Carl Tyler's Blog :: Lotusphere 2008 Top 100!

« How to resolve a leak | Main| Album Artwork »

Lotusphere 2008 Top 100!

Category None

OK time for some fun. Here's the idea, I want to see if we can get up to 100 top things you liked about Lotusphere 2008, they can be fun, serious whatever you want, just make a comment and see how long it takes us to get to 100, only rule, you cannot post two in a row, someone must post a top item before you can post another one.

I'll start:

The top thing I saw at Lotusphere was...

1. The Sametime Unyte folks still had SmartSuite installed on their PCs.

Posted by Carl Tyler On 02/05/2008 | Permalink |

Comments

1 - LiveText. We are all underestimating where this will lead in the next two versions.

Posted by Nathan T. Freeman At 04:18:24 PM On 02/05/2008 | - Website - |

2 - Jellyrolls....

Posted by Paul Mooney At 04:49:08 PM On 02/05/2008 | - Website - |

3 - Hosting Lotusphere Idol. Great fun!

Posted by Ed Brill At 05:02:22 PM On 02/05/2008 | - Website - |

4 - A belief and passion from IBMers/Loti in what they're working on.

Posted by Carl Tyler At 05:08:46 PM On 02/05/2008 | - Website - |

5 - The Canada Night Party

Posted by Alan Lepofsky At 05:11:40 PM On 02/05/2008 | - Website - |

6 - The Closing Session -- Ill never be able to think of "replication" in the same way, ever again.

Posted by Randy Smith At 05:23:02 PM On 02/05/2008 | - Website - |

7 - Being a contestant on Lotusphere Idol! Emoticon

Posted by Chris Toohey At 05:28:16 PM On 02/05/2008 | - Website - |

8 - The Violin Player in the first Key Note..Amazing Emoticon

Posted by Peter At 05:33:07 PM On 02/05/2008 | - Website - |

9 - Getting to interview LUG members, they are always my favorite people to meet because they are so different. And they are Lotus users, so naturally they are fun. Emoticon

Posted by Jess Stratton At 05:33:29 PM On 02/05/2008 | - Website - |

10 - Mike Rhodin pulling a Foundations server out of a DHL envelope Steve-Jobs style.

Posted by Greyhawk68 At 05:33:44 PM On 02/05/2008 | - Website - |

11 - XPages

Posted by Charles Robinson At 05:34:50 PM On 02/05/2008 | - Website - |

12 - The sheer positiveness exuded
The booth babes
DD in Eclipse (go Maureen)
Bob C ***** who?
A few disappointing sessions (where presenters were underprepared)
Some GREAT sessions - content and presentation
The hiking to the lunch tent
The hiking
The pretty seamless organisation
The crappy CLP lounge
The Blizzard Beach parking (wastes an hour a day, there must be a better way)
Closing session (dont know who he was but it was entertaining)
Not so much Websphere and more focus on Lotus
The 2015 announcement - cool

no particular order..

Posted by LongLiveLotus At 05:36:14 PM On 02/05/2008 | - Website - |

13 - oh gawd, the band and THE violin player..

Posted by LongLiveLotus At 05:37:35 PM On 02/05/2008 | - Website - |

14 - Seeing IdeaJam getting well deserved recognition.

Posted by Carl Tyler At 05:45:24 PM On 02/05/2008 | - Website - |

15 - One location for all the breakfast/lunch dining.

Posted by David Jones At 05:45:59 PM On 02/05/2008 | - Website - |

16 - More leg room/breathing room in the new location for the Cert Prep/Test Labs. (However, having these labs closed all day Thursday makes my "Bottom 100 List").

Posted by Randy Smith At 05:58:28 PM On 02/05/2008 | - Website - |

17 - Kashmir played by The Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra. Very powerful and intense.

Posted by Henry Ferlauto At 06:30:52 PM On 02/05/2008 | - Website - |

18 - All the previews of Domino Designer 8.5.

And Carousel? Emoticon

Posted by Don McNally At 06:50:59 PM On 02/05/2008 | - Website - |

19 - Being a Lotusphere Idol.

