Lotusphere 2010: Not a single "Lotusphere Idol" submission, yet!

October 3 2009

So as some of the astute readers of Twitter and blogs noted, IBM extended the submission deadline for Lotusphere 2010 abstracts to October 9.  This means you still have a few more days to get your proposals in for consideration.

I was looking through the database tonight (yes, it's a Saturday night and I'm surfing Lotusphere), and as of the moment, there is not yet a single submission for Lotusphere Idol! 2010.  This makes me sad.  I was quite excited to get Idol! added as an official abstract category this year, but apparently, that excitement has not yet spilled out into the community.  At the same time, I see a lot of names in the other tracks for people who have never spoken at Lotusphere before.

So, for those who don't know what Lotusphere Idol is -- it is a session I host where we have live auditions for Lotusphere "new talent" speakers.  Contestants have five minutes to give a presentation that is demonstrative of the topic and content that they would like to cover in a full Lotusphere session.  A panel of esteemed IBM and non-IBM judges review the presentations live and decide at the conclusion of 60 minutes who the winner will be.  The winner receives their own breakout session on the Lotusphere agenda, a few days later!  It's a great way to break into the speaking circuit and have some fun at the same time.

Now, I read the blogs and the tweets, and I know that in the current climate, it is proving tougher for some to be able to get to Lotusphere 2010.  As such, some rookies have submitted abstracts for "regular" Lotusphere breakout sessions in the hopes that one of their abstracts will be accepted, and thus, they will get a speaker pass to Lotusphere.  That's a high risk but high reward scenario.  But if you are certain you'll be at Lotusphere 2010, yet have never spoken at Lotusphere and want to, Lotusphere Idol! is a great way to break into the speaker circuit at the industry's biggest conference.  Like Lou Gerstner said (admittedly in a different context) at Lotusphere many years ago -- "I want you to win!"  So think of something to talk about and get those Lotusphere Idol! abstracts in!!!

By the way, Lotusphere 2010 registration officially opened a few days ago.  Looking forward to seeing you there!

Ed Brill | Highland Park, IL USA Category:  Lotusphere 2010  Add/View Comments [8]

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  1. 1  Timothy  | 10/4/2009 1:02:48 AM

    Hi Ed!

    What will happen if there'll be only two or three applications? Will IDOL be held? And will the applicants get a free pass - just for speaking the 5 minutes?

    -- Tim

  1. 2  Palmi  | 10/4/2009 7:23:09 AM

    Ed , Is there any plans to stream the OGS? As a business parther we would welcome the hype that it would bring and invite our customers join us. IBM is finaly moving in the right direction with lotus.

    --pálmi

  1. 3  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 10/4/2009 7:48:32 AM

    @1 Tim, Lotusphere Idol contestants (and even the winner) do not get a speaker pass for Lotusphere 2010. The winner gets all the other obvious speaker benefits, including a session, appearance at Gurupalooza, and the title of Lotusphere Idol. As a resume/CV builder, that's a good thing -- and can position the speaker well for future Lotusphere (and other) speaking engagements.

    If we don't get enough Idol submissions by October 9, we will do it the way we have the last two years -- build awareness on the blogs, through the IBM sales force, etc. --- I am sure once we get to Orlando, we'll have plenty of contestants.

    @2 it's not usually been streamed live. I do not know if there is a change in that department for LS2010. Will see if I can find out.

  1. 4  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 10/4/2009 7:48:33 AM

    and of course as soon as I blogged this topic, we had our first submission for Lotusphere Idol 2010!

  1. 5  Lisa Duke http://www.simplified-tech.com | 10/5/2009 9:02:18 AM

    I think people are hoping to get on the "free speaker" tracks and then recycle their submissions for Idol if they don't make the cut.

  1. 6  Lisa Duke http://www.simplified-tech.com | 10/5/2009 9:02:34 AM

    I vote we bring back funny student dudes.

  1. 7  David Stephens  | 10/5/2009 1:10:21 PM

    I agree with Lisa @5...would it be possible for future LS, that those abstracts that are not accepted for the regular breakouts be automatically nominated for Idol? Perhaps a checkbox at the bottom of the submission that would state that it would open to Idol submission if not accepted. Of course, that would mean that there would be a lot of submissions. Perhaps, those titles and abstracts can be loaded to a site and then voted upon (similar to what the Enterprise 2.0 conference in San Francisco did recently). The sessions with the most votes are then those who make it on the LS agenda for Idol and the winner gets their own session.

  1. 8  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 10/5/2009 2:42:20 PM

    I like the idea of opening up Idol nominations after the "regular" submissions have been accepted or rejected. I don't think we can roll over the sessions, though -- that would be 400+.