New! Interactive Conference Sessions
Have a look at the interactive elements of the event we have introduced this year to help you make new connections and learn about information industry challenges in new ways.
Speed networking and Simpl innovation marketplace
When: Tuesday 29 November, 11.30 and 14.00 in the Conference Foyer (session runs for 45 minutes)
Who can attend: Open to all speakers and conference delegates - first come, first served, numbers are limited, you will be able to sign up on the day
Facilitated by: Carrie Bishop from FutureGov - you'll be able to make new connections and network with like minded colleagues from the first day of the conference.
Have you got a great idea, but you need a bit of help to make it happen? Or perhaps you have got some skills and connections that would really help someone looking to get a project off the ground? Come along to Social Innovation Speed Dating event run by the team behind Simpl (Social Innovation Marketplace). In pairs, participants will get three minutes to rapidly pitch their idea to another delegate and barter for support, before moving on to form a new pair. By the end of the session, we expect a wealth of connections to have been made and a lot of fun to have been had. The Simpl team have run successful Social Innovation Speed Dating events in London, Washington DC and San Francisco. You can check out Simpl at www.simpl.co
The essential competence - demonstrating value
When: Tuesday 29 November, 14:00 - 15.30 ; Track 3
Facilitated by: Ian Wooler, Director, IDW and Sandra Ward, Beaworthy Consulting, UK
Proving value is now a constant requirement. This session will provide insights into practical approaches for demonstrating the value of information and knowledge services in a number of sectors, including health, law, government, academia, and the business sector. Audience participation before, during, and after the session will help capitalise on the wider learning of others - watch this space for more information!
Panellists include:
Peter Griffiths, Independent Consultant, UK
Ceri Hughes, Director, Global Knowledge Business Leader, KPMG, UK
Gwenda Sippings, Independent Information Professional, UK
Kate Mason, Skills Funding Agency, UK
Pauline Blagden, Library Services Manager, Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust, UK
Rebecca Davies, Pro-Vice Chancellor & Director of Information Services, Aberystwyth University, UK
Background to the session:
No information or knowledge function can assume longevity, however powerful the arguments that brought the function into existence, both times and organisations change. Proving value is now a constant requirement and information and knowledge professionals need to learn new skills, or hone and fine-tune existing skills associated with this core competency.
The potential for information and knowledge management skills to create value is significant. Opportunities include: managing a cost-effective supply chain that delivers published information directly into business processes; preventing knowledge loss, identifying where organisational performance is sub-optimal because knowledge and expertise are being wasted; facilitating knowledge transfer and learning from experience; enabling the organisation to mine social media for customer intelligence; preventing the organisation from sinking under information overload.
Yet if there is no shortage of opportunities, why do some information and knowledge professionals find it difficult to prove value from their activities? Common sense tells us that it's the recipient that reaps the value from information and knowledge skills. Yet often professionals approach the challenge of demonstrating value from the perspective of justifying the services and products provided, and their team and their own existence - an approach seen by others as 'defensive' and motivated by concerns of 'self-protection'. Another pitfall is to measure too much - counting everything that moves to demonstrate 'activity' is a route to failure simply by boring those who really matter.
In order to prove value, four enablers need to be in place: an organisational champion; a benefits plan; a baseline; and techniques for measuring benefit. The organisational champion is pivotal; they are prepared to 'own' a service for a specific part of the organisation that needs it. With the champion comes the ability to develop a benefits plan. Just how will information or knowledge skills contribute value to the champion's area of responsibility? What will value look like? And what's happening at the moment; what are the problems that information can resolve? Understanding and expressing the issues that a function faces, because it's not on top of its information and knowledge needs, provides the baseline. The gap between the baseline and the benefits plan helps determine the approaches that can be implemented for improvement and measurement.
The speakers will draw on their consultancy experience in a number of sectors, including the health sector, to consider the measurement framework further. They will describe how two useful measures - return on investment and key performance indicators can be used to demonstrate value.
Knowledge Café
It's good to talk at the Knowledge Café!
When: Tuesday 29 November, 16.00-17.30; Track 2
Who can attend: Open to all speakers and conference delegates - first come, first served, numbers are limited, you will be able to sign up on the day
Facilitated by: David Gurteen, Founder, Gurteen Knowledge
Since the advent of the World Wide Web, we have had unprecedented access to information. Are we that more effective, productive or creative? I don't think so. We don't just need more information. We need to understand what we have better. We need to make better sense of it all. How have human beings made sense of the world since the dawn of time? Through conversation!
Conversation enables us to become aware of different perspectives; it allows us to better crystallise and articulate our own thoughts and views. It improves our understanding of the world. Learning conversations or dialogue also help build relationships. And it's through relationships that everything gets done. The Knowledge Cafe is a simple way of encouraging and supporting conversation and thus improving understanding, decision making and innovation.
Come along and join the conversation with David Gurteen. It's good to talk!
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