Posted by David Price At 06:59:44 PM On 02/05/2008 | - Website - |

20 - Meeting some of my favorite bloggers!

Posted by Garrett Wolthuis At 07:16:14 PM On 02/05/2008 | - Website - |

21 - Bumping into Carl Tyler Emoticon

Posted by Darren At 07:16:35 PM On 02/05/2008 | - Website - |

22 - Attending virtually by watching the OGS as a webcast 2 days after (would have been nice to watch it live streamed!)

Posted by Lawrence Micallef At 07:27:50 PM On 02/05/2008 | - Website - |

23 - Watching Ed Brill avoid Sara Radacatti at the press dinner! Emoticon

Posted by Alan Lepofsky At 07:28:08 PM On 02/05/2008 | - Website - |

24 - The Bloggers BOF.

Very interesting for a newbie like myself!

Oh - and Will Bill's 10 year old Ardberg ... oh my!

Posted by Lars Olufsen At 07:28:52 PM On 02/05/2008 | - Website - |

25 - The whole college reunion with fellow Loti, Iri, IBMers, BPs, and the loyal customer base w/o whom we would not have the best conference and products on the Planet Lotus ;^ )

Posted by Sean Harris At 07:37:26 PM On 02/05/2008 | - Website - |

26 - Nathan's hair! Emoticon

Posted by Chris Blatnick At 07:37:52 PM On 02/05/2008 | - Website - |

27 - Paul and Bill getting roasted by Duffbert at their own session "Worst Practices".

Posted by Sean Harris At 07:41:12 PM On 02/05/2008 | - Website - |

28 - The bleedyellow.com tearing claws t-shirts.

Posted by Alan Lepofsky At 07:46:46 PM On 02/05/2008 | - Website - |

29 - Seeing Redbox Panic at the House of Blues.
If the software thing doesn't work out they have something else they can do. Suburbanites from Westford rocking out, who knew?

Posted by Ed Maloney At 07:48:10 PM On 02/05/2008 | - Website - |

30 - Swashbucklers on lake Dolphin

Posted by Sean Harris At 07:51:53 PM On 02/05/2008 | - Website - |

31 - Drinks in the Dolphin rotunda... at 4:00 AM...

Posted by Julian Robichaux At 08:10:22 PM On 02/05/2008 | - Website - |

32 - Free Black and Tans (Guinness and Bass) at the Universal Islands of Adventure party. Emoticon

Posted by Sean Harris At 08:12:48 PM On 02/05/2008 | - Website - |

33 - Paul Mooney's face when riding the Hulk at Islands of Adventure. Emoticon

Posted by Alan Lepofsky At 08:13:25 PM On 02/05/2008 | - Website - |

34 - Alton Brown giving Nathan shit ... I must have that on video

Posted by John Head At 08:18:14 PM On 02/05/2008 | - Website - |

35 - Being a judge for Lotusphere Idol

Posted by Bob Balaban At 08:26:48 PM On 02/05/2008 | - Website - |

36 - Alan Lepofsky's face when learning that he could have won an iPod playing Canadian Jepordy if he had been just a little bit faster.

Posted by Sean Harris At 08:27:25 PM On 02/05/2008 | - Website - |

37 - Mmmmmmmmmmm.....iPhone....

Posted by Chris Reckling At 08:43:30 PM On 02/05/2008 | - Website - |

38 - CHOCOLATE
as in... Matt Hatem's demo of changingthe Notes 8 tabs to the color "chocolate"....

Posted by Mary beth Raven At 09:16:47 PM On 02/05/2008 | - Website - |

39 - Catching up with good friends and meeting new ones!

Posted by Chris Toohey At 09:17:26 PM On 02/05/2008 | - Website - |

40 - @36 LMAO! "Who sings, Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald? Buzzzz. Gordon Lightfoot"! Grrrrr.

Anyway... Riding the Bleedsyellow bus back from the Islands of Adventure.

