Category Archives: User Groups

Goodbye and Thank YOU SocialBiz User Group

Received this sad news this morning:

SocialBizUGorgLogoDear Community Members,

It’s with great sadness that we announce the closure of the SocialBiz User Group. As a member, you’ll have access to the community through February 22, 2016.

User Group Leaders: Please make sure to download any files or resources you may have added to your user group community page.

Newsletter subscribers: Chris Miller will continue to write a newsletter for Notes/Domino administrators and host his archived Admin Edition Newsletter contributions.  You can sign up for his ongoing Sys Admin Tips Newsletter to stay on top of the latest Notes/Domino news for admins.

It has been a pleasure serving this community and the user groups for over 10 years! Hopefully our paths will cross again in the future. Until next time…

Best wishes,

The SocialBiz User Group Management Team

It’s sad to see this site go away, but it’s understandable. I want to thank them for providing so much useful information to the community at large, and for allowing me to appear on the site a couple of times. I also want to thank them for giving the Detroit Notes Professionals User Group a ‘holding spot’ for all this time until I can figure out the best way to revive it. YOU WILL BE MISSED!

As Rafiki would say… IT IS TIME! MWLUG 2015 Abstract Submission is NOW OPEN!

MWLUG2015

The Master of MWLUG, Richard Moy, begins on his post

I am please to announce that session abstract submission is now opened for MWLUG 2015.  Abstract submission will close on May 22, 2015 so get your abstracts in.  To submit your abstract go to: http://mwlug.com/mwlug/mwlug2015.nsf/Abstract.xsp

I love the theme this year, “Transforming Collaboration Through Innovation”, as it speaks to what a lot of us are doing. We either change what we do WITH what we have (or can get) or we’ll get left behind!

If you are doing something different or new, submit an abstract! If you are doing something that could help others, submit an abstract! If you are doing ‘something’, submit an abstract! (Do you see a trend here?)

You have until May 22nd, so get on board and submit an abstract NOW!

2015 Class of IBM Champions for ICS have been announced… so humbled and honored!

IBMchampion-250x65

After the evening, night and morning that I had, I was surprised by a text message by my brother, Devin Olson:

Congratulations Champ!
https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/blogs/ibmchampion/entry/announcing_the_2015_class_of_ibm_champions_for_ics?lang=en

Needless to say (but saying anyway), I am SO HUMBLED and HONORED to have been selected as a 2015 IBM Champion for ICS! Last year was a complete whirlwind of energy, excitement, and knowledge sharing. I thought that I would be ‘one and done’, and I was okay with that! With this honor, I will not only continue to ‘learn and share’, ‘collaborate and teach’ and ‘exchange knowledge and ideas’ to the community at large.

One way I’m hoping to do this is by bringing back and enhancing a user group here in Michigan! There have been a couple of them over the years, including my ‘home’ UG, Detroit Notes Professionals, but they have really been in need of some attention. In 2015, they will get that attention… at least from me!

Congratulations also go out to my friends and fellow IBM Champions, and welcome to the new IBM Champions selected for 2015!!! See you all at IBM ConnectED 2015! (The rest of you are coming, right? If not, you should… register HERE!)

Thank you to Amanda Bauman (IBM Champion Program Manager) and Oliver Heinz (ICS Community Manager) for all of their hard work in 2014. Let the fun (and hard work) continue in 2015!

My new post on the Detroit Notes Professionals User Group blog – ‘IBM Connect 2014 – Here it comes!’

I’ve posted a little something about my feeling on IBM Connect 2014 on the Detroit Notes Professionals user group site, which is found at SocialBizUG.org. The post includes why you should go, some tips and an invitation to meet up. Check it out here:

IBM Connect 2014 – Here it comes!

Heading to MWLUG 2013? Don’t forget your best homebrew or favorite local brewery’s beer!

It’s not too late to sign up for MWLUG 2013, the Midwest ‘Lotus’ User Group Conference, in Indianapolis. Register HERE now!!!

