Category: IBM Conferences

conferences

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Lotusphere Friday 13 Jan

Friday is a bit of a blur.
I got to the airport met up with My friends Sam & Mike, their son luke, and 2 of sam’s sisters (yn & charlie) who were going to Orlando as they were getting maried on Monday 23rd January.
I also bumped into mr Paul Withers and his wife and the Cardiff boys.
Once at the gate it was like a reunion, lots of community people heading out to orlando for the annual pilgrimage 🙂
The flight was good, watched movies, ate food, drank juice & generally tried to chill.
When we finally got to MCO it all started to go wrong.
Our plane was late, so it arrived the same timevas 2 others and it took me 2 hours to get through immigration.
By that time pretty much everyone else was through. Thank the maker fellow brit (and witer for domino power magazine) Mick Moignard waited for me.
By the time we’d collected baggage etc the Virgin holidays bus had left without us – if Mick hadn’t waited I would have been on my own! After much grumbling and cussing the Virgin Holidays rep we jumped in a cab.
It was just a 20 minute journey to the Swan /Dolphin resort and it was great to catch up with Mick and have a good old chat.
Once at the Swan it was check-in and quickly unpack. I also had the quickest shower known to man (or woman) as 9 hours on a plane is kind of sticky.
Then went to meet Stuart, Lisa and Darren. We headed out for some food at the Big River Grill which was exactly what I needed. Much chat about what we were hoping to get from the week was had. I then stumbled back to my room for some much needed rest.
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Back from Lotusphere 2012

I am back from Lotusphere 2012 and I must say it was all that it was hyped up to be

The OGS was very good this year, IBM actually listened to the audience from last year. Opened with a band (OK-GO), then Michael J Fox who gave a very inspirational speach on the use of community around PD, then product demos – and they were good demos, the awards – Champions den whopped when anyone we knew won an award – especially the Applicable one – some great talks from the execs, the IBM champions got a shout out (which is always nice) and to finish the fantastic Doctor – with his stories of how being social is helping to save childrens lives.

I spent a very rewarding 3 hours in the User Experience lab

There was a lot going on in the UX Lab this year – I spent a good bit of time giving somefeedback on the new IBM docs feature (formally known as lotuslive symphony) – like google docs IBM docs enables mutliple collaborators to work on a document, assign a block for an author to work on – infact it is a great tool. As well as being available in the cloud, IBM docs will be embeded into Connections to allow online file collaboration and viewing. This will enable users to view files without downloading and to edit on line with multiple authors – exactly some of the feed back we have been recieving in the connections user community

I also spent a good bit of time discussing some of the look and feel and metrics around Connections. Ethan Perry the lead on the connections 4 design was in the lab gathering feedback on metrics, the homepage and communities sections – I know Ethan well and sat with him and two other guys from the community to discuss some of the ideas the UX lab have. I hope to continue wotking with the UX design team to help provide quality feed back.

 

 

 

 

As well as all the great connections sessions which i will blog about later – there was some fantastic sessions on sametime, lotus notes, lotuslive (smart cloud for social business as its now called) and some great BOFs (Birds of a feather sessions) – I tried to fit in as many sessions as i could as well as attending the Champion events, being a social host in the social cafe and generally wandering around the conference with my Applicable polo shirts with the huge @Appl1cable on the back (thanks Elaine they were awesome 😉 )

 

 

 

 

I was lucky enough to be part of a great BOF with Simon Vaughan from Cardiff University and our friend Stuart McIntyre of CollaborationMatters around Connections Enhancements – we have the community in the lotus greenhouse (mentioned above) – Connections Users – we were lucky enough to be joined by product manager Luis Benitez, Mike Roache who is chief architect and Fred Raguillat solutions architect both from the dublin lab – to answer any questions relating to the direction of the product. It was a packed room, standing room only and a great discussion was had by all – the feedback will be going back to the product team. It was well worth getting up at 6am to start at 7am for.

I am shocked at the amount of people who leave Wednesday night at Lotusphere – Thursday has so many good things, sessions, we recorded a This Week in Lotus podcast live, then went on to gurupalooza where everyone that presented was on stage for an hour to answer questions – which is brave of them after a late Wednesday night party. Then Ask the Product managers and Ask the Developer sessions are fantastic.

 

After the Closing General Session which was an experience – a seperate blog enty is required – the annual blogger photo was taken for all the bloggers who are on planet lotus (planetlotus.org) – fantastic to be included this year and to stand beside so many experts many of which I am now friends with. On that note it was also good to catch up with all my community friends – experts in different parts the ICS world from TDI, to Lotus Notes, Sametime, Connections, iSeries and Power systems through to running IBM/Lotus software on Linux platforms.

