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Coming up soon. Engage 2022

I’ve just came back to my blog and noticed, that I have not written since the last Engage that took place in March 2020. You all know what happened in between and how we all missed the occasional gathering of the HCL Collaboration Software Community.

So, the wait is over. Theo Heselmans with huge support of Hilde has found us a great place to meet in the historic city of Bruges. The event will take place in May from the 24th, to the 25th, 2022. One day earlier on Monday afternoon there are already very interesting workshops that are worth your time as well.

Here is the link to register: https://engage.ug/engage2.nsf/Pages/attend2022order

If you are hesitant if you should attend, I’ll give you a few reasons why you should travel to Belgium:
– Choose from over 80 sessions, all around HCL software, like Domino, Connections, Sametime or Volt. Listen and learn, the speakers want to share their knowledge
– Meet HCL Product Managers and Representatives in a professional, but informal environment. They are eager to talk to you and know about customer success stories and challenges.
– Meet technical experts from different industries (bring your technical challenges and issues, there is a lot of talent around)
– Talk to the sponsors and business partners and get to know their solutions and products
– Attend the numerous round tables and get your voice heard. All hosts love a vivid conversation
– If you attend for the first time, no worries. Even if it feels like a class reunion (and somehow it is) we are a friendly bunch. Just introduce yourself and you’ll belong to the group faster than you may think
– Use the different breaks to make new friends and mingle

In that sense, we see each other in May!

Out of my comfort zone

I had a very busy year so far. We started with different new projects, mostly IBM Connections related, but we also worked on development projects and did consulting around security topics. A very interesting and inspiring IBM Think event followed in March. Just after being back from Las Vegas we organized our annual customer event and presented the good news about #Domino2025 to a very eager audience. Should anyone have missed the great news, here are the most recent slides from IBM and HCL as presented during #SocialConnections in Philadelphia.

 

So far so good and nothing out of the ordinary, right? But after months or years doing our business like it was “business as usual” we wanted to step outside our comfort zone and approached totally new customers (prospects) and introduced them to the collaboration solutions and offerings from IBM.

Talking to new companies and contacts, that we’ve had no ties nor common ground with, was totally outside my comfort zone and I felt unsure and somehow out of place. But, it was worth it! The experience was totally eye-opening.

The eye-opener was that those Swiss companies (not small ones) from different industries never had heard of IBM Connections and were not aware that IBM even had a solution that could help fulfill their business needs around collaboration sites and know-how sharing. To look at solutions from IBM never crossed their minds.

Those customers never assumed they had a choice besides the offering from Microsoft. So after very busy weeks and a lot of conversations with different companies I can confirm there is a huge opportunity to talk to new faces and going outside the comfort zone.

In only a few days, I will be at Engage in Rotterdam and will have a session with Roberto Mazzoni from the University of Zurich. We will talk about how the University works with IBM Connections and made the solution popular amongst students as well. I will also share my insights from outside my comfort zone and what I’ve learned over the last few weeks.

The next Major Event scheduled – Engage in Eindhoven (NL)

Engage, the biggest ICS user group event in Europe will take place from March 23rd, 2016 to March 24th, 2016 in Eindhoven. Theo Heselmans, is organizing a two day event in a very special location and I am really looking forward to be inside a spaceship for the first time in my life 😉

Continue reading The next Major Event scheduled – Engage in Eindhoven (NL)