Upcoming conferences for information professionals
Jinfo Blog

By Africa S. Hands

Abstract

Conferences provide a refreshing opportunity to step away from our daily information work to network with other information professionals, expand our skill set and, for some, to give back to the profession through presentations. If you have a substantial professional development budget and flexible travel schedule, you may be fortunate enough to attend several of the conferences listed.

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For some librarians the conference season kicked off in January with ALA Midwinter. Well-attended with meetings, forums, vendor demonstrations and discussions with industry leaders, it was not only an opportunity to gather free advanced reader copies but also to have serious conversations about eBooks, publishing and technology trends.

Conferences provide a refreshing opportunity to step away from our daily information work to network with other information professionals, expand our skill set and, for some, to share expertise and experiences through presentations. This year promises to be another enriching experience for information professionals with such topics as mobile technology, SharePoint, digital preservation, business intelligence and leadership development.

Here is a preview of upcoming conferences of interest to information professionals. Events are listed in date order.

Computers in Libraries (CIL), 21-23 March 2012 in Washington, DC. With the theme: Creating Innovative Libraries this year’s conference features a free day-long workshop on data curation with the keynote address by director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services, Susan Hildreth. FreePint’s Director of Research, Robin Neidorf, will participate in session A101: Strategic Approaches to Mobile. Twitter hashtag #CILDC.

TFPL SharePoint Event 2012, 26 April 2012 in London. This event highlights the information management capabilities of SharePoint as it relates to collaboration, sharing and business intelligence. Attendees will learn from a variety of case studies and hear from SharePoint Technical Specialist, Brendan Clarke.

Strategic and Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP), International Annual Conference and Exhibition 14-17 May 2012 in Philadelphia, PA. Although heavily attended by C-Level executives, this conference offers a number of workshops for entry-level CI professionals including competitive intelligence in developing countries, effective counter competitive intelligence, and affordable and high quality CI. Time for industry specific conversations (see Track 5) and opportunities for networking are built into the schedule. Sessions are selling out so register soon.

Enterprise Search Summit, 14-16 May 2012 in New York, NY. Industry experts from leading organisations offer insights on semantic search, open source search and SharePoint. Market Insight Panels will look at enterprise search solutions currently in the marketplace. Twitter hashtag #ESS12.

CILIP in Wales Conference, 17-18 May 2012 in Cardiff. Focused on leadership development for library and information professionals, this year’s conference features workshops on advocacy, media relations and change leadership.

Unfortunately the Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM ) conference is sold out as it looks like a worthwhile opportunity for information professionals to learn and network. This year’s theme: Managing Information in the Social, Local, and Mobile Era will include tracks on automation, content management and records management. Twitter hashtag #AIIM12.

If you have a substantial professional development budget and flexible travel schedule, you may be fortunate enough to attend multiple conferences this season and, if you are on the lookout for more, keep an eye on FreePint's JINFO Events calendar. For those following conferences at a distance, Twitter hashtags have been provided where available.

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