Dan Silva

I’m here! First day in Orlando, very tired but happy after two a 2 hour drive from Campinas to Guarulhos International Airport (GRU) in Sao Paulo. Flight was packed, and the scheduled time to leave was 00:30AM on January 20. At the gate I could see a couple of folks with IBM t-shirts, notebooks, or any other gear that made them possible Lotusphere attendees. One gentleman had 2 huge “Lotus Software” and “Websphere software” logo-stickers on the lid of his Thinkpad, but he indicated he worked at Ingram Micro. A coworker of mine coincidently sat next to the Brazil Lotus Sales Manager on the plane. We waited at the gate for 30 minutes until our plane was finally called for take-off, since nowadays flight controllers in Brazil are being “very particular” (as the AA pilot said) on giving a 6-minute interval between take-offs. The pilot only had one air-conditioning unit on which made the whole wait VERY hot. This was an old 767-300. I’m definitely taking a 777-serviced flight next time around! Since you prolly don’t know, when I was a kid I wanted to be a pilot.

The flight time to Miami International Airport (MIA) was around 8 hours, and I was definitely pleased to hear the temperature at arrival: 23 Celsius (that’s 74F). Summer is almost at its peak here in Brazil, and I don’t miss the cold weather . We ran to take our connecting flight to Orlando (MCO), but made it in time. At landing: 12 Celsius (54F)! COLD!!! I’m definitely NOT looking forward to the cold weather in Boulder, where I’ll be headed to after Lotusphere for a week of work.

Weather in Orlando, despite the cold temperature, is gorgeous, and luminosity of sunny winter days have always amazed me in the US. You can’t head out without sunglasses:

Registration ran smooth, as it usually does. The lady asked me if this was my first Lotusphere, but this is in fact my 6th: I’ve been here from 1998-2002, but hadn’t retured since. This is also my first time as an IBMer.

This year’s motto/slogan is “IT revolves around YOU”:

All kidding aside, Lotus software has always been about you: the human-aspect of e-business on demand, as you’re all very aware. The jet-lag is killing me, and I woke up at 4:00AM (7:00AM Brazilian Summer Time) after getting very little sleep. If it’s hard on me, I can’t imagine what it’s like for Steve Castledine and the rest of the European crowd.

Today a few Jumpstarts (most probably on Websphere Portal), and definitely looking forward to the Domino Domain Monitoring hands-on lab. The Welcome reception is tonight, but I’ll probably be looking for a warm jacket to buy as it get’s very chilly in the evening and I need have something warm for Boulder.

After being away for 5 years, I’m very thrilled to be back!