It’s official. Lotusphere 2012 is over. I’m sitting in the airport, reading tweets of others traveling home, writing my own tweets. Reading wrap up blog posts, and writing my own.
I’m sad. Those of you who have never been wonder how I can be sad about leaving a tech conference, but it is so much more than that. It is much more like an amazing family reunion, where I also happen to learn a ton of stuff.
Some of the highlights (because I couldn’t possibly write about all of it):
The Opening General Session on Monday – I LOVE OK GO and they played the OGS! I was sooo excited. Loved it. The OGS could have ended then and I would have been just fine. Michael J Fox was the guest speaker, and he was terrific. Inspiring, funny, and managed to fit his talk in with Lotusphere and social and community.
Tuesday was Nerd Girl day for me. First, the Nerd Girls Sparks session, which included several short TED-talk-like presentations. They were really great and I really enjoyed this. The Nerd Girls BOF to follow up the discussion from the Sparks ideas was also good. Unfortunately, I had to leave a bit early, but it was off to a great start. Later that evening, The Great Geek Challenge took place. This was the second year for this event, and this year was (if possible) even better! A great time was had by all with loads of fun and laughter (and reubens and sliders!).
Wednesday I presented two sessions. The first was on mobile and web development, from Notes to BlackBerry. I made a decision to change part of the session, thinking I was making it more appropriate for Lotusphere. Afterward an attendee came up and asked me a question about the very thing I omitted. Lesson learned, never assume. My second session was with Jess Stratton on being both the developer and admin. We had a great time. I saw a couple of lightbulbs go off for some attendees. That is always a great feeling.
The closing session was just bizarre. No other way to put it. Andrew Zimmern was an arrogant ass (job description for celebrity chef, I think) and mentioned his show and why we should watch it about a million times. He also claimed to be twitter-savvy and reviewed our tweets before his talk, then said the hashtag was #LS2012 instead of #LS12, which makes me wonder how truly savvy he is. OH, and he boiled and torched live animals on stage, then ate them. As I said, bizarre.
So Lotusphere…Great sessions, great speakers. Amazing friends, awesome conversations. Tons of laughs and a million hugs. Met lots of new people and spent time with lots of old people, errr old friends. 
PS The title of this post is in reference to this, this, and this, just some of the fun we have at Lotusphere.
Photo courtesy of Greyhawk68