Thanks Mark for sending me and I hope I can get a session and speak next year – that would be as good seeing my picture on the main screen in the OGS with my fellow IBM champions 🙂

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What is a BOF and why should I attend one?

A Lotusphere BOF – is a Birds of a Feather Session

“Ok” I hear you say “What is all that about”

Well, a birds of a feather session or BOF as they are most commonly referred to – are sessions that have no presentations, slides or hand outs.

These sessions are informal, interactive discussion groups for like-minded attendees to share ideas and experiences in a small group, open forum setting.

The usual tools involved (other than the attendees) is coffee, a white board / flip chart, some marker pens and some enthusiasm for the topic, for the early morning ones – there is even sometimes breakfast (if not some kind sole may scuttle up to the breakfast room and fetch some 😉 ).

The sessions run for an hour either early morning or early evening – and the early ones really are early (7 – 8am) but they will get you fired up and ready for the day. The evening ones tend to be one of the last sessions of the day and are a nice way to wind down with a bit of discussion before you have to force yourself to eat canapes, drink and socialize or have that dinner with your customer / supplier / business partner / IBM rep (delete not applicable)  🙂

Basically everyone should try to get to at least one BOF.

The BOF schedule is currently listed on the ideation blog on the Lotusphere greenhouse community – this is to allow you to vote on the ones you are most interested in, or would be likely to attend. All the BOFs listed are scheduled and the voting is purely to see how popular the topics are and there are a wide range of topics – take a look and see if there is something that you fancy having some input on.

You will need a greenhouse account to access the Lotusphere Community – it takes approximately 5 mins to sign up for one and it is well worth the effort – hope to see you either at Lotusphere or on the Community 🙂

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Social Connections II a grand day out

It’s taken me a while to post this – mainly becuase I am still recovering from the ‘Zombie Flu’ – aka the hideuos cold and chest infection which is now on week number 4!!

Social Connections II was in a not so sunny Cardiff Wales and my adventure started when I picked Ms Lisa Duke up at Gatwick airport very early the day before the conference.

To cut a long story short,  5 trains, a quick lunch, much social and work related brain storming, a very wet walk in some ‘angry rain’ and much cussing the googlemaps mobile app, we arrived in Cardiff.

We had a great afternoon / evening on thrusday – finalising a few things at the venue, finishing off the badges and then off out for a meal at a fish resturant in Cardiff centre.

 

Friday AM we were all go, reception desk to set up, badges to sort, signs etc … the catering appeared at the correct time and so did most of the speakers (Mr Paul Mason from my own company Applicable was coming at lunchtime), and virtually all the attendees appeared when they were supposed to – so all in all a good start.

We had a few minor issues with the streaming sorted out very quickly – and judging from the #soccnx has tag on twitter we had lots of people watching and interested.

All the session slides will be available shortly as well as the video’s – please watch the Social Connections site for details.

Highlights for me:

  • Finally getting to meet mr Louis Richardson – what a top man, he was engaged through the entire day and it will be fantastic to catch up with him again at lotusphere
  • John Scott and Joe Nicholls presentation on students and social – it was brilliant and I am looking forward to watching that back
  • Meeting many new people, the social interaction was fantastic – many questions at the end of sessions, good two way diaglog and conversations inbetween sessions, over coffee and lunch and at the after conference dinner.

I would personally like to thank Mark, Gary and the boys from the Salvation Army who did a fantastic job of the videoing again – they are superb. Thanks guys you are amazing 🙂

Claire from Cardiff Uni who assisted on the reception desk and generally helped throughout the day – thank you xx

and to Lisa Duke for not only being an awesome friend, pod casting queen and social media “finder-outer”, but she was my able bodied assistant for the day as I was completely disabled by the “zombie flu”

So thanks guys from me and Stuart and Simon .. and here is to the next one 🙂

 

 

 

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Pre LS12 fun

No ICS / Lotus Community members were harmed during the production of this video 🙂

 

Although – Cole was reduced to tears

 

Thanks to all involved for being good sports .. enjoy 🙂

 

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Well it is official … I am off to LS12

It’s official now – I am possibly to be the sole representative of Applicable at Lotusphere 2012 (watch this space for more news on that)  – so no pressure on gathering information then !!!

Hotel and Flight are all booked, just waiting for the session announcements coming  early December to see if I will be presenting or not.

