Open Mic Time with the Calendar Team

What are you doing next Wednesday? That’s May 15. At 11:00 AM EDT?

Why don’t you join the Notes C&S team for an Open Mic call? It’s hosted by Andrea Mitchell and Todd Bailey who will talk about tips and tricks they’ve learned, then open the floor for your questions.

As usual, we will coerce some of the developers out to answer questions and much of the rest of the L2 crew will be in the meeting chat answering any questions you want to throw in there.

I will be there. Come see us!

Details are here and we of course make sure there is a file you can use to add the reminder to your calendar.

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27038213

See you online!

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My Week in Boston

This is the second attempt at a blog about my week in Boston.  I won’t tell you what happened there because you already know.  Here are my details.  I had planned to visit my colleagues in Littleton from Sunday to Tuesday, then speak at the ViewAdmin 2013 in Cambridge from Wednesday until Friday.  That happened.  I was in the lockdown area near the police shootout with the bad guys.  I got home on Friday night after the roughest, most turbulent flight I’ve ever been on – and I’ve been on hundreds of them.  In every way, it was the perfect end to a surreal week, one that will be remembered by everyone directly and indirectly impacted.

Nothing horrible happened TO me.  Things happened around me.  There was no escaping the emotions and the energy of the people around me.  What I’d like to do is simply to thank some people.

Firstly, thank you to WIS (Wellesley Information Services), the organizers of the always incredible ViewAdmin conferences.  You let me speak for you, you kept this conference together, running on time, kept us informed and made us feel safe.  So to Celia, Susie, Mike, Scott, and the rest of the crew – thank you.  And Bennie, thank you for subjecting yourself to whatever body search they put you through to get over to us through the lockdown on Friday just for hugs and a checkin.

Thanks to the incredible Hotel Marlowe.  You have a classy, quirky, almost kinky hotel and it rocks.  You hosted the conference, fed us, you had leopard spot and tiger stripe bathrobes in the room and then you locked the doors and wouldn’t let us leave.  And sent guards to keep any bad guys out.  We never felt afraid even a little bit.  I will come back and will encourage other people I know to come back.  You run a nice (and dog friendly) place.  A few blocks from the early morning shootout.  But I digress.

Thank you to a group of people who have become very close friends over the years.  We’ve had adventures traveling the US and Europe for these conferences and others, and I would have felt far less safe if not for the presence of these very cherished friends:  Gabriella and Tim Davis, Andy Pedisich, Rob Axelrod, Mary Beth Raven, Kathy Brown, Francie Tanner, and Chris Miller.  I couldn’t have chosen a better bunch of people to be locked into a hotel with.  I love you all.

Thank you to the conference attendees.  You paid to see a show and we felt obligated to put on a terrific one, especially since your families back home were probably going as crazy as everybody else’s.  We felt like friends talking to friends by Friday.  Come back. I hope you got your money’s worth in education.  You certainly got your money’s worth in adventure.

Thank you Facebook.  As much as I love to hate you, you let me keep Nina, Mom and Dad, my siblings, nieces, nephews, friends around the world, and acquaintances updated easily without dozens of calls on a cell system that was swamped anyway.  And you let me know they were checking up on me.  It felt good.  Most days I don’t like the controversies that show up on Facebook, but as a communications tool for non geeks, it rocks.

And a tip if you’re ever IN something like this:  Turn off the 24 hour TV.  It only makes you jumpy.  We didn’t watch it.  We got our news from the hotel staff, the LOCAL news channels, the security guards, the very loud emergency management alerts from the cell phone carriers (I was sitting in a room when 4 of ours went off at the same time.  We jumped.  High.) And we looked out the windows.  What we didn’t get was wrong news.

Thank you Boston – and Cambridge.  For being normal in the face of horror, for carrying on, for stopping when asked and for getting involved to help catch the bad guys.  You never flinched, you ran toward hurt people and your police force kicks serious butt.  I feel almost privileged to have been there this week.  I surely will never forget it.

My heart goes out to the people who WERE affected.  The injured, the families of the dead, the police and the proud people of Boston.  I wish none of this happened, but am glad I got to experience how you reacted.  You are amazing.

Home never felt so good, though.

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Where I find my Inspiration

There are times when I get down, lose my energy and inspiration.  We all do.  I look around and often find inspiration in unusual places.  This week, I found it in my young grand-nephew Tyson.  He and his family took their first-ever airplane ride to Texas.  He and his brother Eli learned among other things that yes, tumbleweeds are real and  - oh by the way, they have thorns.  I learned something from young Tyson, too.

This first picture is my favorite actually.  He’s aboard the Skylink tram at DFW airport, on the way home, sporting his new cowboy boots and hat and you can SEE him sizing up that pole. That large figure on the left is Dad, who is clearly within range to stop what’s about to happen here.

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But what will happen?  Will Tyson attack the pole?  Will Dad reach out and grab that little shoulder and stop him?

