IBM Connect is not the only conference that you should attend if you are interested in the IBM collaboration/social platforms, there are many other spread out over different continents, and many of them are even free. You just pay your travel and hotel.

My Connect 2016 presentation & demo database. As I promised, I would post my IBM Connect 2016 presentation here on my blog. Enjoy!

When I attended IBM Connect 2015, I thought it would be the last time I got to attend the conference that for most of it’s running was called Lotusphere. I attended Lotusphere 1997 in Nice but from January 1998 I attended the conference at Walt Disney World Dolphin and Swan in Orlando every single year.

It is less than 7 weeks left until MWLUG, the Midwest Lotus User Group conference. This year the conference takes place in Atlanta, between August 19 and 21. During the three days there will be over 40 technical session and workshops on collaboration, receptions and networking opportunities, as well as access to experts of IBM solutions, both from IBM and other companies.

When I arrived to Orlando for the 18th time to attend Lotusphere (now renamed IBM ConnectED), it was with mixed feelings. The conference was much smaller than before, and everyone expected this to be the last conference in the Lotusphere format in Orlando. IBM had a contract with Disney that expired after the 2015 conference and we all knew it. So most attendees did see this as a last hurrah or a kind of farewell to Lotusphere.