Let’s start with the thank you’s - I was delighted to be named an IBM Champion again for 2014 and for that I have to thank the (anonymous) people who nominated me.  I find the whole nomination / tell us why you’re good process very difficult to work with as I think I lot of English people do.  Being self effacing is more our style but this year I made a promise to myself that if I were nominated I would take a deep breath and fill in as much information as I could on why I thought I should be a champion. I think that exercise was good for me and appreciate both the reward and the journey 🙂

Moving On !  It’s January so this month is jam packed.  I actually leave for Florida on the 19th  so only 10 days to go for me and much to organise.  The presentations are written but there’s the Great Geek Challenge to organise, gifts to ship, banners to print, Spark Ideas to blog  and a surprise put together by Chris, Julian, Kathy and myself which may be as fun as we think or fall flat as a stone.  We’ll see.  Meanwhile the week is filling up and I’m very excited about my presentations now they’re complete..

Monday BP304 What We Wish We Had Known: Becoming an IBM Connections Administrator with Paul Mooney

Dolphin S.Hem 1 at 3.45pm

This is where Paul and I attempt to share all the stupid mistakes, bad decisions and dumb moves we made when first starting out with  IBM Connections and how much easier it is if you just know.. stuff.  We’re trying something very new in the format of  this presentation and I’m nervous about that but pleased with the work and what we have to tell you.

Tuesday NERD101 Spark Ideas ! (brought to you by Nerd Girls)

Swan Mockingbird 1 & 2 at 11.15am

This is our 4th year for Spark Ideas and we have a packed lineup that doesn’t include me.  I’m just logistics girl and I’ll be acting as MC with my friend Susan Bulloch acting as roper to drag people off stage if they run over their 6 minutes. If you’ve never seen a Sparks session check out our Vimeo channel.  6 minutes to share an inspirational idea. More details on that soon but thanks in advance to  Bill Buchan, Colleen Burns, Deborah Cole, Julian Robichaux, Norman Cox, Stuart McIntyre, Tim Davis, Gaby Spaszewski and Jamie Magee.  Watch out on this blog and the Nerd Girls blog for details of their talks.

Tuesday BP101 Adminblast 2014! with Paul Mooney

Dolphin N.Hem E 3pm

Another year another new Adminblast - Paul asked me to join him putting this together last year and we’re joining forces again this year.. some new tips, a few favourites and more slides than are sensible.  This year I hope not to be ill , nearly pass out on stage and remember almost nothing.  Last year I was saved by an ice cold bottle of beer handed to me by Mat Newman as we were about to start (just to keep from overheating)….

Wednesday BP104 : Simplifying The S’s: Single Sign-On, SPNEGO and SAML with Chris Miller

Dolphin S.Hem III 10am

This session will be an overview of all your options with regards to single sign on and single password and will be performed entirely as a series of mimes.

Wednesday SHOW401 : Taking IBM Sametime Mobile with Paul Mooney

Swan Osprey 1&2 4.30pm

This is a Show and Tell , 270+ pages on how to take a standard Domino server and turn that into Sametime on a mobile device , every step explained and detailed including our tips along the way about firewall rules, SSL certificates and performance.

Wednesday Great Geek Challenge

Fountain Restaurant 8pm - 10.30pm

Thanks to  generous sponsors the best night out at Connect is back for our 4th year.  Come and queue early, when we hit capacity we have to close the doors (well there are no doors but we’ll stand a bouncer at the gate to stop you coming in!)

So that’s my week.. in between I hope to find time to do everything else include visit the labs, meet with customers and hang out with friends.  Oh and attend a few sessions!  Mostly right now I’m looking forward to some sunshine.

See you there

Gab