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Lotusphere is an American annual conference hosted by Lotus Software (now one of IBM's five software brands). In 2013, Lotusphere was re-branded as IBM Connect.
Contents
Except for the first conference, which took place in December 1993, Lotusphere is held in late January. It starts with a reception party on Sunday night and continues on through the closing session on Thursday afternoon. The conference is held at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin hotels. Most years it has used the additional space at Disney's Yacht and Beach Clubs.
In addition to the annual conference in Florida, between 1997 and 2000 there was also an annual Lotusphere Europe conference, first in Nice (1997) and then in Berlin.
"Lotusphere Comes to You" events were for a few years held by local IBM Business Partners, where some of the information presented at conference was presented and business partners could connect with local users who were not able to attend the big event. These events have been replaced by local LUG (Lotus User Group) events like IamLUG (later Icon US), MWLUG, ILUG, UKLUG (later Icon UK) and many other.
Toward the end of 2012 IBM stopped using the Lotus brand and renamed the conference to IBM Connect. It was renamed again in 2015 to IBM ConnectED, but changed back to IBM Connect in 2016. The venue changed from the Disney Swan and Dolphin to the Hilton in Orlando. In 2017 the conference was moved to the Moscone Centre in San Francisco, and the date of the conference moved to the third week of February.
Agenda
The typical agenda starts with an opening general session on Monday, followed by breakout sessions through the rest of the morning and afternoon where different presentations occur simultaneously in different conference rooms, allowing attendees to choose which one they want to go to. Each breakout session is typically an hour long, with pauses in the schedule to allow attendees to mingle and walk to their next choice of breakout session. Tuesday and Wednesday also have six or seven of these breakout sessions throughout the day.
Thursday used to be the last day of the conference, with a few breakout sessions in the morning, then a large "Ask the Developers" session where attendees are allowed to ask questions directly to a panel of IBM/Lotus employees involved in making the software. The last event of the conference is a closing session. Starting in 2014 the conference was shortened one day, ending on Wednesday instead.
The opening and closing sessions typically have a form of entertainment and a guest speaker, as well as executives and key employees sharing news and demonstrations of what's planned for the near future.
Breakout Sessions
In 2008, there were 197 different presentations scheduled during the breakout sessions, scheduled across 18 slots, giving attendees an average of eleven choices per session slot. Each breakout session lasts about an hour. Breakouts are split into several categories called "tracks". Common tracks are
In addition to these four tracks, there is sometimes a fifth track with a title and content around "Customer References" or "Sponsor Sessions". There are also "Hands-on" and "JumpStart" sessions.
During the 2008 closing session Lotus committed to hosting Lotusphere at the Swan and Dolphin through 2015.
Lotusphere Europe
Lotusphere Comes to You (LCTY), Sofia, Bulgaria is a local continuation of Lotusphere in Orlando. LCTY is held in over 50 countries around the world. Sofia, Bulgaria is one of the cities where local Lotus Software users gather. Since 2007 LCTY in Sofia has been organized by IBS Bulgaria with the kind support of IBM Bulgaria. The event covers news around Lotus Software as well as sessions emphasizing on local business needs and Lotus Domino development.
Lotusphere Comes to You, Sofia, Bulgaria gathers Bulgarian Lotus Software customers, end users, system engineers and developers. LCTY is an interesting and useful event for managers, analysts, IT professors, journalists and many more who want to understand more about collaboration and communication.