In all seriousness though, take a few minutes before you go to list a few of the issues you've had over the last year, and see if anyone in the showcase can help you solve any of them. Whether it's a need for better spam filtering, a new Helpdesk application, some infrastructure management tools, or whatever, those guys should be falling over themselves to help you -- that's why they're there.

Also, of course, Lotusphere is about networking; meeting other people who face the same challenges as you, and talking about how you solved them. War stories are a great way to learn, and everyone has something to share. Lotusphere 2005 might happen in the US, even if it's in the rather unreal environment of Mickey Mouse, but it does attract people from all over the world.

It all goes to show that whereever we are in the world, we've much more in common than we sometimes think. The issues a developer in deepest Nebraska face are just the same as a developer in India. And a Russian Admin person has exactly the same spam problems as does his counterpart from Sao Paulo. The only difference is the language. Maybe.

Have a great time at Lotusphere 2005, and keep an eye out for the DominoPower team while you're there. Tell us what you think of Lotusphere, how DominoPower helps you in your work, and anything you'd like us to cover in 2005 and beyond. See you there.

Craig Schumann is Teamstudio VP of Product Development, author of Just Enough Governance for Lotus Notes, and more significantly a humble contest judge WOWed by this year's great entries!