Good and bad at Lotusphere 2009
by Volker Weber
Just a short list of things on my mind. YMMV:
- Good: seeing all those familiar faces in a great mood. I once was at the Dolphin outside of Lotusphere. It looks dead.
- Bad: too cold this year. I even skipped the party.
- Good: Lotus seems to have an excellent General Manager who appears to be approachable and listens.
- Bad: General Manager needs to learn when he has answered a question. :-)
- Good: free Wi-Fi at the conference.
- Bad: Wi-Fi does not work. Network constantly overloaded.
- Good: IBM invites Ye Olde Faithful bloggers. Silly segmentation though between blogger and press/analyst*.
- Bad: worst press track in years. Spokespeople don't show up, or can't answer questions. Last minute agenda changes distributed by leaving an envelope at the concierge.
- Good: providing bloggers with special seating.
- Bad: leaving them without a network cable on a faulty Wi-Fi network.
- Good: free Wi-Fi at Orlando International Airport.
- Bad: few power outlets at Orlando International Airport.
- Good: bringing a wireless router to share in-room internet access across rooms.
- Bad: being charged $7.50 on top of room charge.
- Good: providing photos of Lotusphere spokespeople.
- Bad: not providing decent screenshots without lossy compression.
Small piece of advice for owners of small consumer cameras: turn off the flash when taking pictures of screens and displays. Don't assume you can illuminate a large room. Don't post pictures of people stuffing their face, holding alcoholic beverages, drunks, or those making a fool of themselves. Capture the moment with your heart, but not with your camera. If you need to use the camera, keep the pictures for yourself.
Aside from the Wi-Fi issues, Lotusphere - just - works. It's a great conference. I don't think you can make it much better.
*) Bonus points if you can spot login credentials for Lotusphere Online. Harrummph. Wink, wink.
Comments
And the reason it - just - works: Sandra Marcus and her staff.
Thank you for taking the time to explain the Sonos to me and also for your patience explaining what it requires to take a good picture. I hope to one day be half the photographer you are. :-)
On the photographer thing, it's the one-eyed leading the blind. Trust me on that. :-)
Bad: too cold this year.
I would like to add to that: "Bad: too cold outside AND inside this year."
Many of the rooms we're just way too cold especially the showcase ballroom.
they did get cables to the bean bags by the way because i had one.
I agree about the wi-fi it was spotty this year.
Good list, Vowe -- if a bit short. Also good advice on the picture taking. I'm one of those with a cheap shirt pocket camera and I do try to pay attention to turning off the flash and so on.
I always have my camera but rarely take it out and take pictures. It takes me out of the moment and I prefer to be there with what's happening.
I was *in* one of the bean bag chairs and didn't get a cable as they were out by the time I had passed other ones down the row...
Michael, A/C is a luxury that has to "show off". :-)
Keith, you may call it spotty. I call it broken. Networks are broken, if you have to deal with them at all.
Andrew, make it longer.
Orbit downloader also does a great job at downloading all the files!
