This is starting to be a little old, but after every BLUG/Engage every blogger from the community simply has to - contract is very strict about this :) - write that Theo and Hilde did it again, that Engage was bigger than last year, venue was impressive and event most successful. It’s very easy to do so, as it is 100 % true.
In previous years you may have noticed, though, that most of the “post-event” blog posts don’t mention specific sessions but more the general vibe of the event (and that’s not because sessions are not good, they sure are). It’s caused by the fact the people in this community are simply great and it is extremely nice to be part of it.
I am sad I did not speak this year, as speakers decided to collect some money to buy Theo and Hilde something to thank them for all their hard work. It was a really touching moment and I’m very happy I’ve witnessed it. So, Hilde and Theo, thanks a lot and enjoy your well deserved weekend!!!
Attending user group events helps you to assign real faces to Twitter handles, it gives you the opportunity to personally thank people who were helping you on Slack chat with some problems or who wrote fantastic piece of software you use every day. It also gives you a better perspective on what is going on in your field. This year despite very optimistic changes in IBM and promises from new GM for IBM Collaborations Solutions Inhi Cho Suh was a bit less cheerful. During some of the discussions I’ve noticed bigger interest in alternative ways of working with Domino data, alternative approaches to build UI for existing Notes applications. Many of the sponsoring companies were offering solutions to help customers use existing data in a modern way, be it by providing frameworks to builds standard apps or by first moving data from Domino to some other storage and then use them.
What everybody wanted to hear was when the next release of Domino/Notes will be announced. But we did not hear that from IBM. What we did hear was that Connect 2017 will be in San Francisco on February 19-22. And by the way, chances are next version of Domino will not be announced at all. With Inhi’s determination to make a difference I guess everything can happen now.
P.S.: I never was at Lotusphere/Connect, so I’ve up until day before the Engage never met Mat Newman in person. Yet when he came to “pre engage lotusbeer” I was given a legendary hug from him and I think he really meant it when he said “it is SOO GOOOD to meet you” (please read with Australian accent). Crossing that of my bucket list! Not only he is the biggest Notes enthusiast, he is also Linux user. That I call great taste in software!