The awards ceremony was quite the glittering affair. It held no surprises, however, since the award winners were announced some time ago in this press release. Ethel Salonen did a terrific job in keeping the ceremony lively and relvant. The reception following the awards presentations was truly sumptious!
Marydee Ojala
Editor, ONLINE: The Leading Magazine for Information Professionals
Whilst wandering the exhibit hall, I stopped by the Snapshots booth (1230). Aside from their usual stunning display of market research overviews, they’ve got this little tantalizing bit that prefigures their use of multiple languages (they plan to expand into French and German). There are four flags. In addition to French and German, there’s the American and British flags. Click on the Stars & Stripes, for example, and language boxes appear, encouraging you to enter an American English word to see its British equivalent.
Marydee Ojala
Editor, ONLINE: The Leading Magazine for Information Professionals
I stopped by the 10K Wizard booth to pick up a cool flashing pen and found out the company has some news that hasn’t been widely publicized yet. A new SEC comment letter searching function has been implemented. Clicking on a new tab will allow you to search for comment letters and responses. Users can filter by company, text search the contents of the letters, filter by industry, and/or filter by date range. According to a company representative, they are still finishing it and will be adding a new alert feature.
Stop at Booth 1240 for a demo.
Paula J. Hane
News Bureau Chief
Information Today, Inc.
www.infotoday.com
phane@infotoday.com
…Susan Kaufman of Fortune in New York City.
Susan won a digital camera and HP photo printer in a drawing at the opening ceremony. Now that’s a prize worth winning! (SLA president Ethel Salonen, behind the podium, congratulates Susan.)
Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today
The opening ceremony was at noon today at the entrance to the exhibit hall.
Ethel Salonen, SLA president, and Janice LaChance, Executive Director welcomed the attendees and officially opened the exhibits with a ribbon cutting.
Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today
Toronto is a nice day’s drive from my home near ITI’s offices in Medford, NJ, so off we went. We were suitably welcomed when we crossed the Canadian border into Ontario, also painlessly (maybe having a wife who is a (former) Canadian citizen had something to do with it!).
It’s a lovely day today and sitting outside in a cafe using their (or somebody’s) Wi-Fi connection is very pleasant.
The exhibits opened at noon today–see posts to come.
Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today
I had prebooked the airport express bus, so upon arrival in Toronto, I had a pleasant and reasonably fast ride directly to my hotel—the Fairmont Royal York. The best part was the price—under $16 compared to the taxi price of about $40 (C). I’ve also tried the Toronto subway system (just $2.50 C) and managed to get to my destination quite successfully. The trains run frequently and seem to be popular with the locals.
But, what’s with the stairs everywhere? I’ve been surprised at how scarce ramps, escalators, and elevators seem to be. I’m certainly getting my exercise. For those looking for a good walk, I saw great looking trails and park areas along the lake on my ride into town. I’m hoping for some no conflict time to do a little exploring.
Paula J. Hane
News Bureau Chief
Information Today, Inc.
www.infotoday.com
phane@infotoday.com
Who’s blogging SLA? Um, everybody? According to SLA staffers Doug Newcomb and John Crosby, the SLA Blog has 30 bloggers signed up. That doesn’t count the staff. Information Outlook editor John Adams has some terrific behind the scenes photos.
Christina Pikas was handing out PAM stickers in the lower conference area (why is floor 1 below the ground floor and why is the ground floor level 2?). Her article on blogging will appear in the July/August issue of ONLINE. Randy Reichart , who accepted a PAM sticker from Christina, has been following Chemical Marketing Reporter’s dropping of chemical prices from its print edition. Now, he says, CMR will charge academic institutions an additional $715 (I’m assuming that’s US$ not CAD$) to acquire the information online if they retain the print subscription. Not the ideal solution. As Randy said this morning, universities educate the students who will find employment in the enterprises to which CMR currently sells tens of thousands of dollars of product. It’s actually in the best interests of the publisher to keep the universities happy.
Marydee Ojala
Editor, ONLINE: The Leading Magazine for Information Professionals
I should know better. Every year I think I can just pop over to registration and be back within a few minutes. It never works that way. I run into friends and start chatting. Two hours later and I’m still in the registration area. The registration itself was very quick.
According to several SLA staffers, pre-registration numbers are higher than the actual attendance numbers for last year’s conference — a good omen — and there are almost 50 new vendors — also a good omen.
Marydee Ojala
Editor, ONLINE: The Leading Magazine for Information Professionals
The fire alarm went off in my hotel at 7.30 this morning. It’s almost an SLA tradition. At least it wasn’t the middle of the night.
Marydee Ojala
Editor, ONLINE: The Leading Magazine for Information Professionals