Why 2010 was my Favorite Lotusphere
Category Lotusphere LS10And to start off with a disclaimer - this post about Lotusphere 2010 being my favorite refers strictly to "business" - of course, when I became engaged to the lovely Liz Novak at Lotusphere 2005 that qualifies as all-time favorite for personal reasons.
Not a Wrap
So, with a plethora of Lotusphere "wrap-up" posts in the wild, if you're here then you don't need another one. Besides, I don't particularly like to "wrap up" Lotusphere. It's kind of like Christmas, I like to carry the feeling on as long as possible. And the code. Each year I take the best things we at SNAPPS do at Lotusphere and take them on the road to User Groups, meetings, clients, and an occasional Lotusphere Comes To You event. Why? because after hundreds of hours developing a solution or more than one for Lotusphere, I like to make sure as many people as possible are exposed to it. This year, we're going to do even more by posting videos, examples, and being less mysterious than we were in 2009. It was the mystique that allowed me to surprise hundreds at five user groups in three countries throughout the year. This year I'll likely travel less but make more impact with social and new media.
Fave
Why was this my favorite? Easy. While no new major products or versions were announced, I saw a "rolling snowball" effect with the innovation and research that is being poured into Lotus products. I saw tough talk about competing with SharePoint and others. I saw dedication to marketing Lotus with the continuation and expansion of the Lotus Knows campaign. And, I saw hundreds more first-timers than I've seen at Lotusphere for at least ten years. It was refreshing, invigorating, and brought a sense of both security for the platform and relief at the obvious investment. Were there exceptions, yes. But the overall sense I got from this Lotusphere was one of "new," "innovative," and "feisty."
Stage Fright
I presented two sessions this year. The first, a session on Strategy for business partners on Sunday, was a major change-up to my last five years session on sales for small partners. I really enjoyed giving the session - even though I was nervous at it being "out of the box," but heard afterward that some BPs really did as well. I guess the nervous energy came across as intended, as motivational! I received email thank-yous, comments on Twitter, got stopped in the hallway more than once, and apparently one BP from South America told Julian that the session was worth the price of Lotusphere. Wow. I hope the strategies I suggested work out for as many BPs as possible!
The second session - which will go on the road - was of course, The Great Code Giveaway 9. This year Viktor and I role-played several actors in an organization while we built a case for role-appropriate applications, covering as many bases as possible for end users, power users, and management. We illustrated the power and flexibility of Notes and Domino once again, this time by showing you 15 demos using 10 languages to create just the right combination of use cases for almost any application. It was a blast to work on it and a pleasure to present to a combined 1100 attendees between the two showings.
The Guy In The Front Row
I attended many sessions this year, a departure from the past couple years where I had business meetings and other obligations. I used Twitter extensively from the audience to report on innovations in other sessions. I was honored to be in the blogger program - which was great at the Opening General Session with seats at the front, and for several opportunities to speak with execs. This participation - for which the PR company still has to work out the kinks a bit - was integral to a few decisions I will make this year about marketing and support of the Lotus Knows campaign.
In Lights
Perhaps my favorite session - and I am biased for reasons you'll see below - was Ed Brill and Scott Sauder's Oral History of Lotus Notes: The First 20 Years. In it they gave historical, contemporary and futures perspectives of Lotus, bringing back images and memories from the early days. It was a lot of fun. I was in the front row guarding one of the giveaways for Ed. About 45 minutes into the session, the history piece over, Ed gave two examples of contemporary thought on Lotus. The first was an email he had received from Ray Ozzie, the creator of Lotus Notes and current Chief Software Architect for Microsoft. The second, much to my surprise, was a note he had received from one of my clients, referred to him by former colleague Rich Schwartz. And on the screen, in front of 1000 people, was the following:
So you can see, this was a good Lotusphere. My favorite. I hope to have 15 more like this!
Comments
Posted by Ben Poole At 04:14:19 PM On 01/29/2010 | - Website - |
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