Kathleen McGivney

Announcing the Tri-State Lotus User Group

As Mitch Cohen, Jim Casale, and Ed Brill have already mentioned today, we're happy to announce the relaunch of the New York Metro Lotus User Group, now renamed the Tri-State Lotus User Group. The kickoff meeting for the relaunch of the user group is on Thursday, April 21 at 6:00 PM at the IBM facility at 590 Madison Avenue in New York City. Ed Brill and Carl Tyler will be our featured speakers at this event. Registration and networking will begin at 5:30 PM, and there will be light refreshments and giveaways. As Jim mentioned, we're also running a logo design contest and the winner will be announced (and receive a prize) at the meeting.

We plan to hold quarterly meetings around the tri-state (NY/NJ/CT) area to accommodate more people, and we will be running an annual full-day meeting that will be like a mini-conference - multiple tracks, lots of guest speakers, vendor giveaways, lunch and snacks included - all FREE to attendees.

Registration is open for the April 21st meeting, so please register if you'd like to attend. The meeting is in three weeks, so please feel free to pass this information on to as many people as possible! We hope to see you there!

My Lotusphere Schedule

I've been knee-deep in Lotusphere preparations, as well as a little R&R riding roller coasters before Lotusphere starts. I'll be speaking at a number of sessions this year, which I've detailed in this handy list, but if you really want the goods on the sessions you should check out the Genii Software Lotusphere Sessions Database. There are also a number of sessions I'm hoping to attend this year, some of which I'll be liveblogging, livetweeting, or photoblogging. So expect a ridiculous amount of updates more updates than usual this week.

My speaking schedule:

Sunday, January 18: JMP102 IBM Lotus Domino Administrator Jumpstart, Swan 7-10, 1:30-3:30 PM
Tuesday, January 20: GEEK102 Nerd Girl - Making Geek Chic, Swan Mockingbird, 11:15 AM -12:15 PM
Tuesday, January 20: GEEK101 Speedgeeking, Dolphin Pacific Hall, 6-7:30 PM
Wednesday, January 21: BP211 Managing Your IBM Lotus Domino Clusters, Swan 5-6, 11:15 AM - 12:15 PM
Wednesday, January 21: BP210 Making the Most of the Administration Process, Swan 5-6, 3:00-4:00 PM
Wednesday, January 21: BOF415 Nerd Girl - Making Geek Chic Roundtable, Swan Toucan II, 5:45-6:45 PM
Thursday, January 22: GURU101 GURUPalooza, Swan 5-10, 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM

Stop by my sessions and say hi or just stop me if you see me in the hallways!

Into the belly of the beast

As you know, Thursday was my last day at IBM Lotus. I will be posting a bit more detail about my new company and the services we offer in a few days, but first, I have to tell you about what I did on Thursday night.

I was at dinner a few weeks ago with Mary Jo Foley and she mentioned that she was going to be a judge at a competition for technical speakers called "Speaker Idol". Due to my experience speaking at Lotusphere and attending similar speaking competitions, she thought I'd be a great addition to the judging panel, so I agreed to do it. The event in question? A Microsoft .Net Developers Group meeting. Inside a Microsoft building.

Eek!

I have to admit, I was a little nervous walking into a room full of .Net developers, but the organizers, attendees, speakers, and other judges couldn't have been more inviting and pleasant. The speakers were great and the judging was fun. Also, as it turns out, entering a Microsoft building as an ex-Lotus employee will not, in fact, cause one to burst into flames. Who knew?

Lest anyone think that I am running out Lotus/IBM's door straight into the open, willing arms of their main messaging and collaboration competitor, not to worry. I still plan on remaining independent for the foreseeable future. This being my own boss thing is pretty sweet.

Plus, I just officially migrated to a Mac. I'm pretty sure that's like Kryptonite to Microsoft people, right?

Photos of the new Mac after the jump.