All one of it, and it was the best!!

Well OK seriously, it was also the best Connect-o-sphere I have been to in all my 4 years.

1. Above all else I had an excellent time hanging out with and speaking with the most excellent Mark Leusink. It is kinda hard to coordinate a presentation when you only have 48 hours to prepare together, Mark made it very easy. When people like Mark Myers (who I have an inordinate amount of respect for) say things like this about you, it is very hard not to blush.
2. I stopped hearing “Java is the way to go, if you are not using Java then you are doing it wrong”. What I started to hear was “you need to use the right tool for the right job and Java is not always the right tool”. The transformation is stunning, the eyes are open, the possibilities are boundless. I also think I shocked a few people by accepting and encouraging that their is a very good place for Java as well ! Collaboration, whodda thunk it.
3. I cannot wait for Bluemix to enable me never use the Domino HTTP engine again. Well OK not quite…..but the possibility of writing an application on a node.js server to use Domino as my NoSQL data source makes me all gushy inside. Many questions remain and I will get into that in future posts, but ooooh the possibilities.
4. Almost every vendor I spoke to had their best year in ages – primarily due to the large number of technical people in attendance I guess, but there was a sense of optimism which was severely lacking after last year.
5. I have a new respect for Rene Winklemeyer and Theo Heselmans. Two excellent guys I really didn’t know so well before – they were entertaining, educational and exceptionally engaging speakers.
6. There are a number of people who have intentionally (or not) made my community participation possible and Susan Bulloch is one of them – I will *always* be grateful for the opportunity to speak in Orlando and she gave that to me. (yeah I cried too 😦 )
7. Multiple attendees stopped me in the corridor and said *thank you* for the Angular presentation. The main reason was because it makes more sense to them than going XPages. Serves to remind me that when this is all over I want to be a teacher…..
8. I went to more sessions this year than any other – I also missed more sessions due to conflicts than any other – this is a GOOD THING because more choice means a better conference and more attendees.

Thank you to everyone who sang Happy Birthday in the middle of the Dolphin bar – I am humbled 🙂 Thank you to @woowar who invited me to the Penumbra social so that I could have a glass of Champagne on my birthday – very classy. Thanks to Darren Duke for paying for it 😉 Thank you everyone who attended the session(s). That’s well over 150 people, and only one guy walked out before they were finished – very flattering. Thank you to Andrew Barickman and PSC who gave me the opportunity to attend. Thank you to everyone who stopped me and said hi – love meeting people and sharing stories. Thank you to the bouncer for my presentation with Mark Leusink who encouraged people to come back for the second session – we had a full room the second time and it would not have happened without him. Thank you to Mac Guidera who let me speedgeek, gotta tell you by the end of it I was sick of the sound of my own voice !

Thank you to everyone I met – I have no idea when we will meet again, but I know we will talk soon 🙂

Marky