My First Engage

My First Engage

Tuesday morning 24th of May 2022, I’m standing in the entrance hall of the BMCC in the beautiful city of Bruges. One by one I see people walking in with a huge smile on their face. I get to welcome them with a free GroupWave coffee mug. Every single one of them is thrilled, they are finally back at Engage, Europe’s biggest event for Domino enthusiasts from all over the world… and I got to be part of it.

I’m almost stunned, here I am, a newbie. Completely new to Domino while at the same time there a people walking around here who have been working with Domino longer than I am walking on this planet. First stop, the OGS with HCL Digital Solutions Vice President Richard Jefts and Engage organizer Theo Heselmans. When Theo asked “for all those who are at Engage for the first time, please stand up”, my heart skips a beat, I stand up and I am shocked to see that more than over 40 people out of the 350 are standing up too. I’m amazed, we get a loud applause and we get cheered on by all the others in the room. It’s the moment I realize that I am part of something magnificent, the Domino community.

First session of the day, The Certificate Manager. I’m excited, I finally get to have a live session by Daniel Nashed, a HCL Lifetime ambassador and Domino legend. The new certmgr in Domino V12 is a game changer. It simplifies and fully automates requesting and updating certificates in Domino. I’m astonished by Daniel’s knowledge and I quickly realize I’m very eager and motivated to learn more about Domino. During the rest of the sessions I got spoiled with new features in Domino and Notes. We got news that the beta version of V12.0.2 “Danube” is being released the very next day, at Engage. In 6 months Volt MX Go will be released which basically allows you to leverage Domino data in your web and mobile applications using the Domino Rest API. Certification and HCL Training will be introduced which I personally look forward to as a newbie. And many more.

At day two of Engage I got into a roundtable with Domino administrators and HCL product managers. We had an open discussion about Sametime V12. How cool is that. HCL just opens up the conversation and listens to it’s users and partners. But the highlight of day two was a session given by Martijn de Jong about Docker on Domino. This was mind blowing. You can actually install a complete Domino server with Traveler, Volt and Verse in less than 10 minutes! Also attending the session and interacting with Martijn was Daniel Nashed. The admiration and respect that these two guys have for each other is unbelievable. I heard from Kris and Tom already that there is respect and the will to always help amongst the HCL Ambassadors but now I could confirm. Again it showed me how close the Domino community is and how great it is to be part of it. We closed Engage with a price drawn and a farewell drink. I didn’t win any prizes but I did go home satisfied.

Conclusion, both days were a combination of education and fun. GroupWave had his own sponsor booth which gave me the opportunity to meet interesting people. I followed very interesting and educational sessions and the Monday workshop, there was delicious food and cold beer ! On the downside, I was a little disappointed to see how few young people were at Engage. I’m 31 and I was far out one of the youngest. But not all hope is lost! I did get the chance to meet Mary Elizabeth Miller, UX design lead at HCL for the product Restyle. She is young, talented and very motivated, so perhaps we can still get a rejuvenation in the Domino Community. Overall I can honestly say that this was one of the best experiences in my professional career. I want to thank the whole GroupWave team for the awesome time and especially Kris for the opportunity. I hope to be attending the next Engage in 2023!

#dominoforever

Posted by Bram Maerevoet in Geen categorie

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