Ed,

    where they sent out to everyone? (the preferences e-mail)... I didn't get one :/

    Tks,

    Daniel

  1. 16  Charles Robinson http://cubert-codepoet.blogspot.com | 11/11/2006 12:55:35 AM

    Dan - "In the last 24 hours, those registered for Lotusphere have been sent a link to the session preferences voting site...." If you were registered for Lotusphere I would assume you should have received the e-mail, otherwise, no.

  1. 17  Jamie Magee http://martinscott.com | 11/11/2006 3:26:06 PM

    I wish the content team had shared the content objectives, such as those mentioned by Rocky in his recent blog, with us before proposals were submitted rather than after. I submitted an update of a highly popular session from the past two Lotuspheres -- partly because repeats are indeed less work ;) -- but also honestly out of a sense of obligation to update such a popular session. Had I known that the objective was new content, and that repeats of tried-and-true topics were more likely to get rejected, I would have simply submitted something else. I work a booth most of the 'sphere, else I would have submitted more than one.

  1. 18  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 11/12/2006 10:06:55 PM

    @17 Jamie, to be fair, I think it was a decision that we collectively made 'in-line' during the process, when we saw how many new and different abstract proposals were submitted. It wasn't intended to exclude anyone, just try to bring in some topics that hadn't been done before.

  1. 19  Charles Robinson http://cubert-codepoet.blogspot.com | 11/13/2006 8:57:30 AM

    Personally I like it that Lotus is tailoring the conference based on the submissions instead of telling people what to submit.