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ITI Bloggers December 4th, 2003

Richard McDermott

In Q&A following his keynote (see Marydee Ojala’s notes below), Richard McDermott was asked to list his top-3 tips for those who want to set up strategic communities in their organizations.

McDermott quickly rattled off the answer:

1. Identify topics that matter to your core business.

2. Identify the leaders who will make the communities go.

3. Find ways to support your communities—get a senior manager to go on the record by saying, “This is really important. We should do this.”

Sounds like good advice to me.

Dick Kaser
V.P. Content, Information Today, Inc.

• Online Information 2003

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ITI Bloggers December 4th, 2003

Delegates arriving this morning (Thursday, 4 December)

It always seems to me as if this meeting and trade show should go on for a couple more days.

There’s just never enough time to see everything, catch up with everyone, and go to every stand that was on my wish-list. But alas, what can be fitted into these three days has a finite limit. What is at the end of this day, is all there is–at least for this year.

Dick Kaser
V.P., Content, Information Today, Inc.

• Online Information 2003

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ITI Bloggers December 4th, 2003

By late Thursday afternoon, almost everyone looks tired. The exhibition closed about an hour and a half ago (4 p.m. London time). I went up to the audiotorium for the wrapup session only to discover there wasn’t one. "Everybody just got up and left," said Karen Blakeman. "I think they’d absorbed all the information they could handle."

She’s probably right. It was a very intense three days.

Although several old-timers told me they thought the exhibition had many fewer visitors, Karen reported that the UKOLUG (UK Online Users Group) stand had been very busy directing visitors to the exhibit stands. And I noticed lots of contracts being signed and business meetings being conducted. So I’m convinced that most exhibitors had a profitable time in London.

Karen also told me the winners of the UKOLUG best stand awards. For large stands, the winner was TFPL. The small stand winner was FreshMinds.

Marydee Ojala
Editor, ONLINE: The Leading Magazine for Information Professionals

www.onlinemag.net

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ITI Bloggers December 4th, 2003

This morning’s keynote speech, given by Richard McDermott of McDermott Consulting, focuses on global knowledge and how to share it via communities of practice. Maybe I missed it, but in amongst his examples of communities of practice for ice cream companies, geologists, nurses, and lawyers, I never heard the phrase "information professional." It doesn’t really matter, since much of his opinions and advice are relevant to any profession and any organization. He noted that productivity for knowledge workers hasn’t improved very much, unlike manufacturing, but that service quality has probably increased. Communities of practice, as vehicles for thinking together for collaborative problem solving, certainly have the potential to create new knowledge and save companies money.

What makes a community successful? McDermott thinks that the most important component is finding people who are passionate about the topic. Plus, communities need structure and support. Too much structure and management oversight, however, will lead to failure.

Several German librarians that I spoke with following the keynote were quite enthusiastic about his talk and told me they thought their U.S. colleagues seemed further ahead in the area of knowledge management than they were in Europe.

Marydee Ojala, Editor ONLINE: The Leading Magazine for Information Professionals
www.onlinemag.net

• Online Information 2003

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ITI Bloggers December 4th, 2003

The Royal Lancaster Hotel, just on the edge of London’s Hyde Park, was the site of last night’s well-planned inaugural International Information Industry Awards.

Following a glitzy wine reception and sit-down dinner, the evening’s festivities were hosted by John Suchet, a well-known author and TV news anchorman here in London. Man, could that guy could work a room. With his commanding voice and charisma, he seemed more suited for Shakepearean theatre than the ITN newsroom.

Suchet introduced the nominees and winners as if he were emceeing the Academy Awards. When the winners were finally announced after the requisite tension build-up, theme songs from bad American TV shows like “Hawaii 5-0” and “Dallas” accompanied the winners’ walks to the stage. But it wasn’t as cheesy as it sounds. It was actually quite funny, and the audience was more than enthusiastic. In fact, my own (albeit unofficial) award for Loudest Table In the Room goes to London Business Support Network Knowledge Centre.

But enough of my palaver. The following are the winners and their awards:

Arup Structural Skills Network (Innovation in Knowledge Management)

Partners Foundation/Zen Internet (Innovation in Content Management)

London Business Support Network Knowledge Centre (Best Intranet or Extranet Project)

KnowledgeBoard (User Experience)

xrefer (FreePint Award for Innovation in Customer Service)

Ernst & Young Centre for Business Knowledge Deployment Team (Best Team in a Business Environment)

Defence Science and Technology Laboratory Knowledge Agents (Best Team in a Public Sector Environment)

TechDis (Best Team in an Academic Environment)

Carol Wurcbacher, Mott MacDonald Merseyside Information Service (CILIP/Online Informational Personal Development Award)

Neil Infield, manager of business information services for Hermes Pensions Management (IWR Information Professional of the Year Award)

Sheila Corrall, director of academic services for the University of Southampton (Lifetime Achievement Award)

All in all, it was a lovely evening, and the 340 guests in attendance seemed to have a wonderful time. However, given the name “International” Information Industry Awards, perhaps some future winners might come from outside the U.K.? As was pointed out prior to the ceremony, there were info pros in attendance from all over the world. It would be great if future award ceremonies might reflect this diversity.

John Eichorn
Editor in Chief, Information Today

• Online Information 2003

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ITI Bloggers December 3rd, 2003

The conference awards dinner was tonight. My colleague John Eichorn will give you the full report, but I am so excited about one award that I need to tell you about it here.

It’s the IWR information professional of the year award, sponsored by Dialog.

And the winner is

fanfare
fanfare

Neil Infield
president-elect of the SLA European chapter

Well done, Neil!

Marydee

• Online Information 2003

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ITI Bloggers December 3rd, 2003

As I noted several blog entries ago, Barbara Quint challenged me with the task of identifying for you the best trade-show give-away item from Online Information 2003.

As you can see I’ve captured quite a haul of mouse pads, retractable phone lines for the computer bag, 3 containers of mints, a half-dozen pens, a yo-yo, and a deck of cards. And this, my friends, is only a sampling of the spoils I could have lifted from exhibitors wanting me to brand-identify with them.

It I took all this stuff back to the States with me, the customs people would suspect I was a kleptomaniac.

My award for Best Promo Item of Show? Well, I’ve always been a sucker for packaging. So I choose Mintel’s retractable phone cord in the distinctive yellow detergent-sized box (rear right in the photo). The packaging has a nice product tie in, since it’s an ad for www.gnpd.com, a service that reports consumer product launches.

Dick Kaser
V.P. Content

• Online Information 2003

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