I love positive feedback. More importantly, I hope that they, along with the several hundred people that participated, found value in what I had to share about how I use Lotus Notes and MindManager as knowledge management tools.
By the time the webinar was over, I had already received 30 new emails from folks thanking me for the webinar, sharing how they use Lotus Notes and MindManager to support their implementation of GTD, and asking for my MindManager map of resources. Since then, another 25 emails have come in - and it's only 4:15 PM!
In a day or two, Mindjet will send me the WebEx recording of the webinar so that I can review it. I'll update my maps and create another map to respond to all of the questions that came in. Then, I'll make these available for download. To that end, if you have a question that you wanted to ask but didn't, feel free to send it to me. Likewise, if you would like to tell me how you are using MindManager and Lotus Notes as your knowledge management tools or if you have some resources/tips to share, write to me by clicking on the "contact" link on the menu bar. For those that e-mail me, I will send the maps and links to resources.
I've delivered many speeches and public seminars in to audiences as small as a dozen and as large as a few thousand. This this was my first webinar. I did not realize how much I enjoy presenting in front of an audience. It was very different to present to an audience I could not see. I did find it helpful to have a second computer logged in so that I could see what the audience saw. It took a while to get used to presenting in this format. I hope I did OK.
Looking over my notes, I see that there were whole sections that I did not even cover - including how I use MindManager maps when teaching my children and how I capture thoughts and actions into Lotus Notes. I'll update these in the final maps. Meanwhile, if there's something you really wanted to see, let me know. Perhaps I can create a small video clip to share.
If you participated in the webinar, I would appreciate your constructive comments on how I can improve the web delivery experience. Apparently, there's considerable interest in having me do a follow on session or two and I want to see what I can do to improve the presentation. Thanks in advance.
Discussion/Comments (36):
Eric - please be sure to include action steps on how to clear your desktop
Posted at 03/28/2007 17:36:35 by Cindy Crandall
I sent you a quick comment via e-mail, but I'll reiterate here for your readers, that was the best webinar I've ever "attended". Often these hour-long presentations end up being mostly sales pitch. You presented useful information. I was able to turn to MindManager and Notes immediately and begin to implement the first of the steps right away. Thanks!
Posted at 03/28/2007 18:12:58 by Ian McKenzie
My only criticism is that it was delivered too fast. It was a little tough to follow all the motion as the nodes were expanded and collapsed. I'll be interested to see the map to see some of the info that sort of flashed by.
You obviously had a lot of information to go through and limited time to do it. A longer webinar or multiple shorter ones really would help. All in all, a really good session.
Posted at 03/28/2007 18:31:25 by Dave Leigh
I don't think I have seen anyone exploit all the features of Notes the way you do. Even though I find parts of Notes clunky, I think you show it to be a far more capable tool than Outlook/Exchange. The way you link back and forth between Notes and MindManager is an eye opener.
Joe
Posted at 03/28/2007 20:13:34 by Joseph T. Galietto
Thank you for your feedback, Joe. Indeed, Lotus Notes is amazing flexible. Even back in the DOS & OS/2 versions Notes ran circles around anything available. I think it still does, and until I find something better (I keep looking) I plan to stick with Lotus Notes.
I'm glad that you enjoyed the Webinar!
Posted at 03/28/2007 20:23:39 by Eric Mack
Cindy, I posted here. http://www.ericmackonline.com/ICA/blogs/emonline.nsf/dx/out-of-sight-out-of-mind-ready-to-focus
I hope this helps.
Eric
Posted at 03/28/2007 22:13:39 by Eric Mack
Thank you for your kind words, Ian. I'm glad you liked it! Glad to be of service to you, as you serve others.
Posted at 03/28/2007 22:14:49 by Eric Mack
Thanks, Dave for the feedback. Yes, my wife gave the the same feedback. For my next webinar, I'll give my 7-year old a ruler and tell her to wrap my knuckles if I go too fast. :-)
Posted at 03/28/2007 22:15:38 by Eric Mack
I was getting bogged down and you lifted my spirits and got me excited about work again with your Webinar. Our company has under utilized the ability of Lotus Notes for years. Those of us who attended the webinar are set to change that by working with Notes and the MindManager together to increase our effectiveness. I have already cleaned my desktop! I would hope to participate in the next session, thanks
Posted at 03/28/2007 23:59:31 by Lesley
... only 10 out of 10! They are very harsh on you! You deserve at least 11/10! ;^)
Posted at 03/29/2007 0:40:06 by Pascal Venier
Eric,
As I mentioned in my email to you, thanks so much for doing this webinar. You've inspired me to try Mindmanager for my project lists. I use it now only for occasional maps on my tablet. Last night I started to manage one project with ResultsManager to see if it works for me.
