Okay... 93 is a bit of an estimate, but I think it's pretty close.. Today, a lot of folks are calling thiis "Lotusphere Day 0". If this is considered the first day of my 16th Lotusphere actviities, and if I count all the days that I attended each of the previous 15 Lotusphere, plus asll the BDDays, plus two days for the app dev course that I attended in the Y&B immediately after Lotusphere '93, plus all the Saturdays for Penumbra Group dinners (14 of them!) and/or other pre-Lotusphere meetings and/or networking activities, and the four post-Lotusphere Fridays that I spent in entertaining clients at EPCOT... and if I subtract off the two days that I missed in 2000 because I went home after BDDay and came back on Tuesday night so I could provide coverage for technical and management issues in the office... then I think that it comes to 93 days. I'd say I'm 99.5% certain that it's 93 plus-or-minus one day all told. I'm not including days spent prepping presentations and demos, and I'm not including days spent in the theme parks pre- or post-Lotusphere stricly with family. It's just days in Orlando where some or all of the day was spent on Lotusphere itself or Lotus community activities.

So, 93... That's a lot of days devoted to one event. It's more than 3 calendar months, and about 4 working months, Either way you look at it, it's a pretty significant chunk of a career... or a lifetime, for that matter.

There are others here who can say the same or similar numbers. I got my "16" badge from Bob Balaban moments after I walked into the Dolphin lobby this evening. (I was transferring my bags from the less expensive hotel that I've been sharing with the kids for the past few days over to the Dolphin.) If you see anyone else wearing a "16", keep the above numbers in mind. Even without counting all those Saturdays and the occasional Fridays as part of the Lotusphere experience, the 16-ers people have still put in on the order of 70 to 80 days at Lotusphere!

Today my only Lotusphere activity was the Penumbra dinner. I couldn't make it to B.A.L.D. I spent the morning and afternoon with the girls at the Magic Kingdom instead. At the dinner, as usual, friendships were reneweed and new people were met -- including Bob Picciano, the new Lotus GM. Also as usual, there wasn't enough time to talk to all the people I wanted to, and many of the conversations I did have were too brief. In some cases, such as an intriguing conversation I had with Russ Holden, we made notes to ourselves to catch up with each other follow-up shortly after Lotusphere. After all, when an IBMer asks "what can we do to help?", one doesn't let a silly thing like lack of time stand in the way!

And what a great thing that is to hear, too, from an IBMer, or from anyone. "What can we do to help?". That's what Lotusphere is really all about, and whether you call it Day 0 or Day 93, or whatever... It's under way!