Lotusphere 2009: What makes a Good Lotusphere Abstract?
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Every year I make a series of posts that help people submit abstracts to Lotusphere, and then if you're accepted I post another article about what it takes to be a good "technical" speaker. This post is the first of these - Abstract Suggestions - wherein I give suggestions for abstract submissions. I felt that it would be good to post these posts every year - to help anyone who is new to Lotusphere, or submitting abstracts and speaking, and and to help remind those who are "old timers" - and to refresh them a bit every year. Well, here's the Lotusphere 2009 edition of "What makes a Good Lotusphere Abstract?".
What are we looking for?
I am the "Best Practices Track Consultant" for the Best Practices track, and I am working with Mac Guidera this year on the Best Practices track; so I am going to give suggestions for the Best Practices track, but I can't speak for all track managers. I can give you some insight into what Mac and I are looking for in the Best Practices tracks, and I am sure that other tracks will be looking for similar topic areas to be covered. Let's begin by taking a look at the track descriptions again:
Best Practices
In a world where you're required to know everything about everything, and business as usual is anything but, you need solutions that can be used today -- from the best minds in the Lotus Community. The 2009 Best Practices track is here to deliver the tools you need to get things done! This track will meet your 'get it done now on a reduced budget demands' with tips, tricks, and quick maneuvers that you can take back to your organization for immediate rescue and relief. With the sessions in this track, you'll return better and stronger in IBM Lotus Sametime development and management, IBM WebSphere Portal, IBM Lotus Quickr, IBM Lotus Connections, and IBM Lotus Notes and Domino systems. This track has the power to provide you with the confidence needed to take on high end-user productivity and innovative IT solutions, giving you the key to solve today's complexity of collaborative applications.
Best Practices (BP) sessions are designed to provide the attendee with tips, tricks, techniques, etc. from real-world experience. We leave the intro and theory stuff to the other tracks, such as App Dev and Infrastructure. And while we'll be sure to cover Lotus Notes/Domino, we will also provide the information you need to master the most popular Lotus applications. Additionally there has been a substantial interest in Admin sessions over the past few years, so we will continue to pay particular interest to the Admin side of the track. This track is a haven for those of you who have some kickass trick, tip, kludge, etc. to get your work done - this is the place to show it off and share your knowledge with your peers, garnering their adulation and undying gratitude.
When this track began we tended to focus primarily on Lotus Notes/Domino. But now you have so many products available from Lotus to help your organization be as productive as possible, which means that you want to know the best tips and tricks for those products as well. So, we would like to see a mix of "old and new" - I want to have a mix of sessions on the stuff that is widely deployed (Notes/Domino 6.5.x and 7.x, etc.), but I also want to see some BP sessions on the new product releases, especially how to best take advantage of the new features in Notes/Domino 8, how to get the most out of new products such as Lotus Connections, Lotus Quickr, etc.
In the past I had to rely on my own instincts, but mostly I relied on input from you, the Lotus community, to assemble a Best Practices track that was as useful and interesting as possible. Now, we have other ways to determine what you would like to see - and Mac has written about it on his blog.
Mac had a fantastic idea - he has worked with Bruce from Elguji Software to add a special category for LS09 Best Practice Session ideas at IdeaJam. Go read about this great new idea over there - go now. I'll wait...
OK, you're back? Great! So, as Mac said this category at IdeaJam is a way for the community to give us hints about what they'd like to see at Lotusphere; but I also think there's another great use for this as well. Let's say you are thinking of submitting a session, but you're not sure if the topic would be interesting to the community - well, post it on IdeaJam and see what the community thinks!
But don't let that be your only guide - remember that there is a much bigger audience out there that have a wide variety of tastes and needs when it comes to Lotusphere sessions. So, regardless of how your IdeaJam idea goes, you may want to submit a session anyway - but how should you do that? Now let's take a look at what makes a good abstract...
What makes a good abstract?
When you are composing your abstract(s), let me make a few recommendations:
- In the case of submitting abstracts, less is NOT more. More is more, to an extent. You should submit early and often - but keep in mind that what you submit should be good quality submissions. Don't just throw anything at us; make sure it is something you'd want to see. So, the basic suggestion is to send us ALL of your good session ideas, but not everything that happens to pop into your head. In the big picture we would much rather have too many abstracts to choose from than too few, because you never know what we're going to be looking for. So, any good idea you come up with, please submit it - not to mention the more interesting ones you submit, the better chance you have of being selected!
