Sunday, May 4, 2008

Admin2008 - ND8 Upgrade Seminar - Day 3 and stuff

So like the previous two days of the Admin2008 event, day three flew by quicker then the Boeing 717 that flew us back to Akron Friday night. Friday morning started off pretty slow. Very slow actually. Being out late, (okay, late for me) at the Cactus Bar with others from our community was a hell of a lot of fun. But I was paying for it on Friday. So to finish off my training at the Admin2008, the two morning sessions really rounded it out nicely for me. "Unlocking the Power of Domino 8 Directory and Security Improvements" and "Accelerating Domino Server Upgrades and Installations While Minimizing Downtime" were both sessions that were crammed full of information that is still trickling out of my brain as we speak. Instead of finishing out the day with the last two tracks of the ND8 Upgrade Seminar, I decided to sneak out and attend Mr. Mooney's Admin Blast session and then skip the last session to say goodbyes and get to the airport on time.
I've said it before and I'll say it again about the Admin2008 conference. It's not a conference. Lotusphere is a conference. Admin2008 is training, pure and simple. Okay, it may seem like a conference. There are vendors there and events that would make one think it's a conference, but it is training through and through. The ND8 upgrade seminar that was folded into Admin2008 was a fantastic edition and I hope that next year they are able to take a track of focused information like ND8 and include that to the event. And I also hope that they sell this event as a training event, period. I feel if they do that, they could really see an increase in the numbers there.
But the one thing that is the same as Lotusphere is the community of folks you meet. Most of the bloggers that I know and follow were there and I met up with them on Wednesday and Thursday night. What a great group of people. Not an ego in the bunch. Sure, we all have our views on things but when it comes down to it, we are all pretty much alike. Which made me start to think on the plane flying home Friday night. What is it about our community that you really don't find anywhere else? I mean, do Exchange admins blog and meet up at conferences and go out for a drink? Does a Citrix Admin in.....Wales lets say have a user group meeting and invite people from all over the world to speak at it about Citrix stuff? From my perspective, we are a part of a pretty unique group of folks. And I like it! And I encourage others to become a part of it. If you are a Domino Admin or even, God forbid, a developer, start a blog and join in. Or, if you have a chance to go to an event like Lotusphere or Admin/Dev event, meet up with people and throw in your own bit of uniqueness to the collective. You don't have to blog, just take the opportunity and meet some of these people.
So as the Sunday afternoon sun makes the shadows on the back porch here grow longer, I look back on my week in Boston and know that starting tomorrow morning, I am ready to launch my ND8 upgrade project. Thanks to Andy, Chris and Rob for the fantastic information and training this week!

1 comment:

IdoNotes said...

Thanks, and a great overview of what we try to do at the "conference". You are right, it is all about training for 99% of the week. There are always a couple IBM show and tells, but the rest is non-stop geek discussion