Posted at 03/29/2007 5:17:36 by Kevin Thompson
Hello,
I just wanted to add that when switching between applications you should add a short pause to your actions as many times when switching from Mindmanager to Lotus Notes you were half way into what you wanted to show by the time the screencast caught up. This is a skill that comes more with practice obviously. I enjoyed the presentation ... thank you for giving it.
Posted at 03/29/2007 6:21:44 by Craig Tatham
Hi Eric
Great Webinar - really enjoyed what you outlined (although I'm not a Notes user myself). You've inspired me to restart mind-mapping more seriously (as opposed to the odd map here and there) and use MindManager to its' potential.
I would echo the comments re the speed of delivery - there were a few times I lost track of where you were, but overall - good job :)
Look forward to a follow-up if one is on the cards.
Nick
Posted at 03/29/2007 7:39:12 by Nick Ross
Although I only caught the tail end of your webinar, I was impressed with what I saw. I look forward to the recording being posted. Although we are Outlook/Exchange-based rather than Notes, I have used MindManager on nearly a daily basis since I discovered it about 5 months ago, and am always looking for ways to improve. Your thoughts on homeschooling with Mindmanager are particularly intriguing.
Posted at 03/29/2007 7:46:43 by David
Eric:
Thanks for the excellent webinar presentation! Even though I'm not a Notes user, it still provided me with new ways of thinking about my productivity tool kit and how to use MindManager. I also appreciate the mind maps and resource references you are making available. Your thorough preparation is evident in your presentation and benefits us all.
I hope you follow up on your comments that you'd like to do more webinars. I'll be attending them for sure.
Again, Thanks!
dan
Posted at 03/29/2007 8:10:33 by Dan Terrell
Great presentation...only wish it was longer!!!
Posted at 03/29/2007 9:09:38 by Mark
Eric,
I enjoyed and learned much from your March 28 Mindjet + Lotus Notes webinar. The scope and depth of the webinar's content was just right for me, and the pace was perfect -- brisk and well organized. And thanks for staying beyond the scheduled end to answer so many questions, and for turning me on to GyroQ which I am now evaluating. All-in-all, it was 75 minutes very well spent.
-- Sam Cox
Posted at 03/29/2007 9:46:21 by Sam cox
I felt it to be very useful even though I am already using the combination of Mindmanager and Lotus Notes myself already for approximately 9 years and Lotus Notes even longer. From that perspective I had to smile when you showed your desktop, hey Eric you are on Lotus 7.02, the desktop is so Notes 4 or maybe even earlier! According to Lotus you should be using the bookmark bar and that one can still be divided into folders for better separation of the different chapters, like you chose Tabs in the desktop. that will give you another clean desktop. I made the switch when the Bookmark bar was announced and here is an example of my bookmark bar as I use it today:
The lay out may look a bit different as I am part of the official Notes 8 beta in our company, but the principles stay the same. I am in IBM and have always been in the earliest beta of new versions whenever I had the chance. As such I also felt that I had to try the new functionality the moment it is available in the beta. That made it relatively easy for me to switch to and stay on the new Bookmark functionality.
Anyhow, your webinar made me realize that it was time to bring back some more structure into my file and Notes organization. So every once and a while discipline slips and files end up on the desktop or in one big folder, while I do remember of having the pleasure of being organized and knowing where to find information. So will dive into that shortly. If you could send me the map of the webinar and the links to the tools you use I would greatly appreciate it. I am using GTD too (although I do feel that I need to read the book a second time) so if your adjusted mailtemplate is shareable I would greatly appreciate it.
Regards,
Peter
Posted at 03/29/2007 10:21:01 by Peter J. Simoons
Eric,
Here is a suggestion for a webinar. I have heard about using MindManager for meeting notes, or to guide a coaching session. I would like to SEE it.
It would be cool if you could "meet" with someone where your voices are both on the conference, and the meeting notes are taken on MindManager. I don't know exactly WHAT the meeting would be about-- that would be up to you to find an interesting topic. Listeners would get to (1) hear an interesting topic and (2) watch MindManager document the notes.
Maybe show us how you post it on a blog immediately where we can all go on our browsers and see it ourselves.
Posted at 03/29/2007 11:54:25 by Paul Garrett
Interesting idea, Paul. I like it. Several people have written to encourage me to do a series of follow-on webinars so that I could cover other topics in greater detail. No idea if this would interest Mindjet, but they seem to be supportive. Perhaps you'd like to send your feedback to Tammy Baca at Mindjet.