One of my ‘brothers in beer’, Gregg Eldred, was scheduled to coordinate a new event this year, but due to scheduling/work conflicts, it’s been passed along to me. This gives you an opportunity to show your homebrewing skills! You don’t make your own beer? Why not? Seriously, if you have a beer from a microbrewery/brewpub by your house that you think is awesome, that will count also! Bring some to MWLUG 2o13 and compete. Here is the information from the website:

MWLUG 2013 Charity Brewfest Competition

04:00 PM – 06:00 PM – Conrad Room

Do you think you have created a great home brew or wine!!! Do you think your local micro-brewery beer is out of this world!!! Then bring them with you to MWLUG 2013 and lets find out.

We are happy to announce the MWLUG 2013 Charity Brewfest Competition. It will be held on Wednesday August 21, 2013 4:00 PM just before the MWLUG Wednesday Exhibitor Showcase Reception. This competition is open for all attendees. We would like to thank our sponsor CDW for making this event possible.

Ray Bilyk and his panel of experienced judges will taste the different entries and select the winners of this competition. [Original organizer] Gregg [Eldred] has selected some interesting prizes for this competition.

In order to participate in this competition, the submission fee is $10 with all proceeds benefiting the MWLUG Oklahoma Tornado Relief Fund. You can submit as many entries as you would like. For each entry, please bring at least two 12 ounce bottles. All competitors will need to sign a waiver. All nationally distributed micro-brewery beer do not qualify. Registration for this event will be on Wednesday.

For every dollar that we raise in this event, our sponsor Phora Group will match a dollar. We are working with other sponsors for additional matching funds that will all benefit the Oklahoma residences that have been devastated by the recent horrific tornadoes.

Thank you to CDW and Phora Group for sponsoring and matching funds raised from this event! Thank you also to organizer Richard Moy for trusting me with this. I hope to live up to the high standards that Gregg set. Thanks also to Gregg Eldred for getting the prize for the big winner.

Hope to see you all there… Cheers!

MWLUG 2013 Agenda Now Online and Hotel Discount Expiring

MWLUG 2013 Banner

 

MWLUG 2013 Agenda Now Online

We are three weeks away from the fifth Midwest Lotus User Group Conference. We are please to announce that the MWLUG 2013 Agenda is now online with over 40 technical and business sessions and workshops. If you are looking to hear some of the best speakers and presentations available within our IBM collaboration community, MWLUG 2013 is the conference to attend.

MWLUG 2013 Workshops

The MWLUG 2013 workshops will start on Wednesday, August 21, 2013 in the afternoon. For administrators, there will be an intense 2.5 hr Linux Workshop “Building Your ICS Test Environment with Linux” hosted by our one and only William Malchisky. For developers interested in creating and mastering Managing Beans, Mike McGarel and Devin Olson will be hosting a 2 hour workshop “Build a Bean”.

Starting on Thursday after the OGS, there will be two full days of technical and business sessions that include the following topics:

  • Application Development
  • Best Practices and Customer Business Cases
  • Mobility and Web Security
  • System Administration
  • Social Business

For a list of MWLUG 2013 sessions go to: http://www.mwlug.com/mwlug/mwlug2013.nsf/Sessions.xsp

 

MWLUG 2013 Brewfest Competition

Don’t forget to bring your favorite home brew or microbrewery beer and compete in the “MWLUG 2013 Brewfest Competition” that will be held on Wednesday afternoon after the workshops. The donation entry fee is $10 which will be donated to the Salvation Army – Oklahoma Tornado Relief Fund. Our sponsor Phora Group will match dollar for dollar.

