Exhibitors around the world have been frantically pulling together the last of their marketing campaigns. Speakers around the world have been rushing to polish off their presentations. And the attendees? Well, the attendees have been excitedly confirming receptions, dinners, functions and parties – in amongst all the invaluable sessions already noted in their calendars.

If you haven’t yet planned your entire week, you’d better get onto it ASAP. Click here to download the LS12 Pocket Agenda, which covers session times, locations, conference maps and everything else you may need to know to plan for Lotusphere 2012.

Our own planning for Lotusphere this year started all the way back in September/October 2011 with a whole lot of brainstorming. We’ve decided to bring a whole new concept to 2012, where you’ll find “Team Crossware” at Booth 536. You can expect to see racing red shirts, a whole lot of checkered flags (and chocolates) along with many conversations surrounding the “turbo charging” of one’s email signature!

Here’s a glimpse of what to look out for down in the Solutions Showcase:

And to help you find us within the hundreds of other exhibitors in the Solutions Showcase, you can view the floor plan here (click to enlarge):

Most people know that Crossware Mail Signature never appears at Lotusphere without an incredibly awesome prize, and this year we have THREE! Yes, that’s right, we are giving away an iPhone 4S each day of the Solutions Showcase. So make sure that you come to our booth and get scanned for your chance to win an iPhone 4S, there are three to be drawn at 4pm on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

An overview of the awards

“The Eighteenth Annual IBM Collaboration Solutions Awards are now open and accepting your nominations. The 2012 IBM Collaboration Solutions Awards will be presented to IBM PartnerWorld Business Partners that have left their mark on our dynamic industry.

The IBM Collaboration Solutions Awards will honor winners and finalists who have dedicated their time and energy to building innovative solutions using IBM Collaboration Solutions software (social collaboration, content and analytics) to help their customers become a Social Business.

Winners and finalists will be recognized throughout 2012 by IBM and at Lotusphere 2012, held at the WALT DISNEY WORLD^® Swan and Dolphin Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, from January 15 – January 19, 2012.

Don’t miss out on this great opportunity, nominate today!“

The nomination categories

For nominations open November 7 – November 30:

• Leveraging the Social Business AGENDA – Business Transformation through becoming a Social Business – New in 2012
• Delivering Better Business Results Through Social Business Solution in the Cloud – New in 2012
• Innovation in Social Business Application Development Utilizing the Social Business Framework – New in 2012
• Enabling Business Innovation through Social Collaboration
• Delivering an Exceptional Web Experience driving Business Value
• Extending Social Collaboration to Mobile Devices
• Enhancing Business Value through Sametime Solutions
• Best Industry Oriented Social Business Solution
• Innovative Leadership by a VAD*

For nominations open November 21 – December 16:

• Best of Lotusphere: Cutting Edge Social Business Solution Utilizing Cross IBM SWG Capabilities – Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Award – New in 2012

Visit the IBM Collaboration Solutions Awards website here

Read about the award categories here

Enter your own award nomination here

Best of luck to everybody who has entered for an award. It will be great to hear the finalists and winners announced at Lotusphere 2012!

The Email Charter was created in response to a discussion similar to the one in our group, where it was agreed that email is getting out of hand for many people. It started life as a blog post by Chris Anderson and Jane Wulf. Since then, more than 45,000 people have read the post and it has generated hundreds of tweets, comments and suggestions. That is how the final Charter has been shaped, consisting of the following ten rules to battle the problem:

• Respect Recipients’ Time

This is the fundamental rule. As the message sender, the onus is on YOU to minimize the time your email will take to process. Even if it means taking more time at your end before sending.

• Short or Slow is not Rude

Let’s mutually agree to cut each other some slack. Given the email load we’re all facing, it’s OK if replies take a while coming and if they don’t give detailed responses to all your questions. No one wants to come over as brusque, so please don’t take it personally. We just want our lives back!

• Celebrate Clarity

Start with a subject line that clearly labels the topic, and maybe includes a status category [Info], [Action], [Time Sens] [Low Priority]. Use crisp, muddle-free sentences. If the email has to be longer than five sentences, make sure the first provides the basic reason for writing. Avoid strange fonts and colors.

• Quash Open-Ended Questions

It is asking a lot to send someone an email with four long paragraphs of turgid text followed by “Thoughts?”. Even well-intended-but-open questions like “How can I help?” may not be that helpful. Email generosity requires simplifying, easy-to-answer questions. “Can I help best by a) calling b) visiting or c) staying right out of it?!”

• Slash Surplus cc’s

cc’s are like mating bunnies. For every recipient you add, you are dramatically multiplying total response time. Not to be done lightly! When there are multiple recipients, please don’t default to ‘Reply All’. Maybe you only need to cc a couple of people on the original thread. Or none.

• Tighten the Thread

Some emails depend for their meaning on context. Which means it’s usually right to include the thread being responded to. But it’s rare that a thread should extend to more than 3 emails. Before sending, cut what’s not relevant. Or consider making a phone call instead.

