After about seven hours of sleep – can somebody explain to me, why I don’t need an alarm clock at a interesting conference – I was ready for Lotusphere day zero. Sunday traditionally is „Business Development Day” but there are also some hands on labs open and several Jump-Start sessions before the conference official beginns with the party at night.

I started the day with getting my conference badge, bag and assorted informations. On the way to the registration desk I met Jörg Knippschild, my second partner in the 2004 IBM Lotus After Business Event in Vienna.

I started the day with a „coffe” and some breakfest from the bakery on Disney’s BoardWalk. Sitting in the sun (21°C, 93% humidity), sipping my „coffee” I started to plan my sessions for the day. As I allready missed the first, I had some time to look through all the information and to talk to several collegues from Austria.

After my second coffee, this time the much better Starbucks-Coffee, served by IBM, and equipped with several bottles of water and a sweatshirt (you won’t belive, how cold it is inside those meeting-rooms) I started my workday. At least I tried to do. The Business Partner Day opening session ended 15 minutes late and the hotel stuff had to turn one room into two and replace a round table set into chair rows – which they accomplisched in record time.

My first session was „JMP201 Java Jumpstart for the IBM Lotus Domino Developer” by Thomas Duff and Julian Robichaux. Not much „new” stuff there but a good primer for all you guys and dolls who want to start coding Java-stuff for Notes.

Duffbert and Julian gave a lively and entertaining presentation, utilizing (amongst other things) a supersoaker and a light saber.

They also gave away over 70 books - I won O’Reillys „Java Cookbook” by Ian F. Darwin. The slides, samples, and demo shows are allready available.

My second session was „JMP204 The Hitchhikers Guide to Microsoft Office Integration with IBM Lotus Notes and Domino” by John Head and Alex Kassabov. Interessting session, I took away some nice ideas, hints and caveats regarding MS Office and Notes. Slides and demos should be up shortly.
John also has a session on Wednesday: „Extreme Integration - Techniques for Advanced Integration of Office and OpenOffice with IBM Lotus Notes and Domino”. Let’s see if I can attend that one.

Last session of the day was Gabriella Davis’ „JMP102 An Introduction To All Things IBM Lotus Domino Clustering”. As an administrator at heart I really enjoyed this session and also took away a few interessting tipps.

Gabriella of „The Turtle Partnership” really knew her stuff and even offered me to take a look at a cluster-problem, I am trying to solve. No slides so far.

The party in the evening was OK for an american party with american beer where they start removinge the food one hour before the end of the party. And when the americans say „party 6-9” you can bet that the party ands at leatest at 9:05. Due to my lingering headache, I left the party a little early after some „interessting” chats – watch this space! ;)

I also needed the „free” time to fix Trillian (my Thinkpad). For some unknown reason, I wasn’t able to activate the WLAN-card. I had to remove and reinstall the drivers to fix this strange prblem. Thanks to IBMs/Lenovos wonderfull ThinkVantage Software, this was done quite fast – if it wasn’t for the reboots.

I also tried to work out a schedule for the next two days. If you are at Lotusphere and have never heard about it – take a look at Genii Software’s Lotusphere Agenda Database. Is is unbelivable helpfull to plan your personal Lotusphere agenda. Amongst other things it has a button to transfer an entry into your personal calendar – very handy. My schedule for monday now looks like that (subject to change):

BTW - WLAN-coverage is so good, I still have access to the network in my room at the 19th floor. Quite handy to blog from your room. So I dont’t have to sit in the atrium of the hotel.

Tagged as: Ein_Tag_im_Leben, IBM, Lotus, Lotusphere2006, Notes, orlando, travel | Author: Martin Leyrer
[Montag, 20060123, 06:08 | permanent link | 0 Kommentar(e)