ADMIN2009 and Lotus Developer 2009 are two of the most critical events of the year for the Lotus IT professional community. Once again this year, THE VIEW has co-located the 2 events in Boston and is kicked off the conferences with a jumpstart day on April 14th, leading into the full conferences from April 15 - 17. And once again, LotusUserGroup.org was there to bring you coverage of these events on-line, along with some activities, contests, and fun, with our presentation of "Live From Boston". Whether you were in Boston for these events or only wishing you were there, LotusUserGroup.org Live From Boston has special features in which you can participate. Check out the details below and check back often to see newly added info, contests, and fun!

THE VIEW, BlackBerry, and LotusUserGroup.org brought a new type of fun to the Admin2009 and Lotus Developer2009 conferences in Boston. This year, BlackBerry sponsored a special evening of entertainment, featuring 2 fun, interactive and exciting features that attendees could take part in:

In this whirlwind of fun 2 panels of contestants, one of audience members and one of speakers from the conferences, faced-off against each other in a battle of knowledge. Panelists had to answer questions, vote people off, place "life-line" calls, and complete other challenges culled from a variety of popular reality and games shows, all in a quest to win valuable prizes.If you missed this live, entertaining game show, sponsored by BlackBerry, you'll want to read all about it and check out the photos in Erin Durkin's review.

And the fun didn't stop there... Immediately following the Last Geek Standing game show, BlackBerry presented Lotus Jam, a live entertainment event featuring a local Boston area band, The PCI Compliants. The band performed a number of crowd pleasing favorites, and then opened up the stage for a Jam session with the audience. If you sing, play guitar (or any kind of musical instrument) and weren't there, you missed out on your 15 minutes of fame.

This evening of fun is made possible by

LotusUserGroup.org's editor, Erin Durkin ran around the conferences in Boston, interviewing members of LotusUserGroup.org, including leading gurus, world-class experts, Lotus managers, and your fellow peers. These podcast interviews, give you insight into Lotus history, case studies, experience at the conferences, projects people are working on, and interesting interactions with these members of the Lotus Community. There are podcast interviews in 3 categories, 2 minutes with the Gurus, 2 Minutes with Lotus, and 2 Minutes with Our Members.

Chek out interviews with

• Susan Bulloch
• Rob Axelrod
• Rob Wunderlich
• Peter Janzen
• Chris Miller
• And many others

Check out all the interviews here:

Whether or not you were able to make it to the conference, you'll want to join Jess Stratton on the LotusUserGroup.org blog. You can follow her coverage of all the activity, keynotes, and fun, or you can just jump onto the blog with her and post your own thoughts about the conferences, lotus technologies, or one of the posts from someone else. Not sure what to blog about? Here are some suggestions:

If you are going to one of the conferences:

If you aren't going to the conference:

There is plenty to blog about, so get going!

Starting March 16
Check out our special Moderated Topic Forums, starting the week of March 16th, which will feature presenters from the conference moderating on-line discussions about the topics they'll be presenting at the conference. The forums feature famous Lotus guru, Chris Miller and noted mobility expert John Wargo. Plus, look for follow-up forums with the presenters after the conferences.

Extending your Domino Applications to Mobile Devices —
Moderated the week of March 16, 2009
If you’re looking to take advantage of new tips and tricks to make the mobile browser experience as seamless as possible, join expert John Wargo of BoxTone in this forum; a sneak peak of his session at Admin2009 in Boston this April. Want to know a couple ways to tune your browser-based applications to make the most efficient use of mobile device’s smaller screen, limited processing power and reduced network speeds? Ask John. Have you figured out ways to apply to your Domino applications to more easily control how much data is displayed on mobile devices? Share your knowledge. How’d you like to stop making the user page through views, or help them more to quickly get to the data they want within the application? Here’s where to ask your mobilization questions or share your knowledge and experiences. Join in.

Getting There Quickr: Deployment and Integration Techniques —
Moderated the week of March 30, 2009
Join Chris Miller, one of the leading Lotus gurus in the world, in this discussion on Quickr deployment and integration; a sneak peek at his Admin2008 Boston session. Ask Chris about how to scale and deploy Lotus Quickr to your users, or how to fully engage your users in utilizing Lotus Quickr through connectors. Want to know more about the differences between the Domino and J2EE versions? Going to the session and have something you want Chris to cover? Have you explored the numerous security settings, the features of the qpadmin tool, and come up with some tips on controlling your Place Catalog that you can share with others? Join Chris in this forum for the advice you want on Quickr deployment and integration or to share your own knowledge and feedback.

Lots of people stopped by the LotusUserGroup.org booth in the Solutions Showcase to see what's cookin' at LotusUserGroup.org and got some great little surprises to go home with. Hot sauce and barbeque sauce to take home with our own special ingredients. See more about what happened in the exhibit hall with Erin Durkin's review.