Great GRANITE Lotus User Group Meeting

Today was our February 2010 meeting for GRANITE. We had the largest number of attendees since 2008. Hopefully we can continue building our membership through 2010. We were able to sign up two new members today.

Thanks to John Head and Mike McGarel for their Lotusphere 2010 wrap up of Project Vulcan, Project Concord, and XPages. Mike also did a presentations on using OpenNTF templates to develop your own intranet. Our thanks to Mac Glore for getting us the meeting place at the IBM Center at the last moment.

I think we need to switch away from deep dish pizza for lunch at the GRANITE meetings. I can feel the cheese building up on my veins. Looks like an evening of exercising after this blog posting.

We have a new GRANITE event coming up, but I will let Roy Rumaner or Alex Kassabov talk about his up and coming event. We are planning a new GRANITE web site so look forward over the next couple of months to see what we have done.

Planet Lotus is Down: I am disconnected

Planet Lotus went down yesterday and it is going to take sometimes to come back up. I hope everything was backed up because Planet Lotus has become a great technical resource that I search for answers very often. I can get answers to my questions sometimes better than anywhere else. I hope it comes back online soon. I feel so disconnected to the Lotus community.

Lotusphere 2010: Lotus User Group BOF

Yesterday, I attended the BOF session on Lotus user groups. I am glad that the interest for Lotus user groups is growing. As the president of the GRANITE user group, I know how hard it is to run a user group. From what I heard, IBM is attempting to be more active and provide help for Lotus user groups.

We are fortunate here in Chicago that we have a great IBM team that helps us in our meetings that we have every other month. For the MWLUG conference last year they played an important role in making that happen. Hats off to the IBM team in Chicago and the Midwest sales reps. Reach out to the IBM sales and technical sales rep.

Business Partners play a key role in the success of a Lotus user group. However, it is important that the creation of a user group involve multiple BPs so that it is viewed not a benefit to only one BP. Sometimes this worries Lotus customers.

Many in the BOF were interested in restarting or starting a Lotus user group. There are many of us who are passionate about Lotus user groups so reach out to us and we would be glad to talk to you about it. There is going to be a Facebook for Lotus user groups. Unfortunately, I am not a Facebook user. I am on Linkedin.

The Next GRANITE meeting is coming up on February 8, 2010. So come join us in this meeting. I will be posting the agenda soon after I get back from Lotusphere. Tomorrow will be a sleep day as along I can fix a customer issue by tonight.

Lotusphere 2010: MWLUG Tuesday Dinner

We had a great time at the ESPN Club at the Boardwalk which included the consumption of many beers. We met at the Rotunda in the Dolphin and went over to the ESPN Club while some met us there. I blame Jim Anderson from EasySoftware for my headache.

Lotusphere 2010: Sorry, but I am a Carnivore

No more hot breakfasts at Lotusphere only continental breakfasts. After three days of pastries and bagles I could not take it anymore. So I went to McDonald's this morning. I needed the fats after standing at the booth for two days. The breakfast at McDonald's was healthier compared to the pastries.

Lotusphere 2010: ReCor Announces Extended IBM Business Partner Referral Program

From January 1, 2010 to June 30, 2010, ReCor is offering to registered and qualified IBM Business Partners, a 20% referral fee on referrals of qualified ReCor training products to their customers that result in a sale. This program is designed to help IBM Business Partners generate additional revenue by recommending ReCor training solutions to their customers. By providing training during the migration or deployment process, you help your customers maximize the return on their investment in Lotus technologies.

For more information about ReCor products visit our web site at www.recor.com. For more information about the Extended IBM Business Partner Referral Program please contact Richard Moy at (847) 424-8700 x 229 or email him at rqmoy@recor.com.


This offer is not valid for referrals of Lotus customers that have purchased products from ReCor with the past two years or who are currently under the ReCor maintenance/upgrade program.

Lotusphere 2010: BB Day Disappointment

Twice I tried getting into the competitive session on Microsoft SharePoint and twice the session was full. You would think that with the push by Microsoft on SharePoint 2010 that they would have a larger room. I was told that the slides will not be available. It would be nice if they have this session in the future either as a special session at Lotusphere Comes to You for Business Partners or have it in a business session at one of the IBM Centers.

Lotusphere 2010: Have Boarding Pass and Ready to Go

Business cards and brochures packed, laptop set up and configured, got my boarding pass and I am ready to go. Oh clothes, I need that too.