Online Information Conference 2009

 

• CLICK HERE to view the 2009 programme with presentation overviews and speaker biographies 
• CLICK HERE to view the 2009 pre-conference workshops
• CLICK HERE to download a PDF version of the conference programme 

 

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Online Information Conference 2009

The 2009 conference attracted more than 700 delegates from over 40 countries. The conference provided a forum dedicated to learning, debate, professional development, technology reviews and assessments, expert discussion as well as case-study presentations and the sharing of research results and opinion.

Feedback from delegates includes:

'It is the event for online content providers and facilitators, very interesting for presentations, discussion and networking. I got value out of the three aspects '
Marc Debusschere, Seconded expert (I&C), Eurostat (European Commission),Luxembourg

'Excellent - a good way of benchmarking and seeing what the latest trends are'
Theo Bothman, University of Pretoria, South Africa

'I have attended the OI Exhibition for many years, including 3 years when I organised a stand, but this was my first time at the Conference. I was very impressed by the variety of speakers, from academic and commercial organisations'
Andrew Beaven, Marketing Director, EvaluatePharma, UK

'Interesting conference with a lot of new information'
Jorunn Alstad, Head Librarian, NTNU Library, Norway

'Excellent conference - varied and informative'
Dr Kay Munro, Senior Assistant Librarian, University of Glasgow Library, Scotland

'Excellent, I've blogged about it in my organisation. Without doubt, the one conference that has shaped my thoughts over the last 2 years more than anything else. Direct assistance enabling key inputs to strategic direction'
Michael J Bell, Web and Business Application Services Manager, South Tyneside PCT, UK

As you all know, 2009 proved to be another momentus year in the information industry - a year in which every part of our industry has hit the headlines in the mainstream press.  Google, Bing, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, some of the new information super-brands, are now household names and part of the fabric of society.  Has there ever been a better time to be an information professional?

Yes the recession has hit hard across many sectors.  And of course belts have been tightened.  But nothing seems to stem the tide of innovation in our industry.  If anything, the economic climate has fuelled even greater innovation and allowed companies to be even more radical in the way they use the information tools and platforms now available. 

The 2009 Online Information Conference show cased all these innovations and signposted the emerging trends for 2010. 

There were three strong tracks:

• The Social Web - tools for conversation and collaboration in life and business
• The Semantic Web - bringing structure and integration to the information world
• Delivering Value - Information Professionals demonstrating and proving their worth

Each of the tracks was keynoted by speakers who are leading their industry. 

On Day 1, for our opening keynote we had Dame Wendy Hall and Professor Nigel Shadbolt - thought leaders of the Semantic Web movement.  Together they are on a mission to transform business, academia and government by exploiting semantic technologies. 


On Day 2, we had Professor Blaise Cronin, Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology.  Renowned internationally for his understanding of information science, he explored how we can educate and train information professionals to operate in this world of greater complexity and faster change.

On Day 3, we had Charlene Li, Co-Author of Groundswell - winning in a world transformed by social technologies, who explored how organisations need to transform themselves to harness the ever changing social web.  Charlene talked about how the use of social tools in 'open' organisations will change the business world.  She talked about how organisations need to embrace 'openness' and how you can drive forward and lead this change.

Groundswell - winning in a world transformed by social technologies, was recently awarded the 2009 Berry-AMA book prize for the best book in Marketing by the American Marketing Association.

Our keynote closing panel, moderated by the incisive Steve Arnold, discussed the impact of cloud computing and open source on the search and content markets.  Who will the market leaders be in 2010?