vowe dot net :: Been there, done that, did not get the T-shirt

Been there, done that, did not get the T-shirt

by Volker Weber

Received this e-mail:

From: evaluation@online2004.com
Subject: Lotusphere 2004 Conference Evaluation
Date: 27. Januar 2004 21:12:44 GMT-05:00
To: vowe@vowe.de
Reply-To: evaluation@online2004.com

New This Year! Online Conference Evaluation Form

This year we are offering the Overall Conference Evaluation Form online. All you need to do is go to the following URL and click on "Online Survey". When prompted please enter your six digit numeric user name, (in the lower right hand side of your badge), and complete the form. Be sure to click on the submit button when you are finished.

Once the form has been submitted, beginning at 1PM on Wednesday, proceed to Australia 3 in the Dolphin Convention Foyer. The customer service representatives will scan your badge and confirm that we have received your evaluation and in return you will receive a Lotusphere 2004 T-shirt.

We appreciate your feedback which helps us to improve Lotusphere each year.

Went to the provided URL and filled out a questionaire with 28 questions, which took about 10 minutes. Now comes the interesting part:

Be sure to click on the submit button when you are finished.

For some reason there is no submit button on the form. May be a "you have to use Internet Explorer" problem. So I take this to the people who give out the T-shirts. The guy is not interested at all. He looks at my badge and says:

"Press does not get a T-shirt."

2004-01-29 :: email :: bookmark :: digg

Comments

He sounds about as engaged as the Disneybots...

Julian’s coffee experience.

Ben Poole, 2004-01-29 12:07

Been there, done that (with Firebird, NOT Internet Exploder), got the t-shirt...
The submit button was kind of hard to find at the very left lower corner of the screen, about at least half a screen page below the end of the survey. Might be even more on smaller resolutions.
But: You didn't miss out on much not getting the t-shirt. The print is in colors I wouldn't want to wear in public, probably not even in private in the dark ;-)

So long (still in FL),

Ragnar Schierholz, 2004-01-29 15:59

Yes, the "submit" link was pretty hard to find.

I also have to echo Ben's comment about the poor design, and also have to add-- What is the deal with only offering XL t-shirts? This renders the t-shirt unwearable for me, and kind of takes away from the point. I mean, it wouldn't be very hard to have some large and medium for those of us that could wear an XL as a smock.

Besides that, i'm not looking forward to heading back to Winnipeg, MB, CANADA later today, where my wife informs me that it's currently -38°C (-37°F)! Ouch!

Dave Lehman, 2004-01-29 16:20

Found the submit "button". It is NOT a button, but a link on the black bar that looks like a status area.

And someone at IBM was really smart to make sure they can save a few dozen T-shirts. :-)

Volker Weber, 2004-01-29 17:29

I hope the show itself was a bit more audience-focused. How about an overview for the non-trekkers? Most Lotusphere 'blogs tend a bit too much to 'clubiness' - an informed critical look would be interesting.

David Richardson, 2004-01-29 17:33

David, besides having this site, I am also a professional writer and I am currently in the process of writing up a few pages about the Sphere. In German. Yes, I have my own insights, but I am currently not bringing them to the table here. I can only do so many things in one day.

Volker Weber, 2004-01-29 17:44

I am press, and I got a t-shirt after filling out the questionary (and finding the link hidden at the bottom).

Volker, hope you had a safe trip back to Germany!

Karl Martinsson, 2004-01-29 19:04

Thanks, Karl, out trip was overall very pleasant. As pleasant as it can be with a nine hour flight in monkey class. :-)

On my way out of Lotusphere I met Ken Bisconti and told him the joke about the T-shirt folks. I would not be surprised if he fixed that right away ...

XL shirts are too small for me anyway. I just found this to be too funny.

Volker Weber, 2004-01-29 19:16