Posted by Alan Lepofsky At 09:19:50 PM On 02/05/2008 | - Website - |

41 - Almost 100,000 hits to my blog in a week's time (direct, not including RSS).

Re the violin player, as Nathan blogged, she's featured in a 90-second video from the OGS here:
{ Link }

Posted by Ed Brill At 09:25:22 PM On 02/05/2008 | - Website - |

42 - Dojo Dojo Dojo !!

Posted by Neil Agate At 09:30:56 PM On 02/05/2008 | - Website - |

43 - JamFest on a real stage.

Posted by Richard Schwartz At 10:27:28 PM On 02/05/2008 | - Website - |

44 - I liked the theme: Emergence

With that, I can't seem to get the Beatles song out of my head, "Here comes the sun... it's all right"

Posted by null At 10:29:14 PM On 02/05/2008 | - Website - |

45 - How about just being in the warm while it was -45 back home?? This would never happen without the amazing organization of that event.. Hats up! (Please tell me they did not use an Excel Spreadsheet to sort all this... And! Will we see ALL The presentations slides made on Symphony next year?? Emoticon

Jacques

Posted by Jacques At 10:34:25 PM On 02/05/2008 | - Website - |

46 - seeing a whole lot of old friends I haven't seen in four years

Posted by Tonyo At 10:37:34 PM On 02/05/2008 | - Website - |

47 - @46 - It was great to see you Tony, glad you could make it.

The 103" plasma TV in the product showcase, showing Sametime Unyte meetings. Almost everyone I asked did not know it was a plasma, they just assumed it was a projector! Emoticon

Posted by Alan Lepofsky At 10:40:36 PM On 02/05/2008 | - Website - |

48 - The 103" plasma TV in the product showcase, showing the Pats playoff game on Sunday while we were setting up the booth right across the aisle! Emoticon

Posted by Richard Schwartz At 10:50:12 PM On 02/05/2008 | - Website - |

49 - Gabby rescuing me from trying to answer Rocky's loaded question at the start of Gurupalooza, pulling me from the lake of colleagues shouting "sales pitch!!!" I owe her a bottle of something for that.

Posted by Nathan T. Freeman At 10:54:07 PM On 02/05/2008 | - Website - |

50 - Seeing the Stratton's new baby.

Posted by Carl Tyler At 10:56:33 PM On 02/05/2008 | - Website - |

51 - I have to echo Carl.... Zoe was DEFINITELY on the top 100 things at Lotusphere 2008!!!

Posted by Nathan T. Freeman At 11:03:35 PM On 02/05/2008 | - Website - |

52 - The LotusUserGroup reception at Il Mulino in the Swan. Excellent location, fantastic people, outstanding conversation.

Posted by Gregg Eldred At 11:56:19 PM On 02/05/2008 | - Website - |

53 - Being poolside at the reception party freezing while watching the Giants Packards game . . . just like being there. And in the aftermath someone predicting that the Patriots would lose to the Giants.

Posted by Sean Harris At 11:57:43 PM On 02/05/2008 | - Website - |

54 - Corporate response: valuable content gained in every waking moment Emoticon

My response: great sessions, friends, parties, ESPN, and Jellyrolls Emoticon

Posted by Clay Goforth At 12:36:42 AM On 02/06/2008 | - Website - |

55 - The blogger Q&A with Mike Rhodin.

And Ed and Alan reading my mind at the blogger Q&A with Mike Rhodin. OK, I'm pretty transparent! Emoticon

Posted by Richard Schwartz At 01:07:49 AM On 02/06/2008 | - Website - |

56 - Being able to give a welcomed foot-rub to a long-suffering IBMer who shall remain nameless. Singing Johnny Mathis' "Chances Are" at Kimono's. Doing a week of raps on "Got My Mojo Workin'." Seeing Danny Soares for the first time since DevCon 2001. The French woman in the fishnets and heels in the Rotunda on Wednesday. Lack of busted-pretzel cookies.

