There has been a tradition for a few years now that the blogging community takes the stage after the CGS for a photo, this is the first year I was able to participate in this photo taken by Volker.   Have you ever tried to take a large group photo?  Have you ever actually been able to get everyone to smile at the same time?  Quite a bit has been and is still being written about how great this years Lotusphere was, but just take a look at the faces in the photo, every one of them with a huge smile…. as they say a picture is worth a thousand words

I think it is safe to say we can now call it the first annual Blogger Open.  Following the CGS about 65 people headed over to the Disney Fantasia Minature Golf Course for the Blogger Open.  Apparently sleep deprivation, alcohol and miniature golf is a combination that really works as everyone had a great time.  We even had a special guest appearance at the Blogger Open from Curious George Here is my team at the Open Special thanks to our sponsor Conxsys’s nsfRewind for Lotus Notes for helping make this a terrific event. Congratulations to our winners: Individual Lowest Score: Gregg Eldred who shot a 40 Individual Highest Score: Lisa Duke with a 67 Best team average score:John Head, Sarah Frey, Bill Machinsky, The Turtle, Carol Deovlet, Ted Hardenburgh (I think this was the team someone correct me if I am wrong) Thanks to Gregg Eldred for doing all the math, and to Declan who came to heckle and took lots of pictures with my camera for me. You can see all my photos from the Open in this Flickr Set (I hope to have more to add later this week)

I am sitting at Gate 4 in MCO at 5 AM waiting for my flight home close to being awake for 24 hours and reflecting on the week that just ended.  It will certainly take a few days to decompress and be able to coherently write a comprehensive wrap up post, but needless to say it was an incredible week, from Saturday night at ESPN, Jumpstart sessions on Sunday, The Turtles memorable session before the welcome reception, the OGS (and our unique seating arrangement), attending and presenting various sessions, meetings, walking around the various labs.  Yesterdays closing session really put a cap on the week with an incredible performance from Ben Zander.

Following the CGS about 60 of us headed over to the Fantasia Mini-Golf course for the Blogger Open (blogger open wrap up and pictures coming soon as well).

Most importantly I enjoyed the opportunity to spend time in person with all the people in the incredible Lotus Community, catching up with old friends, connecting with people previously only known as Twitter avatars, and meeting new people allt together.

Some Lotusphere Thank Yous

First off my wife who keeps things going at home, which this year included being home herself with three kids, and understanding that some days a five minute call home was all the time I had.

My parents who left the relatively warmer South Florida and  travelled up north and were able to help my wife for part of the week.

My employer who even in tough economic times recognizes the value in sending me to Lotusphere

My Co-Presenters Chris Whisonant and John Lance (OK they did start a support group for Mitch’s co-presenters, but I don’t really know what that was all about)

The presenters of the other sessions I attended or downloaded the slides from, having presented sessions for the first time this year, I now have a much deeperappreciation for the time and effort it takes to prepare.

The track managers who gave me a chance to present The IBMers who are there to listen, at times take abuse, and accept criticism, mostly with a smile, and in my experience are really interested in the feedback, and take it back to work on.

IBM (especially Erica Topolski and Ed Brill) for running the Bloggers Program and giving me the opportunity to be a part of it I am sure I am forgetting someone, I assure you it is unintentional.

Now it is time to head home and back to reality which means doing things like figuring out what day of the week it is, what the date is, what is going on in the world that doesn’t have to do with Lotus Collaboration tools, and getting back to work. While it was an incredible week in every which way I am glad to be headed home to see my family.  For those I don’t happen to see before then, will see you on January 16, 2010 at ESPN.

