#ISWINSIGHT - Mark Anderson

For our latest #ISWINSIGHT we are introducing Mark Anderson - Business Development Manager for Tasmania.

1) What’s your name and what exactly do you do with ISW? 
My name is Mark Anderson and I am the Business Development Manager for ISW in Tasmania. I started in 2010 and I really enjoy providing technology solutions for people and as technology advances so do the possibilities for innovative solutions. I work with a team to provide applications and systems to help solve business problems and demonstrate how new application can be utilises to improve productivity and reduce inefficiencies. There is always new applications to learn as information technology advances and has become an important part of our lives both socially and professionally.   


2) What is the weirdest thing you’ve ever eaten?
Pigeon when I was in Hong Kong many years ago. It tastes like a mixture of duck and chicken and the beak is crunchy. I haven’t had it since and I am less adventurous to try any more weird foods. 


 3) What is the worst thing you did as a kid?
My younger brother and I accidentally set fire to the back fence of our home while lighting a fire in a barrel. The worst part about it was our dad found the fence alight and that the fire was next to our 5.3m Pride Albatross boat which was not only made of fibreglass but had extra fuel tanks onboard! It would of lit up the neighbourhood if it took hold. Thankfully we put it out in time but it was not a smart thing to do. 


4) What do you consider the greatest invention EVER!?!? 
Wine. The cultivation of wine and the storage of wine lead to the wider use and development of glass. The use of glass lead to the development of lenses and optics which lead to creation of spectacle, microscopes and telescopes. Thus, scientists and scholars could read and write past their fading eyesight and make important discoverers in the field of medicine, astronomy and physics. I support the discovery of wine when every possible. 


5) Tell an interesting fact? 
I have an airline metal teaspoon collection. I happened to collect them while I was travelling as a qwerky memento when all the cutlery on airlines was metal and I just happened to end up with about forty or so metal teaspoons from different airlines. Some airlines are no longer operating such as Pana Am, TAA, and Ansett, and some airline I have only occasional travelled on including Air China, Air Iceland and Ryanair. I am not a collector as such and wouldn’t say I have an obsession but as most of the cutlery on airlines today is plastic I just happened to have airline metal teaspoon collection. 

Mark's Social Profiles:

LinkedIN - https://www.linkedin.com/in/markanderson5/

#ISWInsight - Jared Roberts - IBM Champion - Welcome to ISW!

I have been enjoying reading the blog series from one of our great Kudos Boards partners in Europe -panagenda - called #panagendaPride. Danny Klaus has been doing a regular post about his team members, what they do, and what their interests are (great work Danny). I know a lot of the panagenda team and consider many of them good friends so it is always great to learn more about them.

So in the spirit of immitation is the best form of flatery, I have decided to give it a go myself and start a similar series on the great team at ISW - #ISWInsight

And to kick it off I am very excited to announce the latest member at ISW - Jared Roberts - Senior Software Engineer. I have known Jared in the IBM Collaboration community for many years, and had quite a few beers over that time. Last year Jared was nominated as an IBM Champion for Collaboration so we are pumped to have Jarod join the team at ISW. We also have a common love of grilling meat on the weber so I am sure we will have a few good cookups over the years ahead!

1) What’s your name and what exactly do you do with ISW?

 Jared Roberts - Senior Software Engineer. I have just joined ISW as part of the national consulting team - providing expertise in Collaboration & Cloud Technologies. I'll be involved in IBM Connections, Portal, Sametime, Notes/Domino, WebSphere, SoftLayer, ISW's Cloud42 platform & Innovation/Modernisation offerings - and anything else that is thrown at me! Really looking forward to it!

2) Any random facts you could share with us?

I the drummer for Desecrator - heavy metal band from Melbourne. I can play 4 instruments. I'm a Dad of 2. I'm a pretty handy BBQ cook. I'm generally terrible at all sports.

3) Tell us something about yourself that would surprise us.

 I'm a bit of a plane nerd and have a quiet appreciation for commercial aviation and engineering.. ask me about it and we'll talk for hours... I've no idea why... it's just a thing.

4) Where is the best place you’ve travelled to and why?

Yosemite National Park in California. One of the most stunning places on Earth. The Sequoia Trees are spectacular! 

5) What is the first concert you attended? 

I've been going to concerts my whole life so I can't remember the first... but the BEST was AC/DC - Rod Laver Arena in 2003. Although I've seen them 3 times since then - that was a stand-out - great vibe, band was rocking, and LOUD!

Jared's social profiles -

IBM Announced a new mega conference - THINK 2018

Big news from IBM on the event/conference front.

Think about it...AI, Cloud, Data, IoT, and Security. They have merged in your world... and they have in ours too. That's why we're excited to announce a first ever event that reflects the way you do business: IBM Think 2018. Bringing together World of Watson and InterConnect to form the technology industry's most important event. - https://www.ibm.com/events/think/

The current events include Connect, InterConnect, Amplify, Edge, Vision, World of Watson and PartnerWorld. All merged into IBM THINK 2018.

From my view this is a great thing. I have attended many many of these events over the last 20 years, and they in isolation have been fantastic. But the "in isolation" part is the problem. Many organisations can't justify going to multiple events, so you tend to get the same crowd at each of the events. By bringing them together you expand the audience and enable a lot more cross polination of ideas and learning. I think this is a great thing for IBM as no longer are their solutions in isolated silos, they are integrated platforms across multiple domains.

I for one am very pleased to see this merged together, and on a personal not means I will no longer have a clash with my daughters birthdays in Jan and Feb! And I get to stay in Australia for the summer! I know some will have mixed feelings however. One massive event will make it hard to get across all content in a short period of time, and I know some customers have told me that they can only send x number of people to each event so they prefer to have multiple events.

On the naming I really like it. "THINK" has always been an iconic word for IBM. Even my grandfather has always told me "Just Think" and everything else will work itself out!

"As IBM president 1914 to 1956, Thomas J. Watson, Sr. enjoyed using the phrase "THINK!" to motivate and inspire his employees." - http://oldcomputers.net/ibm-thinkpad.html 

See you there in March 2018!

IBM Connect 2017 - Top 5 Highlights

Well what a huge week! There were so many interesting things going on at IBM Connect 2017 last week in San Francisco. I had some fantastic conversations with colleagues around the world and that is probably the most important part of Connect. Learning from others experiences, thinking about our future path, just fantastic.

Yet how to sum it up! Well here are my top 5 highlights for IBM Connect 2017. Let me know what yours were?

Kudos Boards Cloud for IBM Connections Cloud - It's here!

Well I would estimate that over the last 12 months we have been asked about 1000 times "When is Kudos Boards coming to Connections Cloud?". My answer has been - we are working on it!

Well I am very pleased to announce that it is now here and ready for us to demo at IBM Connect 2017 in San Francisco. The Kudos team has been working very hard over the last year to get this ready for release and we are stoked with the release. We have had a few users playing around over the last few weeks and the feedback is great.

Kudos Boards for IBM Connections Cloud

Kudos Boards Cloud is integrated with Connections Cloud for a seemless user experience. Deployed in the IBM Cloud on Bluemix, your Connections Cloud Administrator can very simply enable Kudos Boards so your users can enjoy the same user experience that our Connections on Premises customers have grown to love. All they need to do is register at our site and we will enable their account asap!

We are planning on many additional capabilities over the next couple of months and would love to demo for you at Connect (Kudos is at Booth 232) to get your ideas and feedback. Here is a video of some of the capabilities available today.

So if you like what you see and want to try it out please visit our site to register for a free 30 day trial.

See you in San Francisco!