Posted by Turtle At 01:40:40 AM On 02/06/2008 | - Website - |

57 - For me, just being there (being a first timer and all that).

Adding to that - Putting faces to names (most people whom I had "met" via email and blog only)

Posted by Gayathri Viswanathan At 03:15:51 AM On 02/06/2008 | - Website - |

58 - LiveText + Widgets in the Notes client: very powerful combination. That AND composite apps ... the mind boggles.

Posted by Julian Woodward At 03:47:41 AM On 02/06/2008 | - Website - |

59 - The pirates - Julian Robichaux and Rob McDonagh in BP206!

Posted by Gwen At 05:04:26 AM On 02/06/2008 | - Website - |

60 - The poolparty after the swedish dinner.

Big hopes for Lotus Protector.

Posted by Jesper At 05:26:10 AM On 02/06/2008 | - Website - |

61 - Viewing DWA(lite) on my iTouch's Safari Emoticon

(& #2, echo @57 - my first time as an IBMer, meeting lots of IBMers I'd only met 'virtually' before), and a few old customers from a past life...

Posted by Steve Cogan At 05:27:02 AM On 02/06/2008 | - Website - |

62 - Butternut squash bisque at the Penumbra Group annual dinner on Saturday night at Wolfgang Puck's

Posted by Richard Schwartz At 06:47:23 AM On 02/06/2008 | - Website - |

63 - Notes lives and rules - in spite of the impression created by the competitors - Notes was declared dead

Posted by Ronny renders At 07:49:08 AM On 02/06/2008 | - Website - |

64 - session "best of worst" - the lack of courage of me to raise my hand a second time when Paul Mooney ask if there were "end users in the room Emoticon

Posted by Ronny renders At 08:04:07 AM On 02/06/2008 | - Website - |

65 - Having a good friend call me and sit through the entire opening session with his cell phone in the air, so I could hear it, since I was at the airport having to go home at that time Emoticon

Posted by francie At 08:41:48 AM On 02/06/2008 | - Website - |

66 - @41 - dude lose the ego.

Posted by Stevie At 08:56:36 AM On 02/06/2008 | - Website - |

67 - Recharging for another year. LSphere is the one week that we in support/development--who are usually conditioned to hear only negatives, since you guys never open "You guys ROCK!" tickets--are completely immersed in the good, the bad and the ugly for days on end. Replication topologies at 2 am, network architectures over beers (did I really recommend a carrier pigeon link between Stockholm and Oslo?), someone walking up to say, "that thing you told me last year worked like a charm"...ahhhhh.

Hearing folks describe some implementation or integration that we never considered, or seeing someone's pride in describing their own code/hack/whatever...

That's why my motto for Sphere Week is "It's all good."

Posted by Wes Morgan At 08:57:21 AM On 02/06/2008 | - Website - |

68 - Hearing Nathan and Tom talk about an idea for a dating service built with Connections titled "Lotus Hookups", and hearing Tom say, "Powered by Lotus Mashups!"

@50, @51, I love you guys! Sniff, Emoticon

I loved "sneaking" Zoë around everywhere so her first Lotusphere was the true experience.

Posted by Jess Stratton At 09:05:16 AM On 02/06/2008 | - Website - |

69 - Meeting Yancy Lent, the creator of Planetlotus.org.

Posted by Keith Brooks At 09:24:19 AM On 02/06/2008 | - Website - |

70 - Being able to walk into a Hands-On Session 10 minutes before it started and sit right down in my reserved spot (as opposed to wasting an hour or more of my time waiting in line, only to be turned away at the last minute, as in prior years)

Posted by Randy Smith At 09:35:25 AM On 02/06/2008 | - Website - |

71 - Discovering I'm not the only Notes client only developer out there. (Thanks Jess and Phil)

John - if you get the video from the closing session could you send it my way? I *must* have that, and not just to give Nathan a ration of shit. Emoticon

Posted by Charles Robinson At 09:42:57 AM On 02/06/2008 | - Website - |

72 - As someone else said, "the violin player - even though I wasn't even there" Emoticon

@33 - Photographic evidence would be much appreciated! Emoticon

@71 - Surely there is no other way to develop Notes applications? Emoticon

Posted by Pedro Quaresma At 10:21:19 AM On 02/06/2008 | - Website - |

73 - Finally meeting great friends in person... Charles and Duffbert to name a couple!
Emoticon

Posted by francie At 10:28:10 AM On 02/06/2008 | - Website - |

74 - Passing the V8 AppDev Upgrade test, with my lowest score ever and then meeting one of the test authors and finding out they are making the tests harder and harder; one of his friends failed twice.

