From one adventure to another - Lotusphere home via Spain and Africa
Category Lotusphere 2009First and foremost, I have to report that Lotusphere was a blast. I was very impressed by the new GM Bob Picciano, and see that he's put a great team in place including some of the tried and true of years past. The LotusLive announcement (Bluehouse evolution to a service), Alloy, and future directions for Sametime, Quickr and Domino are all good news even if some were incremental and not "launches".
Viktor and I had a tremendous time with BP215: The Great Code Giveaway, where we revealed "My Domino" - a single application designed to return relevance and visibility to the Domino web server for ALL your users. Watch the blogs for the code posting if it hasn't already happened, and watch here for more demos and screenshots. Troy and Viktor did a great Show-and_Tell, and Speedgeeking, and a BP session. Julian and Rob McDonagh had two sessions together. The Penumbra Group had its annual dinner (my 10th, their 14th) at Fulton's, with Bob Picciano and our award winner Debora Cole in attendance along with 30 other IBMers. And of course, then there's Kimonos where FOR THE FIRST TIME in 14 years, I took the stage. Twist and Shout, baby. Finally, the awesome closing session with Benjamin Zander - and yours truly with a 20-second spot in the closing session marketing movie.
But sadly, all good things must come to an end.
In keeping with the past five years, Liz and I trekked down to Naples FL to visit my folks and grandparents (still going strong!) for a few days. In a couple hours, I will drop Liz at the Fort Myers airport to go home to balmy Overland Park, KS while I cross the state to Miami. You see, the past two weeks have held a little "change of plans" for me.
I am leaving today and will NOT be "on the road" for most of the next two weeks. SNAPPS has been consulting with the US Navy for several months, and they have asked me to join the USS Nashville (pictured above) for a tour along the west coast of Africa. If you're interested, this is what I'm working on - helping coach the Navy on collaboration with nontraditional partners for security cooperation (very much, non-warfare type things).
Tonight I fly to Spain, where after a night to adjust I will board the Nashville, and be dropped off 11-12 days later in Dakar, Senegal for a flight home. And now you know why I got my Yellow Fever, Hep A, and Tetanus shots the day before Lotusphere (and I still think it's hilarious that I got Yellow Fever vaccine the day before Lotusphere, but maybe that's just my twisted sense of humor)...
I'll do my best to blog and if permitted, send some images along as well. This is the kind of adventure the typical Lotus consultant doesn't tend to have - so hopefully I can share with you along the way.
All aboard.
Comments
Posted by srinivas kotaru At 10:33:38 AM On 01/26/2009 | - Website - |
(I spent a few days offshore, and got so bored that I started reading the safety documentation..)
---* Bill
Posted by Bill At 12:38:28 PM On 01/26/2009 | - Website - |