I would love to present to give back some of the knowledge I have back to the community – but if I don’t get a session I think I will cope 🙂

I am planning on attending as many sessions as possible, to interview as many people as possible too as when I am back from LS12 I will be presenting to my colleges at Applicable  and later on in the month to customers in our own mini LS comes to you session.

If you would be happy for me to interview at LS12 can you let me know ?

I am very excited – Lotusphere was fantastic last year – and if the grape vine is to be believed this year is going to be awesome..

So if you see little ole Social shazza wandering around – come and say hi 🙂

 

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I made the Lotusphere podcast

Today I was asked by Mr Stuart McIntyre to record an episode of the Lotusphere Podcast, which I was more than happy to do.

In episode 27, Stuart McIntyre speaks with Sharon Bellamy of Applicable Limited(a British IBM partner), about her experiences of Lotusphere 2011, her tips for newcomers, hopes for this year and more…

 

Download as an MP3 or OGG file.

If you would like to share your Lotusphere story – please drop the Lotusphere podcast a note – they would love to hear from you 🙂

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lotusphere tips site

All the talk of Lotusphere got me thinking (dangerous I know)

Last year I was a Lotusphere virgin – 2011 was my very first Lotusphere and I had no idea what to expect – other than what my good friend Mr Stuart McIntyre had told me and some of the lovely people I follow on twitter.

I,  of course, thought they were exaggerating the long days, the walking, the late nights, the social aspect of it – after all it’s just a tech conference – right ?

O my how I was wrong … It was like no other conference I have ever been to – and it was amazing.

So last year I did a bit of research into Lotusphere before I went. I found a few guides and some tips on the interwebs, but it was all over the place – so this year I have decided to attempt to pull some of that information into one place.

I have made a very simple (so simple it is just flat html) site of  Lotusphere Tips  – which I have put up for the time being on my web space. It may not stay here, but I am all for creating a lotusphere tips and guides place for people to go when they want information about non-technical conference stuff like :

I need to share a cab (Use the @lotuscab twitter account)
Come on why does everyone say get comfortable shoes?
how do I get to Disney from the airport?
what is this Kimono’s place anyway?

I am sure that most of this will end up on the Lotusphere podcast page and maybe in the Community site when we get one – a wiki would be good, then the whole community can add information.

But this is my first stab at it – as I am still a Lotusphere newbie it can be tough not knowing where to go for info and what to expect, just trying to help some fellow newbies out 🙂

If anyone has any tips, guides or info that I can add – give me a shout and I will add it on

Thanks for being an awesome community

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well the lotusphere abstracts are open then

Later than we were expecting the call for the Lotusphere 2012 abstracts are now open :

Lotusphere 2012 – Call for Abstracts

You only have until the application deadline: Sunday, November 6th 2011 so not long at all ..

This years tracks  :

Jump Starts & Master Class Sessions:
Audience: Developers, system administrators and technologists, IT managers of all levels

Track 2: Technology for Collaboration Solutions : Infrastructure & Deployment:
Audience: System administrators, IT managers and integrators of all levels

Track 3: Technology for Collaboration Solutions : Application Development
Audience: Developers, system architects of all levels

Track 4: Best Practices:
Audience: Business leaders and IT managers, application developers, system administrators and integrator

Track 5: Customer case studies
Audience: Business leaders and IT managers

Show ‘n Tell:
Audience: Developers and administrators of all levels

SpeedGeeking!:
Audience: Any and all Lotusphere attendees

Lotusphere IDOL:
Audience: Any and all Lotusphere attendees

Birds of a Feather Sessions:
Audience: Any and all Lotusphere attendees

The Lotus Evangelist Customer Panel:
Audience: Any and all Lotusphere attendees

Business Development Day:
Audience: Business partners
Business Development Day is a one day track all its own exclusively for IBM Business Partners.

IBM Connect 2012:
Audience: Business leaders & Busines-savvy technical leaders
This event is a separate conference that runs in parallel to Lotusphere for two days.

So thinking caps on people and I hope we get some great sessions this time around

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social connections 2 registration open

SOCIAL CONNECTIONS II NOW SCHEDULED!!

 

The second Social Connections event will take place on 9th December 2011 at Cardiff University in central Cardiff, Wales.

 

We are delighted that our next event is now in the diary and organising the details of the event continues apace.  Registration is open and we are seeking speakers from around the world.

 

For more details of the Social Connections II event, check out the details and then register.  We also have a number of FAQs already answered.  If you have more questions though, please don’t hesitate to ask!

 

If you want to check out how the Social Connections I event went, head over to our Lanyrd page – there’s some great content available!