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And, he’s OFF!  His Mom said he got pretty far up, too.  These photos made me smile and reminded me of several things.  First:  Go for it – take a leap. Because why not?  Second:  Live a little.  And Third:  Have some fun. Be a little weird.  So thanks Tyson for reminding your old aunt to enjoy life a little more.  Keep climbing, kiddo! *

And for my  traveling friends and colleagues:  Admit it – we’ve all wanted to do this.

*Disclaimer: Stunt performed by an untrained kid on an open course.  DO try this at home.  Have medics standing by.  No poles or children were harmed in the making of these pictures.  Use only as directed. Your mileage may vary. Pictures by Mom who was clearly laughing her butt off.

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Send the Elevator Back Down

In 2004, Ed Brill took a chance on me.  He approved my friend Kathleen McGivney and me to speak at Lotusphere 2005, doing a Domino Administration Jumpstart.  Kathleen and I both did presentations as part of our Field Support Engineer jobs and we’d spoken at smaller conferences, but let’s face it, Lotusphere is the big stage for the community we’re in.  Kathleen and I work great as a team and we did so well on that session that we not only presented it that year, but at least twice more, and once did a DDM lab, spoke on AdminP on the ‘big stage’ and we did a few others.  So many that I’ve forgotten. I’ve presented at every Lotusphere since that first one.

Since then, I’ve teamed up with other external speakers including Jess Stratton and Francie Tanner as well as other IBMers.  Every year, there are posts after and before the show about how to get selected as a speaker, and they all say pretty much the same things.  I won’t repeat those posts, but…..

I will challenge myself and others to do what OGS speaker Kevin Spacey told us a couple of years ago.  If you spoke at IBM Connect this year, send the elevator back down.  You’ve made it to the big stage, now help other speakers who want to make it also.

At GURUPalooza this year, someone asked for the first time speakers to stand up. There were (I think) 10 or so on stage and there were 12 new speakers total out of ± 40 speakers in the BP track.  Included in the rookies were Russ Maher who is by anybody’s definition a professional teacher and presenter, but never at Lotusphere.  I even had one speaker, Sasja Beerendonk who was a first time attendee AND a first time  Lotusphere/Connect presenter whom I met at UKLUG last year.

So before it all goes hazy in your minds and you forget about IBM Connect until next September, do what Ed did for me.  Start planning to send the elevator down to someone who is wanting to make the leap onto the big stage.  Help with the User groups. Speak with a newbie at a user group.  Offer a seat beside you on stage at Connect 2014. Mentor others.  Help write abstracts.  Give back.  Step off the elevator and press the elevator for the ground floor and see who pops up on the floor when it comes back.

Posted in Life, Work | Tagged | 8 Comments

Thank you to the people who made IBM Connect 2013 a hit

I arrived in Orlando this year after driving the 8 hours by choice.  I arrived a day early to get myself ready for what many in the ‘community’ saw as the end of Lotusphere.  I knew it would be stressful for many, including me.  I’m an insider, so I knew the messages that were on the way and wondered how they’d be received.

On Saturday, I watched the community soccer/flag football party on the beach, greeted the incoming arrivals, collected a thousand or more hugs, then participated in the blogger’s annual dinner/drinks over at the Big River Brewery.  It was there that I met a man who would be dead the next day after a motorcycle accident. Most of the men on the motorcycle ride were speakers and/or friends of mine and were and are profoundly affected by the tragedy.  This started the show with a pall, and especially for the men involved, who chose to soldier on (in spite of being offered the option of not doing so).  You know who you are, and you amaze me.

But we made it through the week, we IBMers and community and customers, and I’d like to thank some of those who made my week remarkable.

First, thanks to Gabriella Davis, who worked through the flu (or lurgi as my UK friends call it), to deliver her sessions without falling over on stage – although is was close…. And for providing the most enjoyable evening of the show again in the form of the Great Geek Challenge.  The sponsors make it possible, but Gab’s vision created it and Abigail Roberts’ marketing skills helped it run smoothly.  Also Gab, thank you for being my friend.

To Tim Clark – thank you for being and for surviving.  And for the hugs.  And for allowing me to meet your lovely wife and children on Friday.

To the remarkable Mr Graham Acres, one of my Best Practices track speakers, thank you for standing in front of a room full of mostly strangers at the Nerd Girl Sparks session and letting us peek into your heart and soul for 6 minutes.  You are an amazing man and you moved us all.  You’re also an incredible technical presenter.

Thank you to Chris Miller.  I had enough trust in you to allow you to submit a total of ONE slide beyond the required ones for a one hour session, and that slide contained only a link.  I believe I threatened you if you didn’t hit it out of the park.  The tweets and verbal reviews show that the ball you hit was somewhere over Cuba by the 4th minute of the hour.  Thank you for making me look good.  To the other speakers and speaker hopefuls, IdoNotes has set the bar.  Reach for it.

To Mat Newman – thank you for the energy and the spark everywhere you went.  For the new slogan “Lead Blue and Bleed Yellow”, and for the hugs of course.  Your presentations wowed the crowd as always and your recovery from a total computer meltdown during a demo-heavy session has made you a legend among your audience as well as your fellow speakers.  Sleep well on the plane home – you didn’t sleep in Florida.

