Kathleen McGivney

A new beginning

I've been through a number of changes over the past couple of years, and today I have a fabulous one to share with you. It's with great happiness and excitement that I announce that I'll be closing up shop at Sakura Consulting and joining Socialtext as a Customer Success Manager.

Like it was for Alan, moving to a company that is outside of the Lotus community is a little bittersweet for me. I've been working with Lotus products since 1996, and I've spent most of that time in deeply technical roles. I've spoken at many Lotus-related conferences (and still will in January - more on that in a moment). Most of all, I've met some amazing people during my time working with Lotus products, whether I was a Lotus/IBM customer, business partner, or IBMer. The Lotus community has some of the most passionate, intelligent, and geeky people I've ever met, and I'm happy to have been a part of it for so long.

The move to Socialtext is not only a logical one for me in terms of career direction, but also in terms of the software I'll be working with. Socialtext is all about collaboration, in its culture and its products. That's one of the things that really speaks to me about Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 - the collaborative aspect. It's an aspect I'm very familiar with, and why I think the Lotus community was so quick to grok the value of things like Twitter - collaborative software is in our blood.

I could not be happier about my new role at Socialtext, where I'll continue to put that love for collaboration into practice. I'm excited about the software, the company, and the people I'll be working with. I'll post more about my role and the products as I move into my new responsibilities in early January.

Also, as mentioned, I will be speaking at Lotusphere in January - co-presenting with my evil twin Susan Bulloch for two sessions and participating in the Nerd Girl panel and BoF. I'm also looking forward to seeing the usual lot at the bar, where you are all free to buy me a farewell drink. (I kid, I kid. Mostly.)

I don't plan on leaving the Lotus community completely - I will continue to co-organize the Tri-State Lotus User Group with Mitch for the time being, and will be around the various blogs and chats. So, to the Lotus community - thank you for being so awesome over the years, and please keep in touch!

The scoop on Sakura Consulting

Back in July, I started Sakura Consulting as a way to continue sharing and expanding my expertise with the Lotus family of products. As many of you know, I have over 13 years of experience with Notes/Domino and related products, and am really passionate about the technology I work with. I'm happy to continue sharing that passion and expertise at venues such as Lotusphere, and also directly with IBM/Lotus customers who use those products.

One of the things I liked about working in consulting roles in the past, both as an IBMer and for other business partners, is the ability to take a fresh look at an environment and help customers see how they can improve their use of the products. That is Sakura Consulting's focus - to assist you, the customer, with getting the most out of your software implementation.

To that end, we offer services such as systems audits, to help you get a handle on best practices and whether your environment is adhering to them, as well as assistance in bringing your environment in line with recommended best practices; systems architecture, whether it is for a fresh implementation or revamping an existing one; troubleshooting and performance tuning, to help you get maximum stability, efficiency, and performance from your systems; and education, for everyone from systems administrators to end users. We have a much more detailed list of services, of course, and you're welcome to contact us if you would like to inquire further about them.

And again, I'll be here at Lotusphere all week, so stop by one of my sessions if you want more information, or just stop me in the hallways and say hi!

(By the way, since someone asked, Sakura means "cherry blossom" in Japanese. I really like cherry blossoms and go to the Cherry Blossom Festival at the BBG every year, and that's why I chose that name.)

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My Lotusphere Schedule

I've been knee-deep in Lotusphere preparations, as well as a little R&R riding roller coasters before Lotusphere starts. I'll be speaking at a number of sessions this year, which I've detailed in this handy list, but if you really want the goods on the sessions you should check out the Genii Software Lotusphere Sessions Database. There are also a number of sessions I'm hoping to attend this year, some of which I'll be liveblogging, livetweeting, or photoblogging. So expect a ridiculous amount of updates more updates than usual this week.

My speaking schedule:

Sunday, January 18: JMP102 IBM Lotus Domino Administrator Jumpstart, Swan 7-10, 1:30-3:30 PM
Tuesday, January 20: GEEK102 Nerd Girl - Making Geek Chic, Swan Mockingbird, 11:15 AM -12:15 PM
Tuesday, January 20: GEEK101 Speedgeeking, Dolphin Pacific Hall, 6-7:30 PM
Wednesday, January 21: BP211 Managing Your IBM Lotus Domino Clusters, Swan 5-6, 11:15 AM - 12:15 PM
Wednesday, January 21: BP210 Making the Most of the Administration Process, Swan 5-6, 3:00-4:00 PM
Wednesday, January 21: BOF415 Nerd Girl - Making Geek Chic Roundtable, Swan Toucan II, 5:45-6:45 PM
Thursday, January 22: GURU101 GURUPalooza, Swan 5-10, 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM

Stop by my sessions and say hi or just stop me if you see me in the hallways!