Still, it's been an interesting and challenging year, and one I've really rather enjoyed. I'm looking forward to sessions in the Best Practices track that's been such a hit over the last couple of years, and I hope that continues to expand. This is where you really get to hear it like it is, rather than as the developers and marketers hope it's going to be.

I think these changes will be good, and will invigorate Lotusphere. You could say that one of the great things about Lotusphere is that it's always been the same; same timetable, same impeccable organization, same activities, same people, same food.

You could also say one of the bad things about Lotusphere is that it's always the same; same timetable, same organization, same activities, and even the same food. The only real guessing game beforehand is which of the Orlando theme parks the Wednesday night party will be at.

This isn't necessarily the case though. What it really means is that you can concentrate on getting the most out of the show without worrying too much about how you are going to do it. And one thing will never change; the fact that at the end of it you'll be more tired than you ever thought a week in Orlando could make you.

Lotusphere isn't just sessions though. One of the best resources at Lotusphere is the labs. These are the opportunity to have one-on-one discussions with the people who wrote the code for Notes and its companions -- and get real down and dirty if need be. Plan to visit at least some of these when you're at Lotusphere, and find out from the people who know why Notes and Domino do what they do.

I've always tried to collect a list of questions over the preceding year to ask in the labs, and I have a few ready for 2005. One set of questions I had at 2004 was on Full Text searching. I've been meaning all year to write that up in DominoPower, but just ran out of time. I can, however feel the Editor twisting my arm from all the way across the Atlantic.

So what's going to be big at Lotusphere 2005? Clearly ND7 will be up there, and should be close to shipping by then. Expect to see some sessions on the new DB2 backend capability in the server, which we've commented on before.

Look for sessions on Dynamic Domain Monitoring, which will especially help admins of particularly larger installations reduce the costs and time spent in managing and monitoring their installation. Look for something on proper Domino clustering support in LEI 7, one of my current favorites given the project I'm working on. Listen for news on the Notes 7.5 client, which will come after the Domino-centric ND7 release.

Look for plenty on Workplace, the Rich Client, and the Notes run-time plug-in for it. Listen also for what's going to happen there in the Notes 8 space and beyond. There'll also be plenty of coverage on current technologies, Notes and Domino 6 and 6.5, Sametime, oh sorry, IBM Lotus Instant Messaging (I still hate that name), IBM/Lotus Team Workplace, aka Quickplace, Domino.Doc and so on.

Make sure you check out the Product Showcase, where the vendors display their wares. These days much of the showcase is what one might call plumbing products rather than Notes applications, but still well worth a visit. If you're an avid freebie collector, remember to bring an extra bag to take all that junk home in.