I just read the discussion about this years Lotus Award at Volker´s site. And I wonder why IBM is continously decreasing the importance of the former Lotus Beacon Awards.
As a repeated finalist of the Lotus Beacon Award – yes, unfortunatly we never made it to the top – I am very disappointed of the way this award has been comunicated and celebrated in the last years. It was always a big event, a kind of ritual at Lotusphere, where even those guys who never wear a tuxedo were dressed in black (well, Volker, I know you don´t mind if the others wear suits:-). The ceremony was held during Lotusphere in January and therefore all finalist and winners had a great chance to be recognized by customers and the Lotus community. I still have some of those old Wallstreet Journal ads with our names on it. Today? We receive an email and a link to completly meaningless web page short before christmas – definetly the best time to communicate something no one will listen to.
Only some days before this years deadline my bp rep called me and we talked about participating in the Lotus awards. Finally I did not put any efforts in that because it is lots of work for very less publicity. If IBM publishes our company names somewhere on the IBM web site this has no effect on our companies revenue – and no meaning for me personally. So I hope this discussion will help to put IBMs attention on that topic and the will reinitiate a more emotional campaign around these awards. If they will catch customers attention again, my ambition will rise to give it another try.
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