Ed Brill writes
about the need for a Lotusphere in Europe/Elsewhere (the title only mentions Europe, but the rest of the post mentions Asia Pac and the cancelled Lotus Fusion that used to be held in Australia).
I don't want to write a lot about this - just a few quick comments based on my own personal observations and experience;
- That's a very long way to say "No"
- Ed seems to get a bit angry and defensive at the comparisons to TechEd. I feel that those comparisons are quite valid. I don't think the line that "Microsoft has a broader product line" really sits too well with me. I think I can say this because I attended both a TechEd and a Microsoft Connect event last year - The Connect event had a very narrow focus, it cost NZ$99, and it had an attendance that was probably over 10 times that of ANY IBM event I've ever attended in New Zealand. That didn't look like a broader product line to me, it looked like a lot of people who were seriously interested in hearing about the product.
- I can't help contrast the above events with the "IBM Forum" I attended in 2005, where the Notes/Domino 7 launch was held in a room that was under 1/4 full - the highlight of which was a customer who took the launch at his chance to complain about his company's current Domino issues and plead for some assistance (think I'm making this up?). Oh, and the same guy winning the yellow boxing gloves was a nice touch too.
- I attended a Lotus Fusion one year (from memory, 1999) and indeed it was a much more positive experience. It felt like great things were afoot, and they were - this was the launch of R5, so there were cool Denis Leary videos and everything was good with the world. Compared to that, last years Forum felt like I was visiting a ghost town (albeit a ghost town which had an abundant supply of Laxative mints and cheap coffee).
Finally, one of the comments to Ed's post reads:
I think @30 got it right. Microsoft is killing IBM in the Australian market, and I think a big factor has to be lack of an annual IBM brand event where some serious networking, brand building and product awareness can happen.
Now that the message from IBM on Workplace is becoming more clear and R7 has been delivered it is the right time to ride the momentum and have a big event that covers Lotus, DB, Websphere, Tivoli and Rational.
This is very true, and it's happening in New Zealand too. Yes, IBM has events in New Zealand, however they always feel like they're aimed at the business partners - not the current or potential customers. That's important. It's about momentum. If you're reading local publications looking for local stories about local businesses doing cool things then you're statistically more likely to read about products which are either innovating the most or have the biggest installation base. If you're not getting a lot of this type of press (and Notes/Domino/Workplace hasn't seemed to) then holding some high profile local events is a good way to show people what your product is about.
Or, you could get a bunch of business partners in a room, feed them coffee, and let them slap each others backs for using IBM products.
Technorati tags: Lotus, Notes, Domino, Lotusphere