Posted at 03/29/2007 12:40:47 by Eric Mack
Eric, I want to join the chorus of praise for the webinar yesterday. I learned a lot of practical information that can be applied now, which isn't always the case with some seminars.
For future, I would like even more on the uses of mind mapping and daily life. Watching that just flooded me with ideas on other uses for the software, most I hadn't thought of before.
I agree with the assessment that you had three hours of material for a one hour webinar, so it was fast, but still useful.
Again, Great Job!
Posted at 03/29/2007 13:51:01 by Larry Hendrick
Sadly, I missed the webinar (had to take my wife to her MD/Physical Therapy appt). I'll be very interested to read or view it if/when possible. I'm also interested in the portion you skipped; using Mind Manager w/ your kids. While my own kids are grown & starting their own families now, I've been impressed enough w/ Mind Maps to think the technique should be taught in school.
Posted at 03/29/2007 19:39:33 by Art Forrest
Great meat:fluff ratio! Thanks for giving me lots of ideas and inspiration!
Posted at 03/29/2007 19:39:49 by Doug Moore
Great webinar Eric.
Unfortunately we had a sudden death on our church family and, as pastors, my wife and I were up with the family until about 3.30am. Your webinar started at 5am over here, so I'll have have a look at the recorded version as I'm sure I didn't pick up on as much as I could have.
I don't use Notes but everything was still interesting and useful. A few quick comments and then a request:
1. Best webinar I've sighted - most useful information.
2. Slow down the presentation as it's hard to keep up with unfamiliar screens
3. Presentation mode works well but when you have to actually show something happening in MM then going in and out is off-putting. But if you stay out of presentation mode the constant zooming and panning is awkward - Maybe keep all separate topics as linked maps that can be set before the presentation to the correct zoom? (Does that make sense?)
4. I see you use ActiveWords and Gyronix (and I think sometimes together) - Have downloaded trial of ActiveWords (already use gyronix) - But how on earth did you get it so you could change the "tag" with just a few key-strokes. (Maybe I'm thick...)
5. I see you listed personal brain but then you seemed to actually use MM as the frontend to locate files quickly - comments?
Once again Eric, thanks for the time you put into this. Very worthwhile.
Posted at 03/30/2007 1:06:30 by Paul Gardner
Thank you for the feedback, Paul, particularly on the presentation methods. This has been a helpful experience and I hope that each webinar I do will be better.
Yes. I'm guilty. I started with quite a bit of material. Then, with the WebEx audio issues, I felt rushed. I'll slow down next time.
I'm glad that you downloaded ActiveWords. This and GyroQ are essential tools I use daily, and I'm sure I use only part of their functionality. Next time, I'll show them in greater detail.
I am using Personal Brain, but for very different purposes. It's not a mind mapping tool in the sense that MindManager is. Perhaps someday I should do a Webinar on both products. They are actually very different but complimentary products. I'm still working with PB to determine where and how I will use it in my toolkit. It does not yet have the Notes integration so that's a big show-stopper for me. (I understand that this will come in a future release.)
I'm sorry that you missed part of the webinar, however, I'm glad that you were able to serve where you were needed. The web replay will be up within a week and I would be happy to give you a personal tour or answer any questions.
Again, thanks for the feedback and recommendations. Eric
Posted at 03/30/2007 6:53:28 by Eric Mack
Eric,
I just read my notes from your webinar and was reminded how great it was. You definitely exceeded the normal 50/50 ratio of information to marketing shtick that most webinars seem to have these days (in the good way). I'm amazed and inspired about the depth to which you use these tools and how integrated they are in your daily habits. I don't use Notes, but should be able to apply most of your concepts/actions to my preferred tool, OneNote, instead.
Which leads me to my future webinar request(or maybe you can me to a previous blog post if you've already talked about it): how do you use OneNote 2007 in your system? You mentioned it briefly as one of the tools you use (on your tablet only, I think), but I wasn't sure how it fit into the grand scheme. Seems like most of the "GTD stuff" was handled by MM & Notes. What role does OneNote play in your system?
Thanks again for all your tips!
Bob O'Malley
Posted at 04/02/2007 13:39:15 by Bob O'Malley
Eric, I expected a good webinar and received one. As you now, I present in both webinars and live a lot and MindManger intrigued me when I first saw it. Your webinar came along at the right time. I hesitated even launching it until I watched and got tips on how to better manipulate and work with the product.
You hit it on the mark. While the Webex hit lags, it wasn't necessarily you, bandwidth all over causes the presenter in that model to take longer than you think you should. It was a lesson I learned over many webinar presentations.
