Are you at Lotusphere 2011? We hope so!

We've put together a special newsletter that delves into how you can engage with eProductivity and related events at the on-going Lotusphere 2011 conference.

Here you go, your guide to eProductivity news & events...

This year, unfortunately, I couldn't make it to Lotusphere in Orlando. After 2009's triumph there with the eProductivity team, I was disappointed not to attend. But, all was not lost. Today I attended the Lotusphere Comes to You roadshow, and this time I didn't have to fly half-way round the world. It was taking place in Barcelona, at the Hotel Juan Carlos I hotel, and a 20 minute walk had me arriving just before the 09:30am start.

So, how was it? I would say a 'roaring success' judging by some comments from my fellow-attendees (a crowd of around 150 attended).

The highlight for me was certainly Ed Brill's talk on the direction of Lotus collaboration. In Spanish! Well done Ed, your effort and enthusiasm were appreciated by one and all. eProductivity got a nice mention, as did yours truly (Eric Mack must have warned him of my presence). Thanks Ed. The 5-minute Project Vulcan video that Ed included left me inspired. You could almost feel the sizzle in the room, as the new tools that Lotus are building looked great. Looks like exciting things ahead for IBM Lotus software.

Ed's slide showing eProductivity:

Luis Suárez also did a very nice job of explaining the social software improvements being made in the Lotus family. Sametime, portal, mashups, social enterprise, Lotusphere prizes and case studies followed-on and, without going into any detail, rest assured that it really does show the strong offering that Lotus has.

All-in-all a great day.

If you're an IBM business partner - or even if you're not - here's a special Lotusphere session you'll want to attend.

Tomorrow morning, Eric Mack will be speaking about the extraordinary value eProductivity can bring to you and your customers. eProductivity is the only GTD-Enabled solution for Lotus Notes, and it has been proven to compel people to switch from Outlook to Lotus Notes.

Session: "eProductivity - Improving Personal Productivity with Lotus Foundations

• Presenter: Eric Mack
• Time: 8:00am on Wednesday, January 20
• Location: SMB Solutions Lab (Europe 10)

Bonus: We'll be giving away free eProductivity software to attendees!

We're developing a new eProductivity Partner program and in this session, we'll show you how eProductivity can drive your sales. So come on by.

IBM announced a new Lotus Solutions catalog today, and eProductivity is one of the featured apps. Also cool was seeing eProductivity featured during Kevin Cavanaugh and Mike Masterson's Business Development Day session here at Lotusphere. You can see some pictures over at the Notes on Productivity blog.

Here is a screenshot of eProductivity's featured product page (click to go to the page):

Lotusphere 2010 is just over a week away (wow!), and here at eProductivity, we're pretty much swamped getting ready. It's going to be a great event with lots of exciting opportunities for eProductivity.

If you're coming to Lotusphere, please, please get in touch with us. We always enjoy meeting folks face-to-face. So far, the eProductivity team will be Eric Mack and myself. Now that you've got our pictures, you stand about 1% better odds of picking us out of the yellow-clad masses.

If you want to be certain to meet us, get in touch with us via email, phone, smoke signal, and let us know that you'll be there.

See you at the show!

Thank you to everyone who stopped by to say hello. It was great to meet so many of our customers and productivity champions in person. It was an added treat to have long-time Notes user and eProductivity champion, David Allen, join us in the exhibit hall on Monday to share how he personally gets things done with Lotus Notes and eProductivity. David Also signed copies of his new book, Making It All Work. We hope you enjoy these pictures...

Link to original Teamstudio press release

eProductivity Principal Architect Ian Armstrong and Eric Mack received a plaque for honorable mention at the Teamstudio Spotlight Awards reception at Lotusphere 2009.





As part of this recognition, the folks at DominoPower will be writing an article about the product. We will post a link here when it arrives. This evening, David Allen and I presented our best practices session at Lotusphere. It was a lot of fun to copresent with David as our presentation styles are so different. It reminded me of the "I'm a Mac and I'm a PC" ads. (Can you guess who would be the PC?)


Last-minute slide review at the Swan hotel before our presentation

Continue Reading: "Our Lotusphere best practices session is over!" »

View press release in a separate window

LOTUSPHERE, ORLANDO, FL, January 15, 2009 – The David Allen Company (DAC) today announced that international best selling author, David Allen and eProductivity Specialist, Eric Mack, will present two sessions at Lotusphere 2009 on January 19 & 20.

Maximizing Personal Productivity with IBM Lotus Notes
BP304: 5:00 PM on January 19, at the Swan Hotel (SW 7-10)

Session Abstract:
People often talk about Lotus Notes being an "organizational" productivity tool; that's the way Lotus Notes is marketed and it's often the way organizations deploy it -- as a top down solution. Seldom do you hear about Lotus Notes being used for "personal" productivity or knowledge management. As a consequence many users see Notes as a "company" tool and not "their" tool. When tools become "personal," productivity increases and when personal productivity increases so does the productivity of the workgroup and the organization. This session will show both expert and novice Notes users how they can use Notes coupled with proven best practices to make them immediately more productive.

