

Italian Lotus user group DominoPoint ‘s

second annual Domino

Day conference ("DDay2")

was a huge success by all measures. The one-day on October 10 event

included two tracks, fourteen speakers, approximately 400 participants,

and a dozen vendors. Like Paul Mooney’s ILUG and Warren Elsmore’s

UKLUG, this free event to attendees was entirely sponsored by vendors.

Free admission drives up attendance, and then everyone wins.





Event planning



The organizers (Giuseppe Grasso, Daniele

Grillo, Claudio Meregalli) worked the budget magically to cover everything,

including hired help for most of the onsite labor. Thanks to Davide

Pannuto and his IBM team for covering speaker hotel rooms. Even Lotusphere

doesn’t offer that perk. DominoPoint also covered a very impressive

lunch, even by Italian standards. Easily the best food in the Lotus

conference community. By the way, I learned that when talking about

food Italians qualify each type of food with the specific region of Italy

from which it originated. And at the speaker dinner I learned —

and should have already known from my past travels — that some restaurants

serve upwards of 8 or 9 courses! I was warned of this when, at about

course five, it became apparent to others that I was not pacing myself

very well! But that was one of the best dinners I’ve had in Italy,

and I’ve had quite a few.

Language challenges



The fact that it was entirely in Italian

(except for my session and one vendor session) made it one of the most

unique Lotus events I’ve attended. This was truly the quintessence

of a country-level users group conference. The all-Italian participant

roster represented every region of Italy. And it’s the only major

Lotus event in Italian. By the way, in light of that factor, I am

particularly thankful to my fellow

speakers who, whenever we were

hanging out, were quick to translate to me or switch to English!

The peninsular country of Italy doesn’t

get a lot of "thru traffic", so Italians tend to understand less

English than do people from central and north western Europe. However,

the good news for an English speaking presenter such as myself is that

Italian Lotus developers and administrators all understand at least some

English. This is because, despite the Italian Notes Client, the Designer

and Admin Clients and their help doc are available in English only. Here

are my tips

for presenting in English as a foreigner .

Personal note



Some of the DominoPoint bloggers have

since referred to me in their post-conference write-ups as their "guest

star" at DominoDay, but I’m no different than them. I have my

specialty, and like to present on it. The difference is that they

were willing to let me speak in some foreign language : ). So for

that reason, it was a real honor and privilege to be the only non-Italian

at the event. The speakers and attendees were all very friendly,

and I have a bunch of new friends in one of my favorite countries. Special

thanks to Giuseppe Grasso for scouting me at ILUG, asking me to speak,

and making it happen. I had a great time, and next year I’ll definitely

be interested in speaking again.

Below are my DominoDay slides on Fixing

Domino Application Performance. Key points are in Italian (thanks

to translation help from Daniele

Vistalli and Cristian

D’Aloisio ), but most of the details

are in English. Also, here is an all-English

version that includes these same

slides and more.