(And yeah! The violin player in the OGS)

Posted by John Palmer At 10:36:53 AM On 02/06/2008 | - Website - |

75 - The Lotus Connections announcement (and talking to the Netix folks, and watching thier demos in the showcase). IBM finally realizing that small business is "Under 100" employees, not "Under 1000"

Posted by Danny Lawrence At 10:37:53 AM On 02/06/2008 | - Website - |

76 - Sake

Posted by Paul Mooney At 10:39:22 AM On 02/06/2008 | - Website - |

77 - Filming the "Dev vs. Admin" commercial with Paul and Bill. { Link }

Posted by Alan Lepofsky At 10:44:14 AM On 02/06/2008 | - Website - |

78 - @66 allow me to rephrase: The interest in Lotus' story drove 100K hits to my blog! I would say the same about lotus.com, videos on youtube, flickr streams, etc.

Thanks, Stevie.

Posted by Ed Brill At 10:55:36 AM On 02/06/2008 | - Website - |

79 - Talking to the researchers in the innovation lab.

Posted by Richard Schwartz At 11:14:19 AM On 02/06/2008 | - Website - |

80 - The violinist. Obviously. Anyone who says different is either neutered or female. Emoticon

Posted by null At 11:37:02 AM On 02/06/2008 | - Website - |

81 - The vastly improved WIFI connectivity in the Dolphin and Swan. There were only a couple occasions when I wasn't able to connect and/or obtain an IP address, but this is a dramatic improvement over past years.

Posted by Scott Stewart At 01:01:40 PM On 02/06/2008 | - Website - |

82 - Alton Brown for the best CGS I have attended, and getting to meet all of my new colleagues from a recent acquisition...and of course all you guys and gals.

Oh and getting to take Sara Radicati's picture at the Press reception (even though Ed would not pose with her...not that I asked him to Emoticon

): { Link }

Posted by Christopher Byrne At 01:14:08 PM On 02/06/2008 | - Website - |

83 - The "Oath and Salute" at Paul and Bill's Worst Practices Session
Emoticon

Posted by Phil Randolph At 01:31:18 PM On 02/06/2008 | - Website - |

84 - The renewed and possibly effective focus on the SMB market from Lotus Foundations to seeing one of my best my customer's names on the screen in the OGS. Celina Insurance is a true SMB with 170 people. They have used Domino and Sametime to compete effectively with organizations that have 10x that many people doing IS.

Finally, IBM/Lotus actually recognized a real SMB success story. One that could be applied to, lets say at least, 1,000 insurance companies of similar size throughout the US and who knows how many worldwide.

Newbs

Posted by Henry Newberry At 01:43:22 PM On 02/06/2008 | - Website - |

85 - Meeting Ross Mayfield, and watching how a serial-entrepreneur Silicon Valley-type dealt with the insanity of the Lotus community.

Posted by Nathan T. Freeman At 01:57:04 PM On 02/06/2008 | - Website - |

86 - Five free passes to Lotusphere 2009 for filling out the online evals.

I'm assuming that winners were selected and notified. To my knowledge, a list of the winners was never announced/posted. Anyway, congratulations to whoever won.

Posted by Randy Smith At 02:02:01 PM On 02/06/2008 | - Website - |

87 - Getting a demo of Carousel at 10pm in Nathans room with his "wife" watching on.

Posted by Bob Balfe At 02:33:32 PM On 02/06/2008 | - Website - |

88 - The Lotusphere Business Partner and Customer Golf event.

