Lotusphere Comes to You, Singapore
April 21 2006
The day's not over yet, but I've got a
few minutes to blog. About 300 here in Singapore today, an enthusiastic
group for sure. The main stage was decorated as a boxing ring, and
the metaphor carried throughout the day. Customers and partners I've
spoken with throughout the day have been positive and optimistic. I
also had an interesting press interview and an analyst meeting... pretty
full agenda.
"Fun" is certainly a theme
of the event here today. As part of the event marketing, several
taxis around town have been wrapped with Lotus advertising.
Throughout the day, attendees have been
offered an opportunity to take a few punches at the boxing dummies -- well,
these weren't exactly participants, they were the hired help...
One other fun element is Willy Foo,
the photographer from Live!studios.
He's taking pictures throughout the day, and they are instantaneously
rotated up on a projector in the foyer. Printouts are available,
too, almost like trading cards. They even have the Lotus software
logo on them.
I'm on with the closing keynote in a
few minutes, followed by a meeting of the local user group. Pepper
crab, I think, is on the evening's agenda. More from Singapore later.
Post a Comment
- 2
Thomas Schulte | 4/21/2006 4:01:51 AM
The Photo Idea would be a nice one for the DNUG too.
- 3
Steve Cogan | 4/21/2006 5:08:32 AM
Ben,
I didn't any follow-up from LCTY (& I attended both sessions to get to the business & technical tracks) - but with a little searching found this:
{ Link }
Hope it helps. Must talk sometime about the offer of presenting at a future UK user group event?
Cheers, Steve "not Coogan" Cogan.
{ Link }
- 4
Steve Cogan | 4/21/2006 5:09:37 AM
That would be, "didn't GET any follow-up"...
- 5
Matt | 4/21/2006 6:36:08 AM
@1 - That thought did occur to me Ben - the LCTY event in London did have its redeeming features, but for the most part it was death by powerpoint :-/ But in saying that, this year's event in London was streets ahead of last years event in Manchester.
And yes, I'm still waiting for my presentations CD - Cheers for posting that link, Steve, however it's not the same set of presentations that I saw, I don't think...
- 6
Darren http://www.dadams.co.uk | 4/21/2006 7:31:00 AM
I'm not happy to hear that no-one has received the presentation CDs yet, I'll see what's going on.
The presentations on-line aren't the same, we had different time constraints so some presentations had to be amended.
The only comment I can make about the lack of live band and dancing girls in London and Manchester is that we have a budget to work to. Hotel venues in the UK are very expensive.
- 7
Dave Harris http://www.wavysworld.com | 4/21/2006 7:33:00 AM
Looks good, Ed. I'm looking forward to Tuesday in KL
- 8
Ben Rose http://www.lnug.org.uk | 4/21/2006 7:35:21 AM
@6 - But surely some of IBM's biggest customers are in the UK?
Do we not represent one of the largest Notes markets in the world?
Based on that, shouldn't budgets be higher? Or are we all expected to trek to Florida in Winter?
- 9
Steve Cogan | 4/21/2006 8:00:45 AM
@5 & @8 - I actually thought the Manchester event was a little 'slicker'. Personally I had a good day and left feeling like I'd absorbed a lot of useful information - and the 'feel-good' factor was provided by the end-of-day motiviational guest speaker. I'd say the end of day guest was better in Manchester, although the 'name' in London was probably bigger in PR terms!
Though having said all of that - seeing ALL the presentations probably helped my comprehension :-)
But definitely no dancing girls - although in the Manchester rain (funny that - it actually WAS raining in Manchester!) they might not have coped so well...
- 10
Darren http://www.dadams.co.uk | 4/21/2006 8:09:59 AM
@8 - Ben, I can't comment on this. I'm not in charge of the budget, I don't know how it's allocated. We have other events that we want to run during 2006, we can't blow everything on one event. I also can't comment on how other regions choose to spend their Marketing funds. In the UK we're about to embark on another campaign. Budgets run for a year. You don't spend all your monthly wages in the first week, do you? Perhaps you do ;o)
- 11
David Vasta david.davidandkelly.com | 4/21/2006 9:00:25 AM
Crazy part is I know where those pcitures were taken. Very Cool!
- 12
Mike Lazar | 4/21/2006 9:34:07 AM
mmmm...Pepper Crab. One of my guys just got back from a 2 week gig. All he did was rave about it. He wanted to bring some back home.
- 13
Ed Brill www.edbrill.com | 4/21/2006 11:06:07 AM
@12 Mmmm, yes it was good, but man, what a mess!
@Ben -- Wasn't there a celebrity speaker at the London LCTY?
I think Daz's points are spot-on. The cost structure is very different in SE Asia, and it's more likely that they'll have just one or two Lotus brand-focused "launch" events during the year. The US LCTY events have had no celebrities, no rock bands, no dancers, just straight content. I actually think it's good that IBM doesn't try to "cookie cutter" an approach -- different cultures and all that.
- 14
Alan Bell http://www.astoryforbedtime.com | 4/21/2006 11:09:03 AM
yes, slash the development team, forget printing from Notes, don't worry about getting Lotuscript in future products. Just spend the money on more foxy boxing please!
- 15
Darren http://www.dadams.co.uk | 4/21/2006 11:54:30 AM
Girls in skimpy outfits may be cheaper in the Far East and... errr, no actually, I think I'll stop right there.
- 16
Ben Rose http://www.lnug.org.uk | 4/21/2006 12:49:11 PM
@13
Ed - Yes we did have a celebrity speaker. He was the most rehearsed presenter all day and he didn't even rely on any slides. :-D
The US already have Lotusphere itself...it's no wonder the US LCTY events were scaled down.
In Europe, still a big market last time I looked, we don't get Lotusphere so maybe we expect a bit more as I'm sure those Down Under do too.
Still, I've made my point...no use in repeating myself any further.
- 17
Pat Lavan | 4/21/2006 12:57:52 PM
Those taxis would go down a storm in London - Yellow Cab is the new Black Cab!
- 18
David Bell | 4/21/2006 4:05:47 PM
@17 - nice one !
- 19
Duffbert http://www.twduff.com | 4/21/2006 4:45:48 PM
@18... Yes, it's *good* to be Ed. :)
- 20
Stuart McIntyre http://macsfacts.blogspot.com | 4/22/2006 1:06:00 AM
@18 - Ed, sounds like you've got a right one there :-)
- 21
Marlo | 4/23/2006 9:56:08 PM
We'll have that kind of promo here in the Phils. Ed..
Wattan experience!
Enjoy!
- 22
Felix Binsack www.timetoact.de | 4/24/2006 2:44:27 AM
Concerning the cab with the Lotus advertisement:
In 1999 we accidentally saw Lotus advertisement on a trolley car in Prague during a TIMETOACT annual works outing:
{ Link }
That was cool and a great motivation to all TIMETOACT employees.
Is Singapore a bigger market than the UK? Does it have more value to IBM?
We had NOTHING like this at the LCTY event in the UK and I'm just curious why. All we got was the offer of a CD containing the presentations that most attendees still don't appear to have received.
I'm not saying the cost of the London event was insignificant but, once you've taken off the amount each vendor had to pay for a stand, I do wonder how much investment IBM actually put into it.
You spend loads in Florida each year and no doubt a good amount in Germany for DNUG...why do other locations like the UK get to feel like 2nd best all the time?