Hotel Discount

The guaranteed online hotel discount of $139.00 for MWLUG 2013 will expire on August 1, 2013. After August 1, 2013, your will need to call the hotel to see if they have available rooms at the discounted rate. So don’t miss the opportunity to get these rooms at a guaranteed discount. Unfortunately, train car room are no longer available. To register for the hotel go to: http://mwlug.com/mwlug/mwlug2013.nsf/Hotel.xsp

Registration

MWLUG 2013 is 3 full days with additional events and workshops on Wednesday along with two full days of sessions on Thursdayand Friday. Thanks to all the MWLUG sponsors, this three full days of events, technical sessions, and workshops is provided to attendees at no cost with the exception of a $35.00 donation. The agenda for MWLUG 2013 is:

  • Tuesday – TLCC TackItOn
  • Wednesday – Special events, workshops, and Welcome Reception
  • Thursday – OGS, technical session and Thursday Evening Event
  • Friday – Full day of sessions and CGS

 

To register for MWLUG 2013 go to: http://www.mwlug.com/mwlug/mwlug2013.nsf/Register.xsp

 

TackItOn at MWLUG 2013

Then be sure to take advantage of the TLCC TackItOn day on August 20th. Paul Della-Nebbia will lead this full day session which is based on TLCC’s Rapid XPages Development using Application Layout and Dojo UI Controls self-paced course! all for $499.

For more information and to register for the TackItOn XPages Training day on August 20th go to: http://www.tlcc.com/admin/tlccsite.nsf/pages/mwlugtackiton

 

Crowne Plaza Grand Ballroom 

Crowne Plaza Hotel – Union Station
Indianapolis, IN

MWLUG 2013 will be held at the historic Crowne Plaza Indianapolis Downtown Union Station. The hotel is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and housed within America’s first Union Station. The Crowne Plaza Indianapolis Downtown is popular for its authentic Pullman train car rooms decorated after period personalities.

LotusBeers / IBMSocialBeerz – Detroit

Detroit Notes ProfessionalsI cross-posted this at SocialBizUG.org‘s Detroit Notes Professionals Community… If you haven’t joined the community (or SocialBizUG.org), now’s the time to join! (SocialBizUG.org is the website formerly known as LotusUserGroup.org)

The concept for ‘LotusBeers’ (now IBMSocialBeerz… thanks Stuart McIntyre!) is simple… we get together at a central (or near-central) location after work one day and have a couple of beverages… notice I did not say “have a presentation”, “workshop”, “seminar” or even “conference”. I’m just talking about the concept of ‘social’ in its purest and original form… SOCIALIZING!

If you are interested, let me know where you work so a ‘near-central’ location can be picked via emailDM or by leaving a comment.

Hopefully this can be the rebirth of DNP!

LotusUserGroup.org Buttons (UPDATE 2013-02-26)

SocialBizUG.org (formerly LotusUserGroup.org) had a contest to see how many buttons people kept from different Lotuspheres and other conferences through the years. I found a few of them, but I know that a few more are in boxes under boxes in my basement. I’ve got to get in there and see how many more I have… Some LotusUserGroup.org buttons through the years.

What do you think?

 

MWLUG 2012 – My perspective

Last week, I was fortunate enough to attend the Midwest Lotus User Group (MWLUG) 2012 Conference, which was held in Pittsburgh, PA. I was also honored to speak at the conference this year. My presentation was entitled “How to Be a Domino Administration Superhero”. My slides and video can be found here.

I took ‘my pride’ (family) with me, as they didn’t really get a vacation this year due to my change of employers this year. In reality, my wife and kids really enjoy attending MWLUG… everyone that attends the conference are really nice to them, and it gives them a chance to see in person all of ‘Daddy’s Lotus friends’. My kids especially look forward to seeing Richard Moy… a quote from one of my kids, “He’s so nice!” – I agree!