Winding down a very busy day 4 at Lotusphere and looking forward to a few hours of sleep and the big finish tomorrow. I started the day at a BOF facilitated by Gregg Eldred and Duffbert “Getting Social in the Lotus Community”.  Gregg and Duffbert came prepared with a good topic list which led to a lively discussion about Bleedyellow, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, PlanetLotus and other tools people use to connect. Very interesting to talk to other people and learn new ways they use the same tools that I am using, and interesting discussion on the importance of building and maintaining networks. Next up was the Social Computing Keynote After a brief meeting it was time to go in to session prep mode for SHOW302 Getting your feet wet with Lotus Connections, despite a few technical glitches, Chris and I were able to get through our 400 slides and complete a full Lotus Connections installation in one hour forty five minutes.  Here is our servers being moved from the Dolphin to the Swan for the session. Following SHOW302 I had 20 minutes to get back to the Dolphin and present ID105 with John Lance.  Even though Mary Beth called me a cheater, I though the session went well.  From there it was off to film a quick video with Suzanne Minnasian (and do check her blog for lots of great Lotus Connections 2.5 information), and then a meeting on Quickr Next with the GCPC and the Quickr Product management team. After a quick round trip between the Dolphin and the Yacht to drop my bag and pick up a jacket it was off to Universal Studios, on the t Lotus 911 bus.  Went on the Terminator 2, Simpsons, and Shrek rides, the Simpsons ride was really amazing (and slightly nauseating), but I did get to meet Marge. It was COLD out there tonight somewhere in the low 30’s, but cold is much better then when it has rained on Lotusphere Wednesday. So much more to write about that is just going to have to wait until I have had some sleep. Looking forward to tomorrow and GURUPalooza, Ask the Developers, and the Closing General Session, followed of course by the blogger open.

Live from the Social Software Keynote (will be adding photos later) Jeff Schick on stage kicking off the session, Jeff is talking about Social Software leading to increased productivity.  Working smarter by focusing on tasks not on tools, Giving examples of Lotus Connections at IBM and embedding of components of connections in various applications.   Ian Haynes of HSBC  is now taking the stage to talk about collaboration at HSBC, his job is to change the way they work. HSBC has 9,500 offices in 85 countires with 300,000+ employees worldwide.  In their industry peoples first instinct is to keep data confidential, so it is a real change in culture to get people to share information openly..  HSBC determined that Lotus Connections best met their needs to connect people.  Liked the modular approach to the features, and the ability to implement widgets.  Adoption is spreading virally.  While difficult to calculate formal ROI many examples of value coming out of Social Software.  Social Software is driving culture change by connection people in common interests.  Example HSBC has been interested in being “Green” before it was fashionable.  Now they have a way of connecting people leading “green” efforts around the world.  Concentrate on what you are trying to achieve not the technology.  People will adapr at different speeds.  Have people start blogging today, get in the habit, don’t worry who is reading initially.  Populate your profiles data as much as possible from corporate systems to provide value early on. Guy Alvarez of the Practising Law Institue.  Lawyers are required to participate in continuing education, PLI offers 260+ Seminars a year Live, Streamed, On-demand.  Guy is focused on innovative new ways to deliver training. Goals were to connect people, enable blogs, and chatting and went out to look for the right solution.  First discovery most vendors did not list very well. Narrowed the field from four to two contenders with Lotus being selected.. While the interaction is social, PLIs membership is distinct and limited and uses the system for very specific interactions.  Profiles allows customers to connect with faculty and peers before sessions and maintain the connection after sessions. Randy Reynolds. of Success Factors 2400 customers, 4 million users, 60 industries 185 countries, 31 languages 14 product modules. Partnering with IBM to integrate Lotus Connections to connect employees, share knowledge.  Embedding Connections in Success Factors and Success Factors in Connections driving efficiency by allowing people to work contextually Jeff is back on stage now,  For those of you who remember last years American Idol spoof… well this year we are watching Business Survivor (Jeff..”if this fails my next job is in smartsuite technical support” The Survivor Tribes are the Gibe Tirbe, The Flare Point Tribe and here comes Suzanne from the Lotus Tribe to demo Connections 2.5, OK so Business Survivor clearly lacks the suspense of Survivor,   Suzanne is now demoing Lotus Connections in the browser on the iPhone, much like iNotes ultralite captures the native look and feel of an iPhone application in the browser.  Next demo is Connections/Success Factors integration. Jeff Shick as Jeff Probst… Classic goes to extinguish torches of the Gibe and Flarepoint tribes. End of keynote more later.