Well registration has opened and you can
start spotting all the people walking around with what I can only describe
as a fantastic new bag for the 2006 conference.

I have already received my first give-away
from Bill Buchan.  It’s a brushed metal domino set from HADSL.  You
really have to go visit their stand in the product showcase and see if
you can snag one of these.

After talking to Ed Brill in las vegas
last night I managed to get a little insider information of things that
we will get to see at Lotusphere.

First off we will get to see a working
version of the Lotus Hanover client. They have kept true to the original
screenshots and according to Ed it was very fast although he did admit
that he had no idea of the spec of the machine it was running on.

Another thing to watch out for is the
all new SameTime 7.5. I’ve seen a small glimpse at the 7.1 internal alpha
a while ago and lets just say that the end user client for Sametime has
been overhauled. There will be plenty of eye candy.

Ed also revealed that his ‘The Boss
Loves Microsoft’ has been overhauled also. No graveyard slide and no Checkered
Past slide but there will be props ( and not bottles of water ).  If
you were thinking of skipping this presentation because you have seen it
in the past then add it back into your schedule as it’s totally different.
All I’ll say is ‘The Greeks Are Coming’.

Things have been pretty quiet around here
as I travel the world on my way to Lotusphere.  I hope you have been
keeping up with my adventures over on my WorldTrip
blog.

Anyway, Lotusphere is less then a week
away and as per the last two years I will be blogging live from the sessions
that I attend. I just hope I can find power sockets in the session rooms
as the battery life on my laptop is a terrible 2.5 hours per charge. Yuck.

I will be at the ESPN party on Saturday
night and I’ll be watching the Steelers AFC Championship game in the ESPN
on Sunday. I’d guess that most evenings you will find me on the outside
patio beside the bar in the Dolphin lobby area.