• Attack Attachments

Don’t use graphics files as logos or signatures that appear as attachments. Time is wasted trying to see if there’s something to open. Even worse is sending text as an attachment when it could have been included in the body of the email.

• Give these Gifts: EOM NNTR

If your email message can be expressed in half a dozen words, just put it in the subject line, followed by EOM (= End of Message). This saves the recipient having to actually open the message. Ending a note with “No need to respond” or NNTR, is a wonderful act of generosity. Many acronyms confuse as much as help, but these two are golden and deserve wide adoption.

• Cut Contentless Responses

You don’t need to reply to every email, especially not those that are themselves clear responses. An email saying “Thanks for your note. I’m in.” does not need you to reply “Great.” That just cost someone another 30 seconds.

• Disconnect!

If we all agreed to spend less time doing email, we’d all get less email! Consider calendaring half-days at work where you can’t go online. Or a commitment to email-free weekends. Or an ‘auto-response’ that references this charter. And don’t forget to smell the roses.

So far over 22,000 votes have been counted for or against the Email Charter, enter your vote here. We think the Charter lays out some very good points that can make the working day a lot smoother and your inbox a lot friendlier! And if you want to share the Charter with your fellow email users — think about linking to it from your email signature… Something like “Save our inboxes! http://emailcharter.org” or “Too brief? Here’s why! http://emailcharter.org”

1) Open the “Crossware Mail Signature Config” Application in Lotus Notes:

2) Select “New Email Signature”:

3) Select whether you want the Signature Type to be “Default” (applied to everybody) or “Group” (applied to select individuals/groups). If you have chosen “Group”, go on to select the group within your address book, and add a description of the email signature for your own reference:

4) Enter your signature details between the blue lines using the Rich Text field and applying “Lookup” rules as required. You may also import an HTML or Plain Text Signature if necessary. Finally, click save:

5) Your Lotus Notes email signature is complete! You may wish to test it out – Click “Send Test Email”:

6) Select whether you want the test email to be sent from a user or a group, whether you want it to be in Rich Text/HTML/Plain Text format and who you want to receive the test email. Click “OK”:

7) The test email will appear in the recipient’s inbox. Crossware Mail Signature has searched your Domino Directory to match lookups with contact details, and your email signature will look great!

8) And you’re done. Now when you send an email, all you need to do is type what you need in the text field, and click send. No need to “insert signature”, no need to configure anything locally, and in my case there’s not even a need to sign-off with “regards” — It’s all done for you, correctly appended email signatures 100% of the time. The brilliant thing is that this includes emails from Notes, iNotes, Blackberry, and any Traveler device such as iPhone and iPad… as all your emails still have to pass through your Domino Server!

If you would like to learn more about Crossware Mail Signature, visit our website at www.crossware.co.nz and help yourself to a free trial. If you would like to get in touch about a quotation or specific information for your company, please email sales@crossware.co.nz or contact us here.

“We’re always looking for something edgy, exciting and different. Practical applications and proven solutions attract the largest audiences, so we invite you to put on your thinking cap, sit down at your keyboard and blow us away with your ideas – and you too could be onstage in Orlando in January!”

So get your submissions in early by heading to the Lotusphere Speakers page and entering your abstract ASAP!

Once again there are several different pricing options this year, and it’s the early bird that gets the worm. Here are the rates as they stand for a full conference pass:

• Now until December 2, 2011 the fee is $1,995 USD.
• On December 3, 2011, the fee will increase to $2,295 USD.
• On January 14, 2012, the full conference fee of $2,495 USD will apply.
• The flat rate for those using Ed Pack dollars is $2495.

You may also purchase a one-day pass for $1,195 USD, although you would be missing out on the Wednesday night party… But that probably won’t be a worry if you’re already short on time.

Another great option for companies out there looking to send more than a few people over for a great experience is the group discount, with rates as follows:

• 5 Pack: $8,750
• 10 Pack: $17,000
• 20 Pack: $33,000

Register here to view and purchase your Lotusphere 2012 passes, get in quick!

Last, but definitely not least, there are also discounted passes available to past Lotusphere attendees – please check your inbox for your promo code to access this special rate.

Yes, email is still king, check out this infographic to read a few incredible stats such as “Nearly 4 times as many emails are sent each day as the total number of Facebook/Twitter updates, Google/Yahoo!/Bing searches and Internet pageviews combined” – completely eliminating any rumours of email dying off!

Nevertheless, much like a Toyota Corolla, email does what it needs to most of the time, but don’t expect the same luxuries you might from the latest Mercedes-Benz. Through all its years of use and popularity – email remains a functional tool, particularly for business users as a professional form of communication.

A colleague of mine facebooked emailed me last week to complain about how “backwards email is” as well as sharing a few great insights into the typical email user’s experience with their email software. Here are the points he made:

• Email signatures should be classed as separate entities by the email program (e.g. Lotus Notes or Outlook), enabling them to be removed or hidden by the user if desired.
• Email thread headers (e.g. “From”, “Sent”) should also split along the same lines as the email signature to be viewed or not as desired.
• These changes should, in turn, allow users the choice to hide these fields for personal contact or show them for business use.

