FIGURE A


Here's the arrangement of the key hotels at Lotusphere. They're big brick buildings with very silly looking fish on the top. Roll over picture for a larger image.

Schedule smart
Do yourself a favor. Fly in on Saturday morning and get registered early. Registration last year was performed at the large tent marked as number 2 on the map shown above in Figure A. The Sunday registration is very busy and Monday is absolute chaos, so take advantage of the fact that Saturday registration opens at noon and goes until 9PM. This is particularly true if you're a business partner intent on going to business development day on Sunday. That gives you Saturday afternoon to take a stroll around the grounds and get familiar with the layout of the hotels.

Pack appropriately at the office
Prior to leaving your office for Lotusphere, be sure and grab the following things that will make your life easier.

Shipping forms
You'll pick up an inordinate amount of paper, redbooks, gimmee caps, literature, sample disks, pens, pencils, flashlights, yo-yos, Frisbees, beer mugs, glow in the dark buttons, calendars, T-shirts, towels, and stuffed animals if you're not careful in the vendor showcase. If you really want to tote all of this junk back home, you'll need to plan ahead. Federal Express, Airborne Express and several other delivery shipping companies have traditionally had a small desk set up in the Dolphin in years back.

The operative term here is small. If you wait until Thursday morning to try and ship this stuff out, you'll be waiting in line for a while. I'd suggest that you bring pre-filled out shipping documents with you. Wednesday afternoon, pick up some boxes from the desk and bring them back to the hotel room. Pack your junk up on Wednesday night while you wait for the bus to take you to SeaWorld and you'll be in good shape to just drop them off at the shipping desk on Thursday morning.

[OK, so another strategy is to not collect the trinkets, go through the literature for the one or two sheets of critical information, and THROW THE REST OUT! -- DG]

Business cards
Bring 'em if you got 'em. I get the address and phone number of the hotel where I'll being staying, print mailing labels with the information and stick the labels to the back of my cards. These become my "Lotusphere" business cards allowing people to get in touch with me in Orlando. Don't give out your business cards to any vendors unless you're seriously interested in the company's products or services. There is a large amount of post-show follow-up after the 'sphere. If you're not willing to take a lot of phone calls keep your address and phone number to yourself. [Note, I will personally shoot anyone who calls me in my hotel room. This includes Mickey, who I've threatened to behead in years past for waking me way too cheerfully. -- DG]

Long Distance phone cards
Just like any other out of state travel, you'll need to have a phone card for returning calls during the day. Pay phones are very difficult to get a hold of during the day. You'll probably want to change your outgoing message to state that you're at Lotusphere and that phone calls may take a while to be returned. [Also, consider bringing your cellular phone. But remember that there are 8,000 other highly wired, wireless junkies in the same hotel. Getting a free cell is often an impossibility. -- DG]