Getting Things Done with Lotus Notes
BOF408: 7:00 AM on January 20, at the Swan Hotel (SW Mockingbird 1-2)

Session Abstract:
This community of interest will explore ways to make using Lotus Notes more productive by making it “personal.” When tools become “personal,” productivity increases and when personal productivity increases, so does the productivity of the workgroup and the organization. This interactive discussion will bring together expert and novice Lotus Notes users to share how they are using Notes for personal action and information management.

“Eric Mack's approach to personal knowledge management and David Allen's GTD® methodology are natural companions. Add in Lotus Notes, and you have a great combination that can help individuals be more productive,” said Ed Brill, director Lotus Notes, IBM Lotus. “David and Eric have been long-time advocates for Lotus Notes and I am looking forward to seeing this session at Lotusphere.”  

David Allen will also be signing copies of his new book, "Making It All Work" in the Lotusphere product showcase, immediately following the Monday evening session.

Speaker Information:

About David Allen
David Allen is widely recognized as the world’s leading expert on personal and organizational productivity.  His twenty-five-year pioneering research and coaching to corporate managers and CEOs of some of America’s most prestigious corporations and institutions has earned him Forbes’ recognition as one of the top five executive coaches in the world and Business 2.0 magazine's inclusion in their list of the "50 Who Matter Now."  Fast Company Magazine has also called David “one of the world’s most influential thinkers” in the arena of personal productivity.

David is the international bestselling author of Making It All Work: Winning at the Game of Work and the Business of Life, Getting Things Done: the Art of Stress-Free Productivity, and Ready for Anything: 52 Productivity Principles for Work and Life.  He is also the engineer of GTD, the popular Getting Things Done methodology that has shown millions how to transform a fast-paced, overwhelming, overcommitted life into one that is balanced, integrated, relaxed, and has more successful outcomes.  

For additional information about David Allen and GTD, please visit www.DavidCo.com

About Eric Mack
Eric Mack is the founder and president of ICA.COM, Inc. (ICA), a professional consulting organization, based in California, USA. In 2007, Eric celebrated 25 years in business as an technologist, software developer, public speaker, and productivity consultant.  He has provided expert consulting services to more than 350 corporate and government clients, most notably in the area of information, communication, and action management. An articulate speaker, Eric has also shared his technological insights with more than 10,000 people around the world through his eProductivity coaching and seminars. Eric has been a featured speaker at the Office 2.0 and KMWORLD conferences and was the keynote and featured presenter for the Beyond Planning Conference in Manila, Philippines.

Eric is also the creator of eProductivity™, a GTD® implementation solution for Lotus Notes that is both used and recommended by David Allen.

For additional information about Eric Mack or ICA, please visit www.ICA.com

IBM, Lotus, Notes, Lotusphere, are trademarks of IBM Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.  "GTD®" and "Getting Things Done®" are Trademarks or registered trademarks of The David Allen Company. eProductivity is a trademark of ICA.COM, Inc.

If you are planning to be at Lotusphere, you are in for a treat! Stop by pedestal #722, say hello and hand us your business card. Then, pick up your Lotusphere 2009 resource CD from the Notes on Productivity Blog.



This CD contains the presentation slides from my Lotusphere presentation (BP304) with David Allen, a number of GTD Documents from the David Allen Company, two recent podcasts on using Notes productively, (courtesy of Bruce Elgort and Michael Sampson), links to useful resources, and a special gift from eProductivity.

This is my way of saying "Thank you" to the Notes community and for stopping by to say hello!  I look forward to meeting you!

Remember: eProductivity, Pedestal #722 in the Lotusphere Product Showcase. See you soon!

The Notes community is buzzing with proposals for sessions for Lotusphere 2009. The IdeaJam site is busy with ideas and people are voting to show their interest (or lack thereof) in various topics. I think that this is a great use of IdeaJam to serve the Notes community.

With David Allen's recent comments about Lotus Notes, last week, I've decided to revisit the idea of presenting a session on personal knowledge management and productivity using Notes for next year's Lotusphere 2009 conference.

This session would look at some of the best practices of information and knowledge organization as well as how to effectively manage projects and actions with Lotus Notes.

Last year, I proposed a session on Maximizing Personal Productivity with Lotus Notes, but with so many excellent developer and admin tracks last year, this topic was considered outside of the scope of interest for Lotusphere. (Lotusphere is more administrator and developer oriented.) Still, it seems to me that even developers and admins (and the people they serve) need to be productive.

I'm not sure if Lotusphere is the proper venue for a session that is not specifically focused on admin/dev topics. If there are enough votes to make this interesting, I'll rework my proposal and perhaps even talk to David Allen to see if he'd like to co-present this with me. Right now, I'm curious to see if there's sufficient interest to warrant further development of this session topic for Lotusphere 2009.

Cast your vote now and we'll soon find out!

Eric

Note: This session, if approved, would focus on best practices for using Lotus Notes that do not require any third party applications. The goal is to present best practices that can be applied right away with any version of Lotus Notes. I would plan to mention some of the add-on tools that people are using to increase their productivity with Notes (.e.g. OpenNTF Mail Experience or eProductivity) but the primary focus will be to show people how to get more done with what the version of Notes that they already have installed on their computer.

• 
• 
• 
•