Uh Clem's Admin World

Here is a rough outline of my schedule for Lotusphere.  I don't list actual session numbers because it's just too hard to pick at this time.  I do know I'll be spending most of my time in ID and BP sessions.  I generally find the BP sessions more enjoyable because the speakers are generally better.  Some of the ID technical sessions get a little dry.   And to break up the routine I try to get to a few AD sessions.

Saturday - I get in around 4pm.  Once I get checked in at the Beach Club I'll head over to the Big River Brewery to join the B.A.L.D. gathering.  This will be my first time for this, and I can even say that I qualify as a member in both respects.   After that I'll head over to the ESPNZone for the Turtle gathering.  I've been going to this one for years.  It's great fun and a nice kick off to the event.  I even get some insider info about the show sometimes.
Sunday - I'll head over to registration, then hit some jumpstarts.  Then I have two private receptions to attend.  One hosted by my BP, the other by IBM honoring some of the companies that have fully upgraded to ND8.  I'm told my company's logo will appear on a slide in the OGS for this.  Yay!   Then, of course, off to the Sunday night reception party.  There is never enough seating to eat at this.  Also I tend to struggle to find people.  I just walk around until I find some folks I know having a good time.  Tip:  If you don't know anyone, pick a group of people and introduce yourself.  You MUST learn to mingle at Lotusphere.
Monday - First off the OGS.  I like to sit up front so I try to get there early.  Then my first 3 session time slots each have 3 sessions I want to see, so I will be torn right from the get go as to what to attend.  One of my must sees is the Buchan/Mooney gig (BP306).  These guys are true geek entertainers.  After the sessions I'll hit the product showcase reception.  The freebies are usually flowing pretty good here.  Then I may check out the IBM sponsored reception over at the Y&B.  I think they will have a casino set up.
Tuesday - Hitting the sessions hard.  Maybe a BOF or two.  Must hit BP207 because I need to learn WAS admin for my job.   After the sessions I'll head to the IBM Mid-Atlantic Customer Appreciation reception (invitation only I think).  This is a chance to meet other customers in my area.  I already know some of them.  Then it will be off to the Karaoke event at Kimonos at 7:30.   I have a feeling this will be a lot of fun.
Wednesday -  More BOFs (maybe), more sessions,  hit the showcase again.  It's about this time that I start to find time to hit the labs.  Tip:  Make sure you visit the labs!  I have a whole list of questions for the developer's lab.  Also,  I want to spend more time in the Innovations Lab this year.  Then it's off to Universal.  I haven't been to this half of Universal (the half that is NOT Islands of Adventure) in quite a while.   Last year I ended up hanging out with someone I met in the bus line, and we had a great time.  Again, if you don't have someone to go with, introduce yourself to someone and have a good time.
Thursday -  Catch up on some repeat sessions I missed.  Then I'll hit Gurupalooza.  This is where a bunch of BP's get up on stage and answer your questions.  Then it's the Ask the Developers session.  Here's an embarrasing secret:  I use to not go to this because I was not a developer!  Stupid me.  Tip:  If you are an admin, go to Ask the Developers!  It's where you get to yell at the product team and tell them to fix stuff and add features.  And, finally, the closing session.  This is usually just an entertainer, but it's usually pretty good.  My favorite was the Umbilical Brothers from 2001.   Also,  I'll be wrapping things up with something new this year.  The Blogger's Open.  A min-golf outing I've signed up for.  This should be fun.

Every year my family flies in on Thursday night and we play Friday and Saturday in the theme parks.  It's a great mid-winter break for everyone.
So hope everyone has a great Lotusphere.  Check out my Lotusphere Lore table on Wikipedia.  This has a summary of Lotusphere history.
Also,  PLEASE,  if you see me,  stop me, introduce yourself, and say hi.  I'd love to meet you and chat.  See you there.

If you want cut off more than half the distance of walking from the Yacht and Beach Club Resort Hotels to the Dolphin dining, here is a shortcut.  If you attended Lotusphere pre 9/11 then you may know about this path because it use to be an official path from the Dolphin meeting rooms over to the Y&B meeting rooms.   They never revived it after 9/11.

Starting at the Yacht Club lobby (green circle), go out the front of the Lobby (away from the lake) and turn left.  You will find yourself walking through an employee parking lot, then past a toll gate.  Once past that you will see the giant Dolphin conference wing in front of you.  Go to the right of that building.  Now you may need to go up a few doors (red circle) before the Disneybots will let you in one of the doors, but this beats going ALL the way round through the Dolphin lobby.

This path is also good if you are headed over to the Y&B meeting rooms from the Dolphin.


Hope this saves a few steps for some people.

I'll be taking AirTran flight 485 from BWI (Baltimore) to Orlando.  It arrives Saturday at 4:09pm.   If anyone is on my flight look me up.  If you happen to also be arriving around 4pm we can maybe find 3 of us to share a cab ride.  As of now I'm planning to use the Disney Express complimentary bus, but it is not as convenient.

I'm staying at the Beach Club resort.  Yeah that's on the opposite side of the lake, but I kinda like it over there, and I don't mind the walk.  If you are staying there too, a few of us have linked up to share the early morning walk over to the Dolphin.

Do you know the shortcut from the Yacht & Beach to breakfast?  You don't have to go ALL the way around through the Dolphin lobby.   Ping me and I'll tell you.  Better yet, join us for the walk over and I'll show you.

Well it was another great Lotusphere.   A lot of information to absorb.   Chef Alton Brown was pretty funny.  I didn't  really know who he was, but  I enjoyed him nonetheless.

So now I can take all that I learned home and digest it.  But first I need to get busy upgrading my infrastructure.  I've done Quickr.  Next up is Sametime, and get it to 8.  After that it's the Domino servers to 8.0.1.  Hopefully I get marching orders to get our Portal upgraded from 5.1 to 6-dot-latest.

I'm going to try to see what I can do to get Lotus Forms in here and get a proof of concept in place so I can show how much it can do for us.  If you are like us or internal forms are all still paper-based.  Amazing.  There is SO much Forms can do for us.

Time to play for a few days now.  The family is flying in tonight to join me.  For any of those folks bringing their families down DURING Lotusphere.....DON'T DO IT.  You will regret it.  Have them down either before, or after the conference.