As has become my habit the last few years I like to capture a few thoughts and say thank you to a few people as I depart Lotusphere. It also seems to be becoming a habit that I am writing this on very little sleep as I have now been awake for almost 24 hours. I am looking forward to boarding the plane and sleeping right through the flight.

To start I have to say thank you to:

My wife – the week of Lotusphere is crazy enough with me being gone for an entire week, and the schedule does not allow for a lot of time to call home and talk. Besides taking care of 3 kids this years fun also included dealing with snow and terrible ice storms that turned our driveway and walkway into a sheet of ice. Oh and did I mention the snow day that kept the kids home and stuck inside all day? Here is a photo of the driveway all ice.

My employer who once again made it possible for me to attend Lotusphere

Karen Lilla and the rest of the IBM communications and PR staff who make the life of a blogger much easier at Lotusphere.

Last but not least, you! You know who you are… my friends… my Lotusphere family, always great to see you in person, while we now return to communicating in 140 character missives, Skype chats, etc… It really is the people that makes Lotusphere the special event that it is.

A few thoughts on departing (in no particular order)

Time moves too fast at Lotusphere, next year I am going to have to look more closely at my schedule, and try to slow it down a little.

The track managers do an incredible job, from selecting the sessions to making sure the slides match the abstracts. It is a tough and somewhat thankless job, but from the sessions I attended, and conversations with others they seems do have done an excellent job.

Lotusphere seemed busy this year, crowded hallways, packed sessions.

You can walk a lot more then usual in a Lotusphere day than a regular day

My limit riding the Hulk is 3 times, the 4th one took time to recover from.

Lots more to be written about Lotusphere 2011 but for now it can wait…. First sleep.

Join Luis Benitez and I as we provide live coverage, commentary, and photos from the Wednesday Keynote “The Future of Social Business”.  Feel free to post your own comments or questions, we will do our best to respond.

Check out the complete Live Blog Schedule.

Live coverage and commentary of the Lotus Mobile Strategy session, presented by Kevin Cavanaugh and Bharti Patel.  Feel free to post any questions or comments I will do my best to respond.

Check out the complete Live Blog Schedule.

Join Luis Benitez and I as we provide live coverage, commentary, and photos from the Tuesday Keynote “Becoming a Social Business”.  Feel free to post your own comments or questions, we will do our best to respond.

Check out the complete Live Blog schedule.

Thursday 6 AM I find out that my 6:30 AM flight out of Newark is cancelled

Thursday 10 AM I get myself on a 6:45 AM flight out of La Guardia airport

Friday 3:45 AM awake and ready to travel

Friday 4:15 AM depart for airport

Friday 5:15 AM at LGA bags checked and through security (amazing that travel and security done in less then an hour even at that early hour)

Friday 5:30 AM chance meeting with a Lotus exec who was on my flight, interesting conversation about IBM/Lotus to kick off my Lotusphere week

Friday 6:45 AM on time departure

Friday 9:30 AM early arrival

Friday 11:00 AM arrive at Yacht club, 5 minutes of panic when they could not find my reservation, eventually they found it….. and the feeling bad they found me a room as close to the Dolphin as you could be ( if you are like me and prefer the Yacht Club)

Friday 12:00 PM Dolphin Rotunda is already full of Lotii ready for Lotusphere

Remainder of the day errands, and picking up supplies for the week

Saturday – lots of rest and sleep recovering from the hectic week before Lotusphere, and preparing for the week ahead

Saturday night ESPN, Kimonos, Dolphin Bar, catching up and saying hi to people, relatively early end to the night back in my room by 12:30 (pacing myself for the week)

An interesting start to my week, panicking over a cancelled flight, panicking over a missing hotel reservation both of which worked out well in the end, hopefully a good sign for the rest of the week.

Remember to check my Lotusphere Page for the live blog schedule starting with the OGS at 8 AM tomorrow (Monday).