As usual the Engage usergroup conference was a highlight. Here’s my summary and how to keep Norwegian roads safe with Domino!
I’ve already written a little bit about the conference here, with links to my photo album from the event. What I can add to that summary is that since I had to prolong my stay with one more day, the hotel managed to double book my room. It was kinda strange waking up in the middle of the night at 01.30 with a woman standing inside your room. The hotel bent themselves backwards to make up for it the next day. And I understand why. That is a very serious situation, and just shouldn’t occur.
Monday
Wo2: Dirty Secrtes of the Notes Client
I arrived already Monday afternoon, which is a day 0 with workshops taking place before the conference itself. I attended the workshop Dirty Secrets of the Notes Client by Christoph Adler and Henning Kunz from Panagenda. I’m glad I attended it, because we got some really good tips on how to create really good installation packages for the Notes client. In addition we got several pointers on how to tune Notes/Domino and how to have a stable environment. I’m already improving my own installation package for Notes 9.0.1 and Notes 10.0.1 based on this session.
Tuesday
Opening General Session
The first day started as usual with the OGS, where IBM, HCL and Panagenda talked about the future for ICS now that HCL is taking over the entire collaboration portfolio from IBM after June 1st. We also had speed sponsoring (great idea to start with it like this instead of the way we used to do it before) and Engage general Theo Heselmans presented facts about the conference. Over 400 attendees, and the number is growing every year. It’s unbelievable. My hat is off!
Ad16. Domino Server Health – Monitoring and Managing
Gabriella Davis did a great session on how to monitor and manage your Domino environment. I got some great tips on some performance problems we are experiencing and I will test it. Every time I think I’m on top of my Domino admin knowledge, Gabriella tells me otherwise. Keep it up!
Ro10. IBM Champions to HCL Masters
We IBM Champions can no longer be IBM Champions after the acquisition of IBM’s collaboration products by HCL is done. So HCL told us how we would become HCL Masters instead. One of the benefits is that as a Master, you will immediately go to level 3 when you contact support.
Em03. OpenFormula – An Emerging Standard
Jason Roy Gary showed us OpenFormula, which is an open standard for exchanging recalculated formulae in spreadsheets. It was more of a discussion how we could use it on Domino to do queries, calculations etc. I’m not sure what will come out of it, but it was interesting.
St09. Domino 11 – What’s coming
In this session we got to see all the enhancements coming in V11 for Domino. Pr now the release seems to be Q1 in 2020. Highlights:
- Templates optimized for Domino Mobile Apps (running Notes applications directly on mobile)
- The above point means you will be able to do the same for your own templates, ie: one design for Notes and one for mobile
- You will be able to run Native Notes applications on most devices, without the need of a Notes client
- You can sign up for the beta version of Domino Mobile Apps for Android
- An appstore for Domino applications is on it’s way, run by HCL
- Domino 11 will use InstallAnywhere instead of InstallShield
- Licensing will now be checked on the server and it will be pr user basis within a 30 day period (this is a huge change)
- DAOS will be supplemented with the possibility to store attachments with third party services like Amazon S3, IBM Cloud, NetApp etc
- Active Directory Synchronization will now work in such a way that you don’t need to install anything on the AD server (yes, you will be able to create Domino users in AD)
- In Domino 11 you will no longer need to worry about a separate http password, you can use ID Vault for http authentication
In the evening the speakers (which included me) and the sponsors were taken to dinner at a place near Grand Place in Brussels.
Wednesday
Bu04. How Domino helps keep Norwegian roads safe
I had to get up early to give my session at 08.00. I had some pretty stiff competition from other sessions going on at the same time, so I had a lot of people going: “I really wanted to see that one, but I had to prioritise this other session.” Fair enough. The 15 people who came seemed to enjoy it. When you get several “wow”-outbursts during the sessions, I know my colleagues have created a great solution. If you want to know how a local business here in Rauma keeps Norwegian roads safe with the help of Domino, you can see my presentation here. I will also give this session in Stockholm at ISBG’s event on June 11th and 12th.
St08. Notes 11
Even if the focus these days is on the Domino server and Domino Mobile Apps, the Notes client hasn’t been forgotten. I have been part of a group giving feedback on the new design of the client, and I’m happy to see that many of our suggestions have made it into the product so far. Highlights:
- Multiple Dictionaries Support (we do have that today, but it’s a bit cumbersome, it will be much easier in V11)
- Meetings can now be longer than 24 hours
- Export of mail directly to PDF
- New design
- Support for TLS 1.2
- HCL Branding (replacing IBM logos with HCL)
- Open JVM 8 support
- Support for OpenSSL
- New installer
- Trace and logs upates
- In addition to the standard Notes client, Designer and Administrator, there will be a Basic Client, ICAA and also another lightweight client for running apps (details are a bit sketchy at this point)
- 3 click support
- Embedded Sametime V11
- iPhone support for the Designer
- Windows 64 bit support for Notes Basic
Co07. Personal, Team and External Collaboration and Task Management for IBM Verse/Domino, Connections and Office 365
I love using Kudos Boards in IBM Connections to manage both my own activities, and To dos, but also for organisations and boards I’m a part of. Adam Brown and Maria Nordin from ISW showed us how Kudos Boards now also fully supports Office 365. Kudos Boards will also be a standalone app in the future. Awesome.
De13. How to use the new Domino Query Language
Tim Davis took us through the new Domino Query Language (DQL), how it works, and how to use it in LotusScript, in Java, and in the new domino-db Node.js module. He did this with some excellent examples, and I finally managed to grasp how DQL works. Great session!
St10. Building an Application Strategy with HCL Advisor
HCL Advisor is a product which assists an organisation in how to develop actionable strategies for optimization, simplification and application modernization. It really wasn’t very useful for my situation.
Ad11. How to make Domino and Office 365 your Dream Team
This was the ever reliable people from BCC’s session, and it’s right up the alley where I’m headed at the moment. No matter how you look at it, if you’re not creating collaboration solutions that can integrate with Office 365, you’re doing it wrong.
Ad02. 15 New Domino Admin Features Sure to Spark a Lasting Love Affair with Domino 10 and 11
A little bit of what we had at the workshop on Monday, but with Christoph Adler and Ben Menesi on fire, it was entertaning.
Closing Session
The Heselmans thanked us for coming, and we had a raffle. As usual I didn’t win anything, but I don’t care. All attendees got a Hotwheels car, and I got the Batmobile. MUHAHAHAHA!:
Speaker Dinner
As usual, Theo took us speakers on a mystery trip after the conference was over. We ended up at the Atomium and had a lovely dinner there. I’ve never been inside the building, shaped like a carbon atom, so that was a plus. And I wore my golden shoes with blinking lights!
Thanks again Theo and Hilde for another awesome event. And see all of you in Stockholm on June 11th and 12th!
Check out my photo album from Engage here:
