Success in Brisbane and Sydney

September 13 2006

3 AM jetlag, time to make the weblog...

A great first two days of this Aussie trip.  I'll get some photos uploaded in the next day or two, but here are the highlights:

  • Brisbane's "Ed Brill live" events drew a combined 80+ customer and partner attendees (we originally expected 30).  We covered a lot of ground including Lotus strategy, Notes/Domino 7+, Hannover, Sametime 7.5, WebSphere Portal 6, and Workplace Web Content Manager.  I have questions to follow up on over the next few days.  The feedback was positive, and of the 55 feedback forms, almost everyone indicated they want more sessions like that on a quarterly basis and would like to see a monthly technical discussion.  Hopefully this can form the basis of a local user group.  Thanks to colleagues Wayne Boxall, Lea Meadhurst, Michael McKenna, and others for putting together a great day.
  • In Sydney last night, we overflowed the room for the restart of the local Lotus users group.  I love talking to user groups because the interaction is more relaxed than a formal customer call, and we can have some fun in the process.  I'm getting e-mails at 2 AM from some of the people who attended, so you can tell they were excited.  For those who turned up, we never introduced all the IBMers in the room, but you had everyone from regional vice presidents to sales leaders to customer care specialists and more.  As regional Business Unit Executive Jonathan Stern indicated, we are investing more in the ANZ market now and into next year.  That includes more PR, more advertising, more events.  Jonathan and his team have done a huge amount of market analysis and planning, and from what I've seen, they're poised to do a lot of the right things.
  • Those things include recruiting business partners and consultants (back) to the Lotus platform.  I'm doing a total of three events this week just focused on increasing the ISV/partner community for Notes and Sametime.  We've got some strong partners working with us to do the same.  Had somewhere around 50 such partners in the room for a very nice luncheon yesterday (cultural observations will be left to another post), and if I can some more rest, I'll speak to another such group later this morning.
  • I met some great customers including one organization already committed to the Eclipse platform for developing applications, so the story of Sametime 7.5 and Notes "Hannover" fits perfectly into their direction.  Some very good and positive discussion.  They also seemed keen on the RSS template coming in 7.0.2, can't wait to see more about how that gets used.

A slew of additional customer meetings on Wednesday, then the quick stop in Canberra to visit some government customers and then on to Melbourne for another user group on Thursday night.  I've been promised I will get some sleep on the weekend.

Ed Brill | Sydney, NSW Australia Category:  Lotus  Add/View Comments [18]

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  1. 1  Bill Geimer  | 9/12/2006 2:40:58 PM

    Sounds like "Ed Brill Live" should be a session at Lotusphere!. Hmmm. I wonder if anybody has a session abstract like that, yet?????

  1. 2  Bruce Elgort http://www.TakingNotesPodcast.com | 9/12/2006 3:59:03 PM

    @Bill - don't make his head swell any bigger :-) Just teasing you Ed.

  1. 3  bill geimer  | 9/12/2006 4:45:37 PM

    I would wager dinner that I could sell out the room with an abstract like that. At the price of admission and the shortage in our travel budget, well, any old port in a storm.

  1. 4  Tim Rynne http://www.timrynne.com | 9/12/2006 6:46:07 PM

    Ed, seriously, get some sleep man - you looked shattered after the presentation last night...

    It was an impressive turnout considering the local user group fell away a couple of years ago and the Sydney market has had some ups and downs - things are starting to look strong again.

    It was certainly worth the effort and I think the feeling was mutual with everyone in the room - nice and positive.

  1. 5  Gavin Bollard http://dominogavin.blogspot.com/ | 9/12/2006 7:36:29 PM

    Hi Ed,

    Sorry I couldn't make it in Sydney last night. The venue was awkward and work decided at the last minute to launch a second site (we'd been about to go live for months).

    While I think these whirlwind jetsetting tours are great, I really think that there's more value in spending just a little longer in a location and being less tired at an event.