- Your abstract should convey, in a clear and concise manner, exactly what you plan to cover. Also, if it is relevant, try to let the reader know what the target audience is - administrators? developers? newbies? experts? Llama herders? (wait, that's for a different conference...
) - Your abstract should be interesting to read - it should "sell" your session. Your abstract should be less like a college course description and more like a paperback novel synopsis. You can be entertaining, but don't try to get too cutesy - that is very irritating - remember we're reading hundreds of these things, and the more cutesy (read: annoyingly stupid) ones we get the worse our mood gets. The most important thing is to convey what you're going to be covering, in an interesting way, without being too funny. It is a fine line, but I am sure you can do it. If in doubt, run the abstract by some of your geek friends and ask them if it sounds like a session they would want to attend, or put it in the LS09 Best Practice Session ideas category at IdeaJam.
- The title of your session should convey what the session is about. You can be creative, but once again it is more important to give good information than be entertaining. Your title should let the attendee know what to expect - a title that doesn't communicate at least the overall subject area of the session is less likely to be attended.
- When you write your abstract, make sure that the material you are covering is rich enough to fill an hour - and that's a full 60 minutes. We are sticking with the 60 minute format for sessions, with the Q&A session afterward in a "Chat with the Speaker" room. So, please make sure that your information fills the entire 60 minutes. Attendees don't like attending sessions that end really early or really late, and I can't tell you how many times someone has either ended WAY early or WAY late. If you want to positively impress us for possible selection next year, hit the 60 minute mark.
- Make sure your topic is narrow enough to be effectively covered in 60 minutes, but not so narrow that your potential audience is small. For instance, a session on integrating Domino with Visual COBOL wouldn't be that great, but a session on integrating Domino with various SQL servers would be good.
- Don't think a topic is too basic, or too advanced. Remember, Lotusphere is a big show, and there are attendees of all experience levels and interests. Some of the best sessions are very basic, while there are also quite a few that are really advanced, yet very popular. If the topic helps people solve a problem, or do something better/easier/faster, then it is probably a good topic. And this goes back to the earlier suggestion - let us, the content team, decide what will be on the agenda - don't cut yourself from being considered before you've even submitted the abstract.
- One more thing about size - I find there is a karmic balance between articles/whitepapers and sessions. Typically if a topic warrants a whitepaper or article, it is a topic that would make a good session. Additionally there seems to be a cosmic correlation between article length and session length. The length of the average article tends to be about the right amount of information for a great 60 minute session. So, if you've written an article, whitepaper, blog entry, etc. in the last year that was popular, it would probably make a good session - and you should submit it, and include a link to the source article if possible.
- This is for prior Lotusphere speakers: We want to have as many new topics or ideas as possible. If you have spoken for Lotusphere in the BP track in the last 2-3 years, then you are much more likely to be considered for a session this year if you submit new, creative ideas. If you've been a BP speaker before, you know what we're looking for - simply give us something new or interesting that you think would be a good fit in the BP track.
- If you are a new potential speaker, and you've never spoken publicly before, you might want to consider finding an experienced co-speaker. I know many experienced Lotusphere speakers would be interested in co-presenting if you have a creative/interesting topic that's in their expertise area. Now, don't bury our experienced speakers with requests - I would recommend you first look to speakers that you know, and then broaden your search for the right experienced speaker. Once you identify one simply send him an email stating your idea, with details, for her to consider. You never know - you may get a positive response, and a new session is born.
- The last tip I have is about questions. If you have any questions, feel free to ask Ed Brill, Mac Guidera, or me - just don't lobby to be picked to speak, cause that's really irritating and greatly hurts your cause (you have NO IDEA how much!)
Conclusion
Now you have some guidelines to use when considering what to submit for the Best Practices track. Also, stay tuned to this blog and Mac's blog for more updates as to what themes we're using for this year's BP track, holes we might have in our submission topics, and so on. Paying close attention usually pays off in the end.
That should help you get a start on creating some great abstracts. Send 'em in, and we'll build the greatest Best Practices track ever - and you may be a part of it!
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