Lotus Rock Star :: ILUG Registration is Open, Wild Bill Makes it Personal...

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Hey folks, especially sleepy Americans (like me), registration for the Irish Lotus User Group meeting in Dublin June 4-6 officially opened two hours ago! Better get moving if you want a spot--even though the venue is three times the size as 2007, we're expecting a "sell-out" shortly. Well if you can sell out a FREE event that is. Mr. Paul Mooney has laid out the rules and regs for registration...if you want to go, you must register. Doesn't matter if you're a sponsor. Doesn't matter if you're an organizer (Liz and I have the pleasure to be lending a hand this year - editorial skills from her, and mostly moral support from me but still). Doesn't matter if you're Ed flippin' Brill, you have to register. So do it. If you're an American and think you might like a nice trip to Ireland with no conference cost and reasonable accommodations, this is the time to register.

Now to a personal matter. You may recall (especially if you were there) that I have a soft spot in my heart for this conference. I love it so much because I get to do things I could never get away with at Lotusphere, the magazine conferences, not even Collaboration University--and you'd think I could do what I want there. No, ILUG is the place where in 2006 after perhaps 300 sessions in other venues, I finally got to have a session called "Free Beer". I always wanted to have a session called "Free Beer". So in 2006 I brought a few Heinekens over from Amsterdam, where I had just been with a client. In 2007, "Free Beer II - Guinness's Revenge" was, uh, well received.

Why is this a personal matter? Well Wild Bill Buchan, completely unprovoked, seems to have issued a not-so-well-veiled personal challenge over on his "let-everyone-know-registration-is-open-cause-Paul-said-so" blog entry today (we all have one of those). Buried at the end of his bullet points:

DONT expect Rob Novak to buy a Guinness for EVERYONE in his session again this year, as the room seats 500 people, and even a man of his caliber would have difficulty covering that bar bill.

This seems like a challenge to me. What's a man with a reputation like mine to do? Let's just say I'm still working on the session title.

Stay tuned. And keep an eye on the right side in coming weeks as I begin preparations for ILUG 2008...