Ed Brill

Let me be the second person to congratulate colleague Barbara Bowen on winning the Penumbra Group's 2nd annual Prism award.  Barbara is a true cheerleader for the value of professional certifications, and has been instrumental in keeping the Lotus certification program relevant as it transitioned from CLP to IBM Certified.  I was honored to accompany Barbara to the Penumbra dinner where the award was given (also along in the slightly-overcrowded taxi were Libby Ingrassia Schwarz, Alan Lepofsky, and Ragan Folan (glad I had the front seat all to myself....), though I was in on the secret well before our rendezvous.  I think it was great for Barbara that Dr. Ambuj Goyal, the Lotus GM, and Barbara's third line manager and my mentor, Steve Robinson, were able to be there as well.
The dinner itself was excellent as always, and you can read the various blog entries from the Penumbra members for details over the coming days.  There is also a second Prism award winner this year, and that winner will be announced sometime during Lotusphere.
Several Penumbra members continued the tradition of the "certified unofficial Lotusphere t-shirt" for 2004.  Thankfully, I have nothing to do with any of the top ten "reasons you might be a Lotus Geek"...though they couldn't avoid tweaking me.  The note that is attached to the shirts says that someone wearing one to Wednesday night's gig at Universal will win $100, as has been tradition.  But it also indicates that I am not the person giving away the money, so don't hang out with me.  Fine, Rock, don't worry, payback's a bitch :)
From there, it was off to The Turtle's annual gathering at the ESPN club.  I think we got there kind of late -- there were probably two dozen Lotusphere attendees around by that point.  A few people wanted to talk shop, which is fine, and I also got to hear the rumor making the rounds as to who the guest speaker is in Monday's keynote.  Some Loti piled in to ESPN after a while, but eventually, I was ready to head back.  Volker and I walked the very very quiet Boardwalk (all the shops seem to close at midnight, or earlier), and he headed to Swan-land while I'm now ensconced in the big fish.  Ran into some of the general session demo team before I could get to the elevator, and got the latest on how the demos are unfolding.  Tomorrow, at some point, I'll sit in on general session rehearsals to get more of a first-hand look.
I'm planning to attend the Business Development Day general session, at least some of it, so for partners, I'll see you in the morning.  I also have my BD Day session, the Lotus Competitive Landscape, at 4 PM-ish.  See some of you there.
Before signing off, I want to thank all of you who mentioned to me today that you are reading this site.  It means a lot to me that I'm reaching so many of our customers, and hopefully doing so in an interesting and personal way.  Though to the one suggestion that I spin off the site into a frequent flyer points consultancy, I'd suggest instead you check out www.flyertalk.com .