Posted by Carl Tyler At 02:41:04 PM On 02/06/2008 | - Website - |

89 - Hearing Jess sing Evanescence at Kimonos. "Best... Karaoke... Ever"

Posted by Alan Lepofsky At 02:56:54 PM On 02/06/2008 | - Website - |

90 - Finishing second in the Lotusphere Boat Race final. Emoticon

Posted by Jan-Erik Larsen At 03:20:05 PM On 02/06/2008 | - Website - |

91 - @87 - Not remembering the next morning that I dragged you in for that demo! Oy!

Posted by Nathan T. Freeman At 03:20:52 PM On 02/06/2008 | - Website - |

92 - Ray and Mussie doing the talk and demo!! Emoticon

Posted by Tort At 04:22:29 PM On 02/06/2008 | - Website - |

93 - Giving my first public performance in 15 years...breaking out in song at Lotusphere Idol...guess I didn't read the session description.

Emoticon

Posted by Rob Novak At 04:34:48 PM On 02/06/2008 | - Website - |

94 - Being able to answer Alton Brown's question "What else do you do besides eat and play with computers?" . . . Replicate Emoticon

Posted by Sean Harris At 04:38:01 PM On 02/06/2008 | - Website - |

95 - @66: NEWBIE ALERT!! Were you actually suggesting that Ed Brill check his ego?? You are talking about someone who concurrently "runs the notes division," "heads sales for all IBM collaboration products," and is the "Senior Notes Executive," all while traveling from international user group to international user group (executive hang out?). Anyone knows how to spell v-a-c-u-u-m!

Posted by josh At 04:49:53 PM On 02/06/2008 | - Website - |

96 - Man, when did the trolls come out on this thread?

"heads sales for all IBM collaboration products," -- when did Ed ever say that? I'd like to see a citation.

Posted by Nathan T. Freeman At 05:33:19 PM On 02/06/2008 | - Website - |

97 - @95 Boy I step away for a minute...

OK comments were meant to be about the top things you saw at Lotusphere, if you want to bitch about Ed please go do it on his blog. He can defend himself if he chooses to do so etc. there. The only person that has the right to bitch at Ed on this blog is me, so there.

Posted by Carl Tyler At 07:13:22 PM On 02/06/2008 | - Website - |

98 - on a serious note: being told by an attendee at my booth that his (huge) company was migrating from Exchange to Notes 8.1 (HA!)...
on a fun note: I second Julian- drinking Crown Royal in the Dolphin rotunda at 4am... :)

Posted by kristina festa At 07:36:19 PM On 02/06/2008 | - Website - |

99 - Oooh, we're almost at 100. How about: getting to pose for/look at odd pictures of the Lotusphere attendees. For example: { Link }
Emoticon

Posted by Julian Robichaux At 08:36:12 PM On 02/06/2008 | - Website - |

100 - Oooh, I guess I'll be the lucky 100!! Emoticon

Anyway, I liked the fact that everyone was able to eat in the Dolphin Dining Hall/Tent instead of shipping a good many attendees over to the Swan tent.

This was great to be able to continue conversations with friends, co-workers, peers, etc. over lunch rather than have to go separate ways because your dining locations didn't match.

Plus, didn't everyone who ever had a "SWAN" dining location on their badge always feel that they somehow got the short end of the stick?

Posted by Scott Stewart At 09:54:44 PM On 02/06/2008 | - Website - |

101 - Just being there.

Posted by Max At 09:55:33 AM On 02/08/2008 | - Website - |

102 - Because of the posts that were made as comments here that were not top 100, we're still about two short of the 100 mark, so here's another of my top100.

The Lotuspherelive website having 1200 active participants during the Opening General Session.

Posted by Carl Tyler At 04:09:53 PM On 02/08/2008 | - Website - |

103 - @102, dude lose the ego Emoticon

Posted by Ed Brill At 05:48:23 PM On 02/08/2008 | - Website - |

104 - @103 I wondered who would be first Emoticon