Hello again,

I'm beginning to feel human again.  I'd forgotten just how demanding a week Lotusphere is early starts, sessions, the showcase (bear pit), meetings and parties it really is non-stop but what a blast.

Being a Lotus event full of Lotus oriented people you would expect there to be a buzz in the air wouldn't you but this year there seemed to be an extra special something in the air.  Apparently there were more than 7000 attendees this year fewer than at its peak but at the upper limits of comfortable.  I arrived ticket less so I kind of missed the first two days which was a shame.  I've had the opportunity to watch the opening session since via this link. Thank you IBM/Lotus for keeping in the talk by Neil Armstrong!  When I was a boy I only ever wanted to be an Astronaut.  My Dad took me to the Kennedy Space Center at the age of eleven because all I could ever talk about was Space.  What a remarkably human guy after all he has done he seems so humble and funny.

Anyways by Tuesday everyone seemed extremely excited about Notes 8 and Quickr though not so much about connections.  Better news I had come by a full pass (a private thank you is due and will be made post haste, when it was offered I was quite literally speechless) so I could participate fully.  A little aside at this point do you ever have those times in your life when people and events conspire to do you a good turn (Kismet)?  Well it happened for me this year help with flights, accommodation and pass meant that not only could I attend but made LS2007 a huge success for me.  A very sincere "Thank You" to Les Adams & his wife Carole for putting up with me and the Turtle Partnership for the gift of some Air Miles.  Another huge thank you to Bill Buchan for his encouragement and practical support of openCOD.org and me personally.

I think you have probably got a very detailed rundown of the highlights of LS2007 from the live blogs and the post event blogs by now.  So I'd prefer to give you a couple of more personal highlights and lowlights. Beginning with the highs...

The people
The bloggers lunch, I'm a very new addition to the Notes and Domino blogging community and still finding my voice.  Nonetheless Bruce Elgort kindly invited me to the lunch which was the start of meeting some very smart, very good people during the week including Matthew White & Francie Whitlock.  Francie and her family up sticks and went from a urban lifestyle and to living on the Carribean island/Country of Anguilla.  To have an opportunity like that is one thing but to have the guts to sell everything and go, wow! 

I had already met Kitty and Warren Elsmore in the UK before Christmas what I didn't know was they were responsible for the great Lotusphere Boat Race. Somehow I managed to get drafted into service and Julian Robichauxs' wingman coming a distant second to the Turtle.  Next year I'm going to bring one of these with me I've got a year to work out how to attach it to a 15 foot fibre glass swan without anyone noticing

Bruce Elgort - I had to miss the openNTF session so I could collect an old friend and mentor and bring him to the show.  I'm sorry I missed the session as Bruce has been hugely generous with his time and t-shirts .  It wasn't until I apologised for not going that I realised he hadn't noticed that I wasn't there, doh!  Thank you Bruce especially for the opportunity to do the TakingNotesPodcast.

Then there was Spanky, JVS and Richard Sampson, Mick from DominoPower and Julian Woodward of Axiot who won the Bluetooth headset and Andrew Kelly (watch out for his blog soon I hope).

Parties
The RIM breakfast reception and party. Unfortunately I had to miss the Teamstudio party to go but it was worth it.  It was a fantastic chance to speak to RIM marketing and development people.  As soon as I can I'll discuss more in the openCOD blog.  Apparently there is a IM client for MSN chat for BlackBerry I'm not sure if that is a free RIM application or a third party app like WebMessenger, anybody?

Bills 40th you've seen the pictures, movie and clogs: legend.  Hope the man with the toe has gotten over it, it was an accident OK?

The products
Notes 8 looks fantastic.  The dynamic address book is something I've gotten used to with web based email clients but to have it in Notes too? Fabulous.  I like having the RSS feeds in the client too.  Integration with open office looks interesting I wonder what APIs will be available in Java/Lotuscript if any?  Also like the dockable sidebar items.

Quickr - team workplaces - Quickplace 8 by another name.  Store and share files with team mates, integration with office applications.  IBM's Sharepoint I'm guessing.  When someone mentioned a version would be available free this year it echoed Microsofts Sharepoint services strategy I even mentioned the word viral (and I hadn't seen the opening session).

Connections - MySpace for the office? Knowledge management for the Web 2.0 generation?  Not sure most people are abivalent but worth a look I think.

The Speakers & sessions
Wes Morgan rocks!  I cannot imagine anyone falling asleep during his talks.  I went to his Sametime Architecture session which was very to the point and delivered in a entertaining slightly evanglical style.  I came out of it much the wiser...

Bill Buchan & Paul Mooney - I missed worst practices last year so I made a special effort this time around, bearing in mind a few of us (presenting and watching) had but two hours sleep from the night before I think we all did well. Not only is Worst Practices extremely funny it's extremely useful, who hasn't made a mistake?

Gabriella Davis, I worked with her for a couple of years she knows her onions.  I'm a big fan of her presenting style very funny very down to earth.  I would have liked to have gone to her BlackBerry sessions but couldn't make it.

Declan Lynch check out Declan's blog for lot's of Notes about the Notes 8 client and designer.  Went to the session on Blogging.  I'm hoping to migrate this blog to Blogsphere 3.x soon...

Home!!
Having my wife and children run down the platform toward me as I drop my bags and scoop them up (I've always wanted to do that).  Coming home to a couple of interviews and about five messages from agencies with potential new roles.

Lowlights
Quickr - great product daft name - no no no.  IBM was really making a big thing of appearing cool this year but no.  Quickplace 8+ is what is, Quickr just doesn't fit.

craicBerry - as a piece of work I was fairly pleased with it but I don't think it was a popular as I'd hoped or maybe it deserved - thanks to everyone that looked at it tho'.  Nonetheless it's a interesting (fun?) example of how to integrate BlackBerry and Domino applications (don't forget the source code is available @ openCOD.org).  Next year I think I'll try again and offer a BlackBerry optimised Web application (so you don't have to install anything) as well as the J2ME app.  I'll also see if I can't allow you to register and create a shareable online calendar of the parties you'll be attending.

Going to the "Mobilizing Domino applications with Lotus Expeditor" session and hearing the presenters say something like "We haven't looked at BlackBerries yet we just used what was to hand".  I'm not sure if Expeditor is relevant to BlackBerry development given RIM provide the excellent MDS Studio application.  I hope to find out.

The post Lotusphere blues. Is there such a thing?  If there is then I have it.  There's such a buzz during the week so much to learn, ideas exchanged and so many friends and new friends to meet and then flying, jet lag and normal life.


} finally {

This year is going to be Lotus' year I feel very confident about that.  The products look right and once again Microsoft (IMHO) lacks a credible answer to them.  It's also going to be RIM's year with BES 5 (feat clustering - woohoo), & a new handset (the 8800 which no-one would talk about tho' some information is floating around the interweb. If the gossip is in anyway accurate I forgive RIM for not letting me win a Pearl they were obviously waiting to let me have this).

I have to start saving for next years Lotusphere and planning a handful of abstracts for sessions.

Well that's it, if you got this far thanks for reading & until the next time.... ttfn

}