Announcing the Midwest Lotus User Group Conference 2009 Green Project

As part of the Midwest Lotus User Group Conference 2009, we are announcing the Midwest Lotus User Group Conference 2009 Green Project. Building upon IBM's Smarter Planet concept, the MWLUG 2009 Green Project focuses on the development of signage and fixtures for the conference using designs that incorporate recyclable and renewable materials and Lotus technology. The goal of this project is to create signage/fixtures that have minimum impact on our environment.

This site follows the progress of the design team comprised of Industrial Design students from the University of Illinois and staff from Illumen Group and Phora Group. The design team will use Lotus Quickr for team collaboration and project management using templates developed by SNAPPS in addition to other online collaboration tools for this three-month project. Through online collaboration technologies, the goal is to reduce the energy consumption that would normally be required if team members needed to travel in order to meet. During the course of the project, the design team will factor into their design the cost of materials, energy consumption use to create the building materials, and renewability of the materials. In addition, the design team will track the amount of energy saved using the online collaboration tools.

The final completed design will be displayed during the Midwest Lotus User Group Conference held on August 27-28, 2009 in Chicago.

IBM Business Partner, Taishan Works, will host the Lotus Quickr site.