Katharine Schopflin has a wealth of experience in library and information management in sectors including broadcasting, government and non-profit. She has recently joined the Board of SLA Europe as joint Chair of Digital Communications and she has kindly accepted to write about her experience at the PI Conference that was held on 11-13 May in Luton .
I had always associated the Perfect Information Conference with Very Important Information People and Lots of Vendors. Together with its rather hefty price, I sort of assumed it wasn’t for me. Last week I had the honour of representing SLA Europe and hosting a round table session on Information Management and so became a PI Conference first-timer.
Reader – I loved it! I can honestly say this was one of the most valuable conferences I’ve ever attended. The ‘Making Information Visible’ panel session was astonishingly insightful. Two vendors and two information managers shared their experiences of reaching users and persuading them to use quality information products, ably moderated by FreePint’s Robin Neidorf. Observations included: technology is important, but it’s never the solution to user-behaviour problems, information literate workforces need good information more than ever and the loss of physical spaces can make the information service less visible. Approaches to the problem included user-friendly discovery interfaces, knowing your users and not just through analytics (although these are important) and good old excellent customer service – your users will be ambassadors to their colleagues.
This was followed by a session on big data; a topic so overexposed and little understood that I was immediately put into ‘suspicious’ mode. But I was won over by Bernard Marr’s unhyperbolic approach and the maturity of the discussion, which ensued. It was refreshing to hear a balanced talk from a consultant about the opportunities and dangers of big data and an admission that we can’t predict what will happen next.
The afternoon consisted of syndicate sessions (including the one I hosted). Both those I attended were valuable. Isabella Folwell facilitated an excellent workshop about contracts and licensing and it was a privilege to hear the experiences and advice of so many experts on this topic. Victoria North’s session on managing from the middle engendered lots of interesting discussion and supportive advice.
I wasn’t able to attend the black tie dinner, but the venue, food and social events I did experience were high quality and good fun. I like a good information event myself, but I actually loved the fact that vendors were as engaged in the learning sessions as the information professionals, rather than skulking in the exhibition hall then handing out the drinks later.
I think you can guess that I would recommend everyone to apply for next year’s SLA Europe Perfect Information Award. The session I hosted was fun and not remotely scary and well worth the effort given the value I obtained. I usually find I’ve learned useful things from conferences some time after the event. In this case I attended a job interview the next day and was successful partly because of specific knowledge I learned at PIC and because of the confidence that gave me in talking about it. I wouldn’t expect everyone to be able to achieve such an immediate result, but I can guarantee you’ll come away with lots of ideas and a new network of supportive peers.