Category Lotusphere Lotusphere2009
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I was planning on posting on a couple of other things today, but based on recent events, I felt it more important to post this instead.

I have been extremely fortunate to be involved with Lotusphere since 1996; I started as an attendee, expanded as a shirt co-creator (C.U.L.T. shirt), I then became a speaker, and I reached my favorite involvement of all, as a track consultant and manager for the Best Practices track. Along the way I watched the Best Practices track grow from an "experiment" to one of the most popular tracks at Lotusphere, each and every year. A side affect of being a very popular track is that it gets more and more submissions each and every year, while the session count has remained stable at around 30 or so sessions each year.

This year was no different; in fact the Best Practices track set another record for submissions - there were over 300 sessions submitted to the Best Practices track alone! There were more Best Practices track submissions than App Dev OR Infrastructure - tracks that have many more session slots than Best Practices. This means that we were able to only select one session for every TEN submissions.

As I have explained in the past, our selection process for the Best Practices track is intended to keep the content fresh and interesting. Sometimes this means new presenters, sometimes it means bringing back presenters who have exhibited a dedication to providing new and interesting materials each year.

I know I speak for the entire content team when I say that we LOVE the passion and dedication the Lotus community has shown for Lotusphere. This is true even moreso for Mac and me, in our roles as the two people responsible for the Best Practices track - the track that is "for the community, by the community". And because of this dedication and passion, I can understand that some people who weren't chosen would be upset, and would want to vent. Hell, when I wasn't chosen in the "early days" I know I was really disappointed and depressed. But now that I've been "on the other side", I understand how hard it is to actually put together a track. Let me explain.

In those 300-plus sessions we received, I can honestly say that about HALF of those sessions were worthy of being selected. The problem is that, as I explained earlier, Mac and I have only 30 session slots, give or take, for presenting a good representation of these excellent 150-or-so session submissions. That means that we are unable to choose about 120 sessions that are otherwise exceptional. And let me tell you, it was HARD for us to make these decisions.

So, I'd like to ask for your understanding in how we've put the Best Practices track together. I can assure you that every session was carefully reviewed, and we have done the best we could in creating this track for you, the Lotus community.

If, however, you still would like to discuss this, please feel free to contact me. Mac is out on maternity (ok "daddy") leave, so I will have to speak for both of us in his stead. You can drop me an email (rock AT teamstudio DOT com), or ping me on IM. I would be happy to discuss this with you.

Take care, and I can't wait to see all of you at Lotusphere 2009!

Rock