My Morning with 30 College Students at LS11 and A Blown Opportunity by IBM

Bill Malchisky  February 15 2011 12:00:00 PM

One of the highlights of the event was to see 500 Florida based college students at the OGS during LS11. A lot of people have covered this facet of the event, so I will tell my piece from a different perspective.

Upon going to the Product Showcase floor early on Monday, I noticed the students had broken into groups of four to eight and were walking around the floor, trying to take it all in. Pretty much every group I saw had the same look: overwhelming. Most have never been to a top tradeshow before and Lotusphere is a great way to start. Heck, I think we have ruined them for all other tech events as a result, but I digress... the point is they were not really sure what they were looking at on the floor. So, I introduced myself to a group which included an advisor and asked what they thought. "Wow..." The conversation from me started similar in most cases with my including, "I'll bet you have never heard of most of these companies." None of the had...which is to be expected--they are Lotus business partners and if they are not being taught about Lotus products in school...well, you get the point.

What they found useful is some logistics and a plan to attack the floor in the limited time they had amongst a full-day. Definitely told them all to hit the IBM sector in the back corner, "anything with a yellow stripe on the banner is an IBM product. There you will be able to touch the tools and products mentioned during the demos this morning, and it will make a bit more sense." They all liked that. Additionally, they loved the opportunity to be there, see the event, and think more about where they wanted to go with their degree. Several showed-up with suits and resumes in-hand. They had a plan. For me total, I took time away from the show to talk to about five groups of six...so approximately 30 students. I really enjoyed the experience and it brought me back to my college tutoring days, where I helped kids learn, as a part-time job. Not exactly the same thing here, but when you make a connection on an intellectual connection with an individual that really appreciates it, it feels good.


Where IBM Went Wrong, In My Humble Opinion...
One consistent theme across all groups to whom I spoke was their absolute devotion, admiration, and heartfelt respect for GBS. That's Group Business Software, and not IBM. No one had anything to say about IBM--neither good nor bad, just nothing...as at that point, IBM was not on their RADAR; I suspect that could have changed later with the afternoon meetings with IBMers, to be fair. Let's face it though, Group did a great job and they should be commended. Plain and simple. They did what IBM was unwilling to do and Group got the glory.

Many in the business partner and customer community have been asking, dare I say begging and even pleading, with IBM to get the young IT people interested in Lotus Notes as developers by working with places of higher learning. This approach has most definitely worked for Microsoft over the years. But, IBM has passively refused. If you recall the famed Lotus Knows IdeaJam campaign, certainly in the top most promoted ideas was to get young people involved. Nothing ever came from that feedback in the education arena...instead, IBM just grabbed some low hanging fruit so they would feel good internally. That is my perception, for the record.

What should have occurred is that the students should have been singing the praises of IBM all morning and wanting to work as an intern at IBM, rather than an intern with Group. Again, I am not trivializing Group's effort here, just that IBM had a golden opportunity to make a difference, build loyalty from future prospects who could recommend IBM Collaborative software solutions and IBM instead chose to ignore the opportunity. What I found most interesting is that IBM gets the students on-site was a success; several IBM managers retweeted the happy #LS11 tweets submitted by college kids, which spoke highly of the experience. So, management sees this day as a good thing. For Lotusphere2012 it is rumored to have 1000 students to be on-premises, but no word how that will play out as of yet.


An Opportunity for IBM: Making Lotusphere a Lot Stronger
As a wise Wall Street client once told me, "Come to the table with solutions (otherwise your criticism is just spiteful)." I do see the opportunity. From Lotusphere97 to Lotusphere2001 tens of thousands of attendees, IBMers, business partners and their staff, plus press attended Lotusphere annually. The numbers in the Wednesday park those years equated over 15k, as memory serves. Quite an event overall, from my perspective. So, how can IBM get 15K attendees back at Lotusphere? Play50! If the NFL (National Football League) can get kids to play the whole game or 60 minutes with their Play60 campaign to help keep them in-shape and interested in physical activity, IBM should endorse a Play50 effort and have science and business school students from colleges in all 50 states attend Lotusphere2012. Run the gambit and stop soft shoeing this factor. Make a difference, build some loyalty, get people excited about the brand. This is an easy way to acquire some free advertising and really motivate people behind the brand.

IBM, please... seriously, consider this. You know it will make a difference with the kids. You saw it work well this year. Think of the interns and co-ops that will apply. The buzz on social sites from a 50 state event would be huge. The blogosphere and tech press will praise you for your efforts to education. The positive fallout will be huge and you'll have lots of that want to give it a go. The one piece you'll also need is a DDE on Mac option, as many kids just have Macs and neither need nor want a Windows VM. But that is for another blog post...see my entry on this as well.

There is a huge opportunity here and IBM should in my humble opinion, grab at the chance to get free marketing in all 50 states from college students attending consistently one of the top IT shows in the nation. You can work this to your advantage and easily return Lotusphere to its rightful place of a technical conference strong-hold...as it should be.

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