We drove to Pittsburgh on Wednesday, and started bumping into friends even before checking in. The hotel, the Omni William Penn, is beautiful, and the staff was very nice. They even provided the kids milk and cookies each night, plus a ‘Kids Pack’ that normally cost $8 each for free. (That’s goes a long way to insure repeat business!) Once we checked in and unpacked, we ran to a nearby Arby’s for a quick bite, and then came back so I could attend the Welcome Reception. Thanks to Sherpa Software for sponsoring this! The beverages and hors d’oeuvres were very tasty! I visited some of the vendors that were in attendance and bumped into more and more friends, especially “Uncle” Devin Olson. After a quick walk and a cigar, a few of us went to the hotel bar, where I enjoyed more of everyone’s hospitality. Before I knew it, I was back in my room getting a few minutes of sleep.

On Thursday, I came down to get breakfast and attend the opening general session. Kathy Donatelli and Louis Richardson did an outstanding job! (Lindsay Patross spoke at lunchtime, and was great as well!) All of the keynote speakers kept me entertained and informed. Many times, you leave a keynote not getting anything out of it, but this was not the case for any of them! I hope to see them speak again. After the opening session, I attended BP102 – NOTES.INI Secrets, presented by my new friend, Jalpresh “JT” Tailor, which was had some overlap to the session I was presenting on Friday, but with more than enough differences to be informative. (I even took a few notes for my presentation. Thanks, JT!) Right after that, it was back to the main hall for lunch and Lindsay’s presentation. The rest of the day seemed a blur, but before I knew it, it was over, and I was back in my room tweaking my presentation for the next day.

On Friday, I got up early and lead a BOF (Birds of a Feather) for the Detroit Notes Professionals User Group (DNP), which unfortunately had only a couple of people attend due to the time and other BOFs going on at the same time. (It was noted that there was not a lot of people from the Michigan region at the conference, which is a shame.) Following the DNP BOF, I swallowed some more coffee, and then got ready to present my session. What started out as a couple of people turned into a full room. After my session, which was well received by those in attendance, I attended Kim Greene’s session, “Be a Domino Detective – Tackling Your Toughest Performance Issues”. If you have a chance to attend any session Kim gives, do so… you won’t regret it! Next, I attended a session on IBM SmartCloud for Social Business presented by Rupert Clayton from CDW. I honestly didn’t expect to get a lot out of it, but not only did I learn a lot, but there was some great discussion during the session. Due to a work commitment, I had to grab the pride and our luggage, and head back to Detroit early, but not before dropping off some gifts, courtesy of just a few of Michigan’s finest brewers.

I want to thank Richard Moy, Gregg Eldred and the rest of the organizing group that made MWLUG 2012 possible. There were over 180 attendees, and everyone seemed to enjoy it. I’ve organized conventions and other major events before, and it seems to be a thankless job, but believe me, I appreciate all of your efforts! I also want to thank the committee for selecting me to speak. I always enjoy speaking in front of people and sharing what I know. I hope to be able to do more of that in the future!

I also want to thank the sponsors of MWLUG 2012 who spent their hard earned money to give us a first class conference for next to nothing. Take a look at these companies, and check out their services. You will be glad you did!

I want to thank my employer and colleagues for allowing me to attend this conference. Without them, it would not have been possible.

I also want to thank my family for coming with me to this event and giving me the time prepare for my session and to meet up with friends (even until the wee hours of the night). I know that they had a great time in Pittsburgh, and know that they are already planning a trip back there soon. (Maybe this time, I can see the sights with them… LOL!)

Thanks go out to the conference hotel, the Omni William Penn Hotel, for treating my family with class. This hotel is beautiful, and that staff was very friendly and knowledgeable. If you are planning a stay in Pittsburgh, try to stay here.

Finally, thanks go out to those of you that attended the Detroit Notes Professionals BOF and my session. I hope that you got something out of it, and just remember that ALL OF YOU ARE SUPERHEROES!

Next year’s conference, MWLUG 2013, is scheduled for August 13-16, 2013, in Indianapolis, Indiana. I admit that a few of us were campaigning for the conference to come to Michigan (#MWLUGinMI), but I trust the committee with their decision making process. (It also doesn’t hurt to have Sam Bridegroom wanting to quarterback.) I’ve already got it on my calendar, and you should too! I hope to see you all there!