Lotusphre 2012 - The end of an era?
Category Lotusphere 2012
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This was number five for me. I started writing this in Orlando, and I sat on it for a few weeks wondering if I should really post this. But I think it needs to be said.
If I was going to sum up this year's Lotusphere in one sentence, I would say that yellow should be added to the endangeredspecies colours list. At this year's gathering
of the bumble bees (not really), yellow was drowning in the sea of blue,
black and every other colour. The backpack was all black, yellow only on
the inside (thanks IBM, we got the message). Lotusphere's bottled water
labels were white. Maybe it was just me, but it seemed like there were
more people wearing blue badges (IBMers) and purple badges (partners) than
yellow badges (actual customers). Interestingly enough, customers' badges
were still yellow... Did someone forget to change them?
I also heard through the grapevine that the attendance this year was really low. This was evident in particular at the Welcoming Reception on Sunday. There were actually empty tables on the beach and in the pool area. I have been to four Lotuspheres before and do not remember seeing empty tables before.
Then, there was this thing with the name. It seems that IBM is dropping "Lotus" not just from the names of their products. Although this year's conference was still called Lotusphere (apparently there was a big debate about this at the top), it does not take an oracle to predict that next year it will most likely be called something else. And we were already introduced to the new name this year, although nobody dared to say it on record just yet. Lotus, and especially Lotus Notes and Domino, were no longer the stars of the Lotusphere. This year, IBMLotus Connections, took the centre stage.
Being a die-hard Notes fanatic, I could hardly find any sessions that were
geared towards audiences like me. I felt like a yellow dinosaur attending
EverythingElseAndNotMuchLotusPhere. I wonder if people didn't submit any
proposals, or if they did and perhaps were turned down?
Finally, I knew that something was really wrong when I came to the Gurupalooza session and there was no crowd on the hallway waiting to storm into the room as soon as the doors open. I really miss those days. Ten minutes until the start of the presentation the room was not even 20% full. That was really depressing. Once the session started, there were still way too many empty seats left. The tone of the session was different too. Although it was still very funny and insightful, you can sense some desperation among the people on the stage. I mean just look at Paul... His face says it all: "That water just doesn't taste the same...."
Bookmark :
This was number five for me. I started writing this in Orlando, and I sat on it for a few weeks wondering if I should really post this. But I think it needs to be said.
If I was going to sum up this year's Lotusphere in one sentence, I would say that yellow should be added to the endangered
I also heard through the grapevine that the attendance this year was really low. This was evident in particular at the Welcoming Reception on Sunday. There were actually empty tables on the beach and in the pool area. I have been to four Lotuspheres before and do not remember seeing empty tables before.
Then, there was this thing with the name. It seems that IBM is dropping "Lotus" not just from the names of their products. Although this year's conference was still called Lotusphere (apparently there was a big debate about this at the top), it does not take an oracle to predict that next year it will most likely be called something else. And we were already introduced to the new name this year, although nobody dared to say it on record just yet. Lotus, and especially Lotus Notes and Domino, were no longer the stars of the Lotusphere. This year, IBM
Finally, I knew that something was really wrong when I came to the Gurupalooza session and there was no crowd on the hallway waiting to storm into the room as soon as the doors open. I really miss those days. Ten minutes until the start of the presentation the room was not even 20% full. That was really depressing. Once the session started, there were still way too many empty seats left. The tone of the session was different too. Although it was still very funny and insightful, you can sense some desperation among the people on the stage. I mean just look at Paul... His face says it all: "That water just doesn't taste the same...."