As for the product, you gave soe incredible tips to get me started and I already abused it and need more from it.
As for your Workspace, don't fear, I live in mine. Bookmarks actually are counterproductive. I can tab around much faster since all my tabs are built the same with primary icon placement for the companies we manage.
I am using MindManager tomorrow in some meetings for the first time to take notes so I will let you know.
Now, one last thing. I tried hard to break away from having any icons on my desktop but the way I have my windows set I move fast to opening new programs as I can see the edge of them for easy launching. I will give it a try for a couple weeks and see how the blank desktop goes, but it is scary!!!!!
Chris
Posted at 04/02/2007 19:15:20 by Chris Miller
Eric, really enjoyed the webinar! My colleagues and I picked up some good tips for using Notes and MindManager more effectively, and it made us eager to learn more -- which is what counts! Later on that day I spent some time clearing my desktop, my welcome page, and other facets of notes, which no doubt will help us work more efficiently. Thank you!
Posted at 04/03/2007 2:01:59 by David Randall
Bob, I mostly use OneNote (when I use it at all) as a note taking tool. OneNote does not play well with Lotus Notes. That's not to say that it's a bad program. It's quite powerful and I watch the OneNote space closely as I think it could leapfrog Notes in some areas of PKM. For now, however, it is not in the core of my daily applications. (Another reason is also that I had issues with my Tecra and I got used to my Thinkpad. I hope to resolve that soon with a new X60.) Meanwhile I do use Windows Journal and my tablet - these play nicely with Notes.
I like the idea of a separate webinar, perhaps to show how I use my Tablet PC.
Posted at 04/03/2007 11:14:38 by Eric Mack
Thanks for the detailed updates, everyone. It's encouraging to know that the webinar was helpful. I'd like to do a series sometime. I'm keeping the feedback as potential future topics.
Chris, I'm about to blog about Notes workspace as someone else has shared is feedback and I'd like to cover all sides. Right now, I think the workspace and chicklets for db icons is the most effective way for me to work, but I'm always open to learning new things. I hope you'll chime in, when appropriate.
Thanks everyone.
Eric
Posted at 04/03/2007 11:17:56 by Eric Mack
Thanks for the feedback David. I'm not sure what the steps would be for Windows 2000, although there is probably an equivalent set of steps.
I'm sorry that we did not get to cover the use of Mind Mapping in homeschool and with our robotics teams.
I wonder if there's sufficient interest to do a breakout session/webinar on this? I like to do this, not only to share what I've learned but to learn from others.
Posted at 04/03/2007 11:23:38 by Eric Mack
Eric,
I just wanted to thank you for the presentation on Lotus Notes and Mindjet. Although I’m in an “Outlook centric” office, it was still helpful to see how you manage information, and it gave me some ideas.
I’ve previously worked with Lotus Notes, but unfortunately the IT department at that location stripped away much of the power that made Lotus Notes really valuable. It was beneficial to see your presentation in case I ever have opportunity to use LN again.
Posted at 04/03/2007 13:13:57 by John Taylor
Eric,
Thank you for your webinar today.
I am the Director of IT & Online Learning for a small independent highschool in Canada, and we make extensive use of Lotus Notes for information and learning management, but I have actually never used MindManager or the GTD methodology. I still found your presentation compelling and am now keen to investigate further.
Posted at 04/04/2007 5:26:43 by Todd Harris
Eric, (great name!)
Sorry for the late post. (I just returned from vacation.)
I really enjoyed your seminar. Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts on how you use MindManager. I can tell that you are an experienced presenter as you kept a good pace and you clearly presented your ideas.
I really liked your “Day in the Life" topic. The seminar left me wanting more information on how you use MindManager for Personal Knowledge Management. (Do you use a Master Map that ties to all of your other maps and/or files?). This topic could easily be a whole seminar by itself.
Thanks again for the information.
Eric Hubbard
Posted at 04/16/2007 12:41:17 by Eric Hubbard
Thanks for the feedback, Eric. I do use maps to navigate to other maps, but not always in a hieracrhy. I usually start with a hierarchy but I'm not afraid to add links anywhere they will be helpful.
I hope this helps.
Eric
Posted at 04/17/2007 23:56:37 by Eric Mack
Hi Eric,
I enjoyed the seminar and thanks for the maps. Having Notes links available for posting just makes all the difference and has reawakened my interest in the tool. I find I need to edit the link to take out the server name part when grabbing a link from a server copy. Local copy links seem to paste in just fine.
Posted at 04/24/2007 15:14:35 by Gerald
Discussion for this entry is now closed.