New life breathed into an old photograph via Adobe Lightroom 3.

(Apologies for the bullet points, but I’m still knackered after driving home from Manchester last night)

• The venue was magnificent. Manchester’s Museum of Science and Industry was made for hosting geek-level events such as UKLUG
• The quantity of the speaker & sponsor sessions was just right. However, the quality of these sessions was outstanding
• Session highlights for me were Chris Miller’s “Properly & Securely Deploying Plugins & Widgets” and Carl Tyler’s hilarious “23 Years of Lotus and still going strong”
• Mark Myers is very tall, but a really lovely bloke to chat to. He and Matt White did an excellent job of representing their LDC comrades
• Finally getting to meet and chat with: Tom “Duffbert” Duff, Marie Scott and Sharon Bellamy was excellent. They were 3 of the nicest peeps I have had the pleasure of meeting
• Lisa Duke has wonderfully loud and infectious laugh. But then again, so does Kathy Brown
• Smurf porn anyone?
• Steve McDonagh is great guy to present with. Our session “Admin-Dev Synergy – fact or fiction?” was a lot of fun to deliver and was warmly received by all those who attended. Thank you to those of you who came along!
• UKLUG (and ILUG) should come with a government health warning about sugar levels!
• Paul Mooney works waaaaay too hard, but it was great to see him deliver Adminblast once again
• Stuart McIntyre and Darren Duke do a great job recording and producing the “This week in Lotus” pod casts. They did episode 53 live from UKLUG, which included a great panel discussion featuring Stuart, Darren, Mary Beth Raven, Mat Newman, Julian Robichaux and Bill Buchan
• The Yellow Silk Suit was awesome, as was it’s owner – the incomparable Mat Newman. Mat’s session with Mary Beth Raven was terrific and was just what I needed to boost my yellow levels!
• All of the sponsors were great. The freebies and prize give-aways were amazing, as was their generosity. Without them UKLUG would not have been as successful as it was.

The organisers, as always, were outstanding in their efforts. The UKLUG organising team did another terrific job of planning and delivering a free, content rich, entertaining Lotus User group event.

Registration for the 2011 UK Lotus User Group (UKLUG) meeting is now open, as is the call for session abstracts.

Here’s a very brief summary of why you should attend this great event:-

It’s FREE. OK, you still have to get there and stay overnight somewhere, but the event itself is free thanks to the generousity of the sponsors.

It’s being held in the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester. A cool and interesting venue, in one of the UK’s biggest cities.

ILUG aside, there is NO better Lotus User Group event in the UK to help you connect with your peers and customers.

It’s a great opportunity to learn lots of new & exciting things about Lotus software from some of the best and brightest speakers within the community.

The organisers are some of the most enthusiastic, passionate and dedicated lunatics members of the Lotus Software community in the UK & Ireland.

There will be beer and possibly some more Tunnocks Tea Cakes. ILUG fondue anyone?

It will be FUN!

Did I mention that it’s FREE?

UKLUG is run by the same guys who run ILUG. So, in my humble opinion, you are practically guaranteed that UKLUG 2011 will be a great Lotus User Group event. Register for your place today!

Forgot to blog this on the day that I took it.

This is one of the first photographs I took with my HTC Desire HD smartphone.

I don’t know about anyone else, but the last 365.25 days seem to have blurred past me. 2010 has been a very quick year, but a very good one. Here are some of my personal highlights from 2010:-

Travel
I haven’t travelled out with Scotland/mainland UK for many years prior to this year, so it was great to venture off to new, exciting and unknown places. Cities visited this year include: -

• London
• Belfast (twice!)
• Suzhou
• Dubrovnik
• Guadalajara

Work commitments took me to Suzhou in China, and Guadalajara in Mexico. Both were fascinating destinations to visit and explore. Sadly, I didn’t get to see much of Guadalajara due to my work schedule but I managed to absorb a lot of the beauty & mystery that the city of Suzhou had to offer. China is a wonderful and culturally rich country to visit, and I seriously hope I get to travel back there sometime soon.

Personal travel took Sheena (my lovely girlfriend) & I places too.

We both spent a lazy week in the town of Cavtat, just outside of Dubrovnik in Croatia. It was just what we both needed, given the hectic schedules we keep. Also, we both enjoyed a great, long weekend with good friends over in Belfast at the start of spring, helping to celebrate the wedding of two very lovely people.

This was the first of two trips to Belfast for me, the other trip being the adventure that was ILUG 2010. Again, great people, great city, and a great time was had.

Work
Work has been consistently busy throughout 2010, something I am grateful for given the tough economic conditions we all seem to be constrained by these days. The trips to China & Mexico are the obvious highlights here, but so is the satisfaction gained by completing several big upgrade projects. If 2011 is half as demanding as 2010 was, then I’m (hopefully) in for another productive year.

Personal
There have been several personal “highs” for me this year.

My daughter grew up, left high school and started studying at college. It made me feel slightly older, but it also made me very, very proud of her achievements, given the turbulent last few years of our lives. Her Mum would be very proud of her too.

Speaking at ILUG 2010 was another big high for me. Admittedly, my session this year wasn’t as well received as my session at UKLUG 2009, but it hasn’t dented my enthusiasm for sharing my knowledge of all things Notes & Domino. If anything, it’s made me more determined to improve my presentation skills and content knowledge, so that I can present again (hopefully) at UKLUG 2011.

Getting to spend several great days in Belfast, on two separate occasions with my extended geek family, also helped make my year a fantastic one. It’s wonderful the way they make you feel like you are part of something so much bigger than just a community of Lotus geeks, and for that I am honoured to be amongst them and call them my friends.

2011?
Personally, I think know that there will be a few changes in my life next year, and that these changes will have a significant impact upon my life. However, I will welcome them as they will be changes for the better.

Other than that I have absolutely no clue as to what 2011 will hold in store for me, but if 2011 is half as good as 2010 has been, then it should be a great year!

This was mostly due to the efforts of all of the lovely people who wore the “Green Shirts”, but also due to the breadth of speaking talent who turned out (myself, excluded!), the sponsors who paid for everything, and last, but not least, the delegates who took the time out from their day jobs to attend.

Thank you all for making ILUG 2010 such a great event!

My session slides are now available for download if anyone wants them. Please also head on over to the ILUG website and fill in your session evals. Feedback about the event and the speakers is crucial in helping the organisers plan the content for the next ‘LUG event, in this case, UKLUG on May 4th 2011, in Manchester.

Finally, I don’t have the words to express how much events like ILUG 2010 mean to me, so I’ll let Vowe say them for me.

My session will be at 1145 (after the morning coffee break, thankfully) on Friday 12 November. I hope to see you there.

I’m off on my travels to the city of Guadalajara in Mexico for a couple of weeks. I’m out here to complete the last phase of my global ND 8.0.X to ND 8.5.1 migration project – something I have been really looking forward to completing for a while now. Hopefully, I’ll get to spend some time enjoying the local culture, as well as finishing off my session slides for ILUG 2010.

See y’all on the flip side …

Probably the last shot from my outing to Pirniehall, Croftamie a few weeks ago.

More dereliction from Croftamie.