These days it’s all about user experience, so why is email lagging so far behind the conveniences of chat or SMS? Let’s have a look at one particular conversation compared across the two different mediums…

To quote Tom Lynch-Watson, “The phone still tells you who it is and exactly when each message was sent. Email sucks”. We know that emails require a professional look as well as remaining 100% compliant according to the latest regulations, but surely email clients could become slightly more user friendly. Sure, certain email clients have developed a chat interface (e.g. Sametime for Lotus Notes), but that’s not email – it just doesn’t work the same.

We still want to email each other, we just don’t want a five minute conversation to look like a 100 page business take-over contract!

A quick summary of room pricing as it stands today:

Disney’s All Star Movies Resort – USD 85 per night
Disney’s Beach Club Resort – USD 232 per night
Disney’s Port Orleans Resort Riverside – USD 139 per night
Disney’s Yacht Club Resort – USD 232 per night
Walt Disney World Dolphin – USD 261 per night
Walt Disney World Swan – USD 261 per night

Quick tip – These rates are only going to increase, so get in early!

Whether you’re after cool and classy, relaxed and beachy, or fun and fancy free… Get your Lotusphere 2012 accommodation booking in quick, before it’s too late – book now!!

Other than the new banner looking somewhat like Disney’s Elmer the Patchwork Elephant *wink wink nudge nudge*; here’s what IBM has to say about this huge event:

Get out your social calendar

It’s time to mark Sunday, January 15, 2012 in your social calendar and save the date for the premier IBM Collaboration community worldwide event — Lotusphere 2012. Call for Abstracts will open soon, check back for updates!

Your social circle is about to get a lot bigger

Whether it’s Social Business strategies or product features and capabilities, Lotusphere will have all that you’ve come to know and love – and expect. Same tracks, similar labs and another “awe-inspiring” Solutions Showcase.

New this year: Stay tuned for information about our new Social Business event covering a wide range of business topics, everything from what it means to be a social business to creating value and better business outcomes, and running in parallel with Lotusphere 2012.

Social + mobile + cloud = opportunity³

Whether it’s social, mobile or cloud solutions that have your focus and attention, we’re here with the tools, tips and tricks to help you build, implement, manage and deploy them successfully.

So, how are your social skills?

Lotusphere 2012 is all about showing you how to raise your social skills, and sharpen your technical ones — with:

• Over 300 sessions
• Technology sessions covering practical tips and tricks to kick your skill set up to the next level
• Business-oriented sessions, all focused on best practices and results
• A Solutions Showcase featuring real-world solutions from our IBM Business Partners and IBM colleagues alike
• Access to IBM strategists, product experts, engineers, architects and developers
• The opportunity to share the “wisdom of the crowds” from your own social circles of colleagues and partners

Join our social circle

Save the date for Lotusphere 2012:  – leading the way into the era of Social Business and setting you up for a productive and ‘social’ year.

You can find the official IBM Lotusphere page at http://www-01.ibm.com/software/lotus/events/conference/index.html. Finally, click the button below to get yourself registered for the event of the year!

We also invite everybody to join our LinkedIn discussion group to talk about anything and everything to do with Lotusphere 2012. Please click here to join our group and share your ideas and opinions on this great event.

First of all, Lotus Notes 8.5 now allows you to set up email signatures that are not just “Text-only”, but provides you with the flexibility to add graphics or any other Rich Text features to really spice things up – so let’s get to it.

1) Access your Preferences. This can be done via “File” or via “More” (pictured):

2) Select the “Signature” tab within Preferences:

3) Create your email signature using the Rich Text field manually or you may import it from other programs such as Microsoft Word. You can also insert graphics or attachments, but beware of this option as it will increase the size of your emails dramatically! Tip – Use tables with borders set to 0 to create that perfectly aligned multi-column signature:

4) And that’s it! Now you can select “Automatically append a signature to the bottom of my outgoing emails” and whenever you create a new message your email signature will appear in the new message field. Or, you may decide you don’t want your signature automatically added, then whenever you do want it appended simply select “More” and “Insert Signature…” Easy!

We hope you enjoyed this step-by-step tutorial of creating an email signature in Lotus Notes 8.5. This is a great method for individuals out there wanting to spruce up their email signature with contact details, along with website and social media links. However, you obviously wouldn’t want every single employee across your company having to create their signature locally – and being able to tamper with it at any given moment. If you’re looking to set up email signatures for your company, check out our product “Crossware Mail Signature” at our website here for a company-wide solution.

We will be writing a “How to create a corporate signature using Crossware Mail Signature” in the near future. Keep an eye out! UPDATE: Read about creating a corporate signature on Lotus Notes here.

Remember – Don’t create an email signature that’s an entire paragraph in length! Stick to a few of the key signature rules we mentioned back in our article “Email Signatures – What Makes Them Ugly? What Makes Them Beautiful?“