Lotusphere 2010 - Wrap Up
I've had a really hard time pulling my thoughts together about Lotusphere. I still have so many thoughts leaping through my head and haven't completely processed any of them.
First, I love the way Lotusphere always motivates me to be better than I am. I always learn something new, and more importantly learn how many other cool things I need to learn. It's that shot in the arm to learn more, do more, blog more, tweet more (is that possible?).
Anyway, on Sunday, I had my first ever gig speaking at Lotusphere. Tom Duff and I presented “The Top Things All New IBM Lotus Domino Developers Need to Know”. I had a really great time and would highly recommend speaking to anyone. It was a fantastic experience that was nerve-racking and exhilarating. Hopefully the presentation is attached here...
On Tuesday I attended the Nerd Girls panel and the Nerd Girls BOF on Thursday (at 7AM!). As expected, this was a great experience. The big takeaway for me was the need for at least one mentor, as well as community. A mentor is important for obvious reasons. Less obvious is the fact that at least one of your mentors should be DIFFERENT than you. Someone who can provide a different outlook and opinion. For women, that can mean having a male mentor. The other important item is community. Having a group that understands you, that you can vent to, feel a common bond with. A group to which you can ask “Has anyone felt this way?” and others in the group will say “Yes!”. To that end, we've created a Nerd Girls group on Linked In, please feel free to join if you're interested. *
*Also note that none of this advice is limited to women. It could just as easily apply to any group or facet of your life. We just happen to be focusing on women. If you have a problem with that, start your own group.
Of course, I also attended some really great technical sessions. :) I tried to focus a bit more this year. In years past, I would just try to hit everything and I knew that wasn't going to work this year. Like many, I attended sessions on XPages and feel ready to jump in. I attended some Quickr and Symphony sessions, as well. As always, some really great content. I've downloaded all the slides and will spend the next several weeks trying to digest everything I saw.
I had a really great week and can't wait til next year!