The reason I don’t normally write thank you posts is that I know I will forget somebody.  Plus, to do it justice, the post would be days long, so in short – thank you to Joyce, Colleen, Paul, Bruce, Kristin, Mike, Warren, Kitty, Amy, Francie, Ed, the Bills, Volker, the Julians, Big Tony, Kathy, The Wookie, Marie, Duffbert, the Andys, Carl, Ben, Frank, Nate, Mary Beth, Maureen and all of the attendees who came to learn.  Also everybody else whom I just left off this list.

And its NOT the end of Lotusphere.  Before we were “Social”, we were a community.  We still are.  I love you one and all.

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I’m so excited! Its IBM Connect 2013 time!

I’ve been holding back the excitement so far, but I can’t help it how – its nearly time for IBM Connect 2013. 2 days before I head out to Orlando! I’ve been working hard on the Best Practices track, helping calm nervous speakers, herding the cats into submitting slides, editing, posting.  There’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes to make it all work.  At times, from inside and out, it looks like a train wreck, and often it almost is.  All of the track managers, the speakers and the tireless organizing staff are going full tilt and ONE slip and it will all go crashing down.  Or not.  Every year, it all comes together, at just the right time.

This year seems different, there’s the same heavy tech focus, but a lot of new stuff and new ideas.  I’ll be blogging the show, attending as many sessions as I can.  I’m speaking at 2 BOFs and at Spark Ideas.  True geek fun includes Jonathan Coulter, John Hodgman and Jane McGonigal.  If you don’t know them, you better learn them before you get there or risk your geek creed.  Use your Google.  

The Great Geek Challenge is back, Speedgeeking, Spark Ideas sponsored by Nerd Girls and as usual, Nerd Girl buttons with all new designs.  I will have a special stash of the buttons that you won’t see in the bowls.  I’m a full fledged Team Social member too. 

Will I be seeing you there?  I hope so – this is going to be a great year.  

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Why you will become ‘social’ in business

I sometimes hear my friends talking about ‘social’ in almost a sneer when it comes to their business.  For every company that is panicking about not getting into the ‘social thing’, there seem to be more who are of the opinion of “Oh Please, this is so much Internet hype.  Its just a costly fad that will fall by the wayside like all the others.”

If you find yourself in either camp, consider this.  Both arguments are wrong and I think you’re already “there” and going in deeper – willingly or not. 
 
Much of the press about “social” concerns social media marketing.  That’s a marketing method and strategy and it works for some companies, but not so much for say a ball-bearing manufacturer.  I get it.  Its not for everybody and for some businesses, it would be a huge and disappointing mistake to dive into marketing your widgets using Twitter or Facebook.  No one marketing model is right for every firm and ‘social’ is no exception.
 
But you will use ‘social’ in your business even if not for marketing.  If you’re reading this blog, you already are using it.  You found this entry through a feed reader or aggregator, or because I or a friend tweeted it (personal social media marketing) or maybe you’re just stalking me on the Internet.  Who knows.  But blogs are one of the components of ‘social’ in business.  
 
Do you have a chat program in use at work?  Whether IBM Sametime, Microsoft tools (including Skype), or other chat tools built into your system, that’s social business - you simply don’t use the telephone when you can ‘ping’ somebody faster than you can dial. Just the ability to ‘see’ that the other person is at a computer or device is game-changing and barely noticed anymore.  I can’t say “I didn’t get your message” if you ‘see’ me online.  This IS social business.
 
Why does any of this matter to you in your business?  Because the other parts of ‘social’ that you may need can get lost in the noise.  Watching local or national television programs running Twitter feeds as ‘news’ is hilarious to me and invites the kind of trolling and foolishness that occurs as a result.  Its the wrong tool being used the wrong way.  Yet Twitter is credited in helping to overturn dictatorships because it IS so pervasive.  
 
You risk tuning out the parts of social business you need by not looking deeper into the tools available.  What if you could gather the collective knowledge of your most valued employees and share that to make everyone better at their jobs?  The tools are available.  Wikipedia is an example of gathering collective knowledge from many sources.  It’s not peer reviewed research, but I bet you’ve looked something up there in the last month. And nobody gets paid for putting the information out there.  Wikis are also a huge and (insanely messy but) valuable part of social business.  
 
What else might you be missing that could help your business be better and more profitable?  Do you even know?  Do you know what tools exist and even what you may already be entitled to use.
IBMConnect2013

And of course this IS going to turn into a commercial because I sincerely believe what I’ve posted here and I think that IBM Connect 2013 in January is a great place to not only strengthen your technical skills in the tools that you use today, but to discover what you might not know –  because of what you think you already know.

I’m going to be blogging for IBM officially during the show – I get to attend sessions I probably never would have before now.  I expect to have my eyes opened and hope you take the opportunity to learn also.  PLUS, there’s no snow in Orlando.  Make your reservations today and find me there.
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