Why you should come to IamLUG in St Louis or MWLUG in Chicago

July 22 2009

It's only ten days away -- the Iam Lotus User Group in St. Louis, with the Chicago MWLUG following about five weeks from now.  I've been prepping for IamLUG for a few days, and am confident this is going to be a great event.

Some reasons to come to IamLUG -- where there are still a few seats available for this free event on August 3/4:

  • Kevin Cavanaugh will be keynoting the conference -- and will have some exciting announcements
  • Mary Beth Raven is going to do a session on what's new in Notes 8.5.1 -- mostly through demo
  • Mike Masterson -- a product manager you may not know yet but should -- is covering  "The RedBull fast-track for plug-in and sidebar development".  Mike is the guy behind the recent LinkedIn and TripIt plug-ins for Notes 8, which installed in a snap and are already helping me be more productive in my Notes client
  • Free beer -- no seriously -- from Rob Novak and the SNAPPS crew...ok, it's free American beer so it won't be quite like the free Guinness Rob has become known for at ILUG and I'm a little worried since St. Louis is home to one of the Budweiser breweries but maybe he opted for something other than BL64
  • GSX is running a GSX day following IamLUG -- I can't stay myself (for good reasons), but this agenda has some great speakers adding even more value
  • RIM is doing Blackberry certification testing onsite
  • The event is connected to a casino and is in a fun area of St. Louis, Lacledes Landing
  • Oh I'm speaking somewhere in there, too

And if you can't make it to St. Louis, a few weeks later you have a simlarly great opportunity with MWLUG in Chicago.  Some reasons to come to MWLUG:
  • Many of the same great speakers
  • More importantly, a whole bunch of new speakers.  One thing that surprised me when these events came out is that they seem like the perfect "dear-IBM-I'm-a-great-speaker-take-me-at-Lotusphere" auditions, but few "new" speakers signed on for IamLUG.  At MWLUG, there are a bunch of "new" speakers, some on topics that are less common and perhaps therefore even more useful to the attendees.
  • Chicago has the best concentration of restaurants in the world (OK maybe New York is better) and I can give you some great recommendations
  • You get to see me speak coming off two redeye flights back from Australia
  • The event includes one of the best touristy things to do in Chicago -- the architecture boat tour (locals like it too!) which will explain to you why it is no longer called the Sears Tower
  • There is a two-day pre-conference Notes/Domino 8.5 upgrade workshop from PSC, free of charge

In short, if you can make it to either event, you should!

Ed Brill | Highland Park, IL USA Category:  Lotus  Add/View Comments [13]

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  1. 1  Eric Mack http://www.EricMackOnline.com | 7/22/2009 9:30:34 PM

    Ed, is this geared for vendors or end users or admins/devs?

  1. 2  tom  | 7/22/2009 10:24:48 PM

    It's at a casino, Eric... who cares? See you at the blackjack tables.

    For the record... I'm an admin/dev (well... just a dev).

  1. 3  Chris Miller http://www.IdoNotes.com | 7/22/2009 10:37:49 PM

    @eric - it is geared for admins/devs/managers and a little of everyone. The IamLUG agenda is on pdf as of today so you can decide yourself!

  1. 4  Eric Mack http://www.EricMackOnline.com | 7/22/2009 11:50:00 PM

    Thanks @Chris./ I was wondering if this was the kind of event to exhibit eProductivity at or simply to attend as a developer.

  1. 5  Roberto Boccadoro  | 7/23/2009 5:08:34 AM

    Ed - "Chicago has the best concentration of restaurants in the world". Pretty bold statement as seen from Italy :-) We're not that bad here either.

  1. 6  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 7/23/2009 6:28:06 AM

    @5 I'll grant you that Italy has the best concentration of Italian restaurants in the world :-) (hey, I'm just trying to razz Michelin for why they have not yet done a guide for Chicago and handed out some stars to these hard-working chefs)

  1. 7  Mark Lepisto  | 7/23/2009 11:48:46 AM

    Kind of off-topic, but the Trip-It plugin did install in a snap, but the Linked-In plugin doesn't - something to do with our proxy server I'm sure, but if the same guy is behind both plugins, tell him that the Trip-It install appears to be more robust...

  1. 8  Richard Moy http://www.dominointerface.com | 7/23/2009 11:54:22 AM

    @1

    The MWLUG Conference covers administration, application development, and business development. We have sessions covering the range of Lotus products including Notes Domino, Connections, Quickr, Sametime, and Foundations with business case studies from real customers. You can find the sessions and speakers on the web site, www.mwlug,com. The goal of MWLUG is to bring together the Lotus community which includes everyone including customers, BPs, and IBM and provide a forum for exchange of knowledge and ideas. There are a few identical sessions between IamLUG and MWLUG, but for the most part the sessions are different with different speakers. So if you want to learn and network make sure you attend both conferences. The admission fee for the MWLUG conference is $35 all of which is being donated to the Lotus user groups to help them run their meetings. This has been a great experience for all the MWLUG committee members and we appreciate the incredible response we have had from the Business Partner community.

  1. 9  Richard Moy http://www.dominointerface.com | 7/23/2009 12:01:46 PM

    @5

    I have been to many places through the world. Unfortunately, I have not had the opportunity to visit Italy yet. I hope I will soon. However, the variety of incredible restaurants in Chicago is amazing. The skyline of Chicago is next to none which everyone will get a chance to see on the boat tour. We have rented a double-decker bus to bring everyone from the IBM Center to the boat dock giving everyone an opportunity to see more of this incredible city. I think I have done enough advertisement for Mayor Daley.

  1. 10  Roberto Boccadoro  | 7/23/2009 1:59:53 PM

    @6 @9 - Ed, you have to find a business reason for inviting me to Chicago :-) I've never been there and from the descriptions sounds like I am missing something.

  1. 11  Richard Moy http://www.dominointerface.com | 7/23/2009 8:50:25 PM

    @10,

    Interested in translating our Notes 8.5 or Quickr training course to Italian? I do not know how much of a market there is in Italy? That would be a good business reason.

  1. 12  Denny Russell http://www.sherpasoftware.com/blogs/SherpaBlog.nsf/ | 7/24/2009 6:50:03 AM

    Both look like great events and thanks to all involved in getting these going.

    Unfortunately, I couldn't make IAM LUG but I am looking forward to presenting 2 sessions at MWLUG and checking out the rest of the sessions.

  1. 13  Keith Brooks http://www.vanessabrooks.com | 7/26/2009 4:23:06 AM

    IAMLUG fell at the wrong time for me as we will still be in the UK at that point.

    MWLUG in some ways was more what we were looking for from a business angle. Plus get to spend time with Gregg, Richard and teams which is rare outside of Orlando for me.

    Either way happy to be speaking and going to Chicago, the home of Pinball and where Jelly Belly makes Candy Corn.