More Fear And Loathing At Lotusphere

One might assume, since IBM pushes collaboration tools and knowledge management, that the company and its phalanx of PR/marketing/trade show types, might have a clue about what's going on at its own annual Lotusphere show.

But, one would be wrong.

Two out of three reporters queried (and there weren't many more than that in Orlando this week) found their initial check-in experience to be less than "magical"-- to borrow an obnoxious Disney term.

To be fair, it IS hard for any company, even IBM, to mandate that its vendor partners—in this case the truly awful Swan and Dolphin complex, use the same tools it does. How is it that the site of so many tech conferences cannot provide glitch-free (or in some cases any) wireless. They should, it's included in the extortionate "resort fee" they charge.

Magical? Yeah. Right.

Given the level of IBM confusion over such basics as when if the press room was open, one can assume two scenarios:

One: that IBM peeps aren't using their own collaboration tools (or eating their own dogfood in one of the industry's most overused clichs.)

Or

Two: that they're using them but they don't work.

Given last year's horrendous experience, this is not a very positive picture for IBM/Lotus.