Lotusphere is an annual conference hosted by Lotus Software (now one of IBM's five software brands).
Except for the first conference, which took place in December 1993,[1] Lotusphere is held in late January. It starts with a reception party on Sunday night, and continuing on through the closing session on Thursday afternoon. The conference uses the conference rooms in the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin hotels. Most years have also used the additional conference rooms shared by Disney's Yacht and Beach Clubs.
In addition to the annual conference in Florida, there is also an annual Lotusphere Europe conference.
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The typical agenda starts with an opening general session on Monday, followed by breakout sessions through the rest of the morning and afternoon where different presentations occur simultaneously in different conference rooms, allowing attendees to choose which one they want to go to. Each breakout session is typically an hour long, with pauses in the schedule to allow attendees to mingle and walk to their next choice of breakout session. Tuesday and Wednesday also have six or seven of these breakout sessions throughout the day.
Thursday is the last day of the conference, with a few breakout sessions in the morning, then a large "Ask the Developers" session where attendees are allowed to ask questions directly to a panel of IBM/Lotus employees involved in making the software. The last event of the conference is a closing session.
The opening and closing sessions typically have a form of entertainment and a guest speaker, as well as executives and key employees sharing news and demonstrations of what's happening in the near future.
"Lotusphere Comes to You" events are held annually by local IBM Business Partners in their states and regions, these events recap the information presented at the corporate event.
In 2008, there were 197 different presentations scheduled during the breakout sessions, scheduled across 18 slots, giving attendees an average of eleven choices per session slot. Each breakout session lasts about an hour. Breakouts are split into several categories called "tracks". Common tracks are
In addition to these four tracks, there is sometimes a fifth track with a title and content around "Customer References" or "Sponsor Sessions". There are also "Hands-on" and "JumpStart" sessions.
| Year | Location | Attendance | Theme phrase | Top messages | Host | Opening General Session guest(s) | Closing General Session guest(s) | Sunday night reception | Wednesday night party | CULT shirt | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1993 | Orlando | 2300 | Working Together | Don Bulens | Geoffrey Moore | Disney-MGM | |||||
| 1994 | No Event | ||||||||||
| 1995 | Orlando | The Right Event. The Right Solutions. Right Now. | Disney-MGM | ||||||||
| 1996 | Orlando | Release The Power |
|
None | Cirque du Soleil | ||||||
| 1997 | Orlando | Pool of Knowledge |
|
Ray Ozzie | Avery Brooks | ||||||
| 1998 | Orlando | Cultivate Your Senses | Notes R5 | Steve Beckhardt (?) |
|
Bill Nye | |||||
| 1999 | Orlando | LOTUS: A Part of Every Solution |
|
Jeff Papows | |||||||
| 2000 | Orlando | 10000 | Looking Forward/Forward Looking |
|
Jeff Papows > Al Zollar | Walter Cronkite | Notes World Order | ||||
| 2001 | Orlando | 10000 | In The Know |
|
Al Zollar | Umbilical Brothers | Domino Survivor | ||||
| 2002 | Orlando | 6000 | Proof Positive |
|
Al Zollar | Ben Stein | Kevin Nealon | Disney-MGM | Fellowship of the Domino Ring | ||
| 2003 | Orlando | The Essential Human Element |
|
Al Zollar > Ambuj Goyal |
|
Dr. Ronan Tynan | Magic Kingdom | Just-Us League & Collaboration League | |||
| 2004 | Orlando | 5273 | The Workplace For Innovation | Ambuj Goyal | Patrick Stewart | Richard Jeni | Universal Studios Florida | CULT SHIRT ON HUMAN | |||
| 2005 | Orlando | 5800 | Envision Decisions | Notes and Workplace convergence | Ambuj Goyal | Steven Wright | Country/Western | Universal's Islands of Adventure | Zen of Collaboration | ||
| 2006 | Orlando | 6000 | FutureInSight |
|
Mike Rhodin | Jason Alexander | Jim Gaffigan | Poker tables | SeaWorld | CULT Man Group | |
| 2007 | Orlando | 7000 | IT Revolves Around You |
|
Mike Rhodin |
|
Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson | Disney's Animal Kingdom | I AM _____ | ||
| 2008 | Orlando | 7000+ | Emergence |
|
Mike Rhodin | Alton Brown | Beach Party | Universal's Islands of Adventure | Pirates of Collaboration | ||
| 2009 | Orlando | Resonance |
|
Bob Picciano |
Universal Studios | ||||||
| 2010 | Orlando | Lotus knows why. Lotus knows how. | Bob Picciano > Alistair Rennie | William Shatner | Brian Cox (physicist) | Hollywood Studios | |||||
| 2011 | Orlando | Get Social. Do Business. | Alistair Rennie | Kevin Spacey | Watson | Wizarding World of Harry Potter, Islands of Adventure |
During the 2008 closing session Lotus committed to hosting Lotusphere at the Swan and Dolphin through 2015.
Lotusphere Comes to You (LCTY), Sofia, Bulgaria is a local continuation of Lotusphere in Orlando. LCTY is hold in over 50 countries around the world. Sofia, Bulgaria is one of the cities where local Lotus Software users gather. Since 2007 LCTY in Sofia has been organized by IBS Bulgaria with the kind support of IBM Bulgaria. The event covers news around Lotus Software as well as sessions emphasizing on local business needs and Lotus Domino development.
Lotusphere Comes to You, Sofia, Bulgaria gathers Bulgarian Lotus Software customers, end users, system engineers and developers. LCTY is an interesting and useful event for managers, analysts, IT professors, journalists and many more who want to understand more about collaboration and communication.