    Hopefully you'll be back again soon.

  1. 6  Tim Rynne http://www.timrynne.com | 9/12/2006 7:56:24 PM

    @5 Gavin - just in case I gave the wrong impression - Ed's presentation was great - he didn't come across as tired during it at all - in fact it was full of energy (probably why I thought he looked tired at the end of the night)

  1. 7  Gerry Murphy  | 9/12/2006 10:14:23 PM

    Ed,

    Thank you.

    Great, passionate presentation.

    Compared to the dark days of R5 there now is a impression that IBM/Lotus are listening to the users, making sensible changes and most importantly are clearly articulating that there is a clear way foward.

    Love the bit that "It is Notes" and will run the old apps.

    This message needs to be shouted from the rooftops at the MS Exchange etc community / users.

    Thank you for coming to talk to us all.

    Great to hear that the local IBM team was in attendance.

    Gerry

  1. 8  Andrew Brew  | 9/12/2006 11:35:31 PM

    Great presentation! Looking around at who was in the room and the message being presented, I thought I had stepped back in time ten or twelve years.

    It was really very encouraging to hear of a real future for Notes/Domino.

  1. 9  John Smyle  | 9/13/2006 1:03:58 AM

    Where can I attend the Melbourne seminar tomorrow night? Does anyone know?

  1. 10  Axel  | 9/13/2006 1:44:55 AM

    "met some great customers including one organization already committed to the Eclipse platform for developing applications"

    I can no other but second that.

    Some parts still loook a bit scary, but its easier to develop Eclipse/RCP plugins than quite a few people might think.

    It is a choice for the average coder. O.k., one needs some decent books...

    My little baby is yet used internally and will be also used by customers later. Astoundishly stable for my standards :-)

  1. 11  Jonathan Stern  | 9/13/2006 3:41:02 AM

    In response to John Smyle's question, Thursday evening's Melbourne Lotus user group meeting is at the IBM offices, 60 City Road, Southbank starting at 6:30pm. Karen Bagiotis (kbagiotas@au1.ibm.com) has more details.

  1. 12  Giulio http://www.buzznotes.com.au | 9/13/2006 6:55:44 PM

    Ed,

    Cool prez. I think the attendance represented the renewed interest in Lotus Notes and Domino not seen in recent years, (it has been steadily growing since 2002 in Australia). Contextual collaboration seems to be a natural evolution of the information worker.

    I was impressed with Hannover. I think those organisations that "get it" can really leverage this stuff, and although I think technology produces competitive parity, there seems to be enough breadth in Hannover for organisations to distinguish themselves for competitive advantage even if it becomes ubiquitous. Hope to see you in Sydney again in the not too distant future....

  1. 13  Karen Bagiotas  | 9/13/2006 8:28:00 PM

    Lotus User Group Melbourne Tonight 14th September 2006

    Start time 5:45pm for registration.

    Location: Podium Level, 60 City Rd Southgate.

  1. 14  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 9/15/2006 4:26:45 PM

    Yes, Tim, I was indeed toast by the end of the night, but my mate Richard Gerdis forced me to go out for a real dinner after that which was outstanding. I can catch up on sleep today. :)

    Laurette wrote a very good summary of the meeting here:

    { Link }

    Technical info aside, the most positive outcome of the night was the buzz in the room. People came out of business hours, to an out of the city location, and didn't rush off immediately afterwards. Sure, there was beer well, not for me), but there did seem a real feel in the air that people were very keen to try to (re)create a local Lotus community. This was also backed up by the strong message that IBM are committing to increase their presence in the market.

  1. 15  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 9/16/2006 7:57:30 AM

    Just as one indication of the commitment the local team is making, google ads on one of my gmails today included one keyed on "Lotus Notes":

    Lotus notes

    Achieve organisational productivity Buy IBM Lotus Notes Software. Now

    www.ibm.com.au

    which connected to { Link }