The PI Conference was all it promised and more. The tried and tested format of keynote speakers on each day, interactive workshops on a variety of topics and a panel discussion and a good conference theme certainly produced a good conference. It was an excellent opportunity to network with colleagues and peers (both new and known) and to do it in a relaxed and yet structured environment. Evidence of the credit crunch was there to be seen, but generally everyone came along with a positive view and a confident attitude.
Professor David Nicholas from UCL opened with a thought provoking presentation on Information in Cyberspace and shared much interested research with us. I shall always think of younger net users shopping around and never going back when I hear the word promiscuous in future. He startles us by telling us that of all our time spent 'googling' only 50% is spent reading what we find, the remainder is spent looking for it! (Better indexing required I heard myself tut!) Kevin O'Mahony of Factset had much of interest to say on Capitalising On Change and Increasing Productivity in A Challenging Environment. Of particular interest was the move from pyramid shapes in work hierarchy to T shapes. Right now I am looking at how we can reduce the remedial and redundant work and increase what we do at a higher level. I think we all can take heed from his final point - Map yourself to the Business Organisation Strategy! Angela Johnson from JP Morgan gave a timely and succinct presentation entitled City Survivors Guide to Business Information Professionals. She provided much food for thought and in particular presented a well thought through action plan.
The choice of workshops (different on each day) was excellent and offered something for everyone. Each delegate had the chance to attend four and many people were finding it difficult to prioritise as all of the topics were so interesting. Many offered to swap notes which I thought was really indicative of the atmosphere that prevailed.
On Tuesday evening we were further challenged by a wine tasting roulette game. Can you tell which is white wine and which is red when it it served in a black glass and you are blindfolded? How many chips would you be prepared to stake on the eventuality of someone opening a bottle of fizz with a sword! Playing our joker for double points on the chance we could identify and accurately describe a smell (musty, damp, earthy, cellars, cobwebs, mushrooms, mud were our thoughts) was not a good idea. I never did find out the right answer.
On Thursday I confess to kicking off the proceedings with a presentation on Transferable Skills. Despite the bleary eyes of some of the troopers who had networked until the early hours I think it went down well. At least they chuckled at my jokes. Stephen Phillips from Morgan Stanley was an excellent (and encouraging) Chair and facilitated a lively and wide ranging panel discussion to round off the conference. Steve Cupper, Ursula Clark, Janice Lachance and Susan Doe had many good points to make and fielded the many and varied questions with great panache.
This was all about Transforming Today's Challenges into Tomorrow's Opportunities and the buzz when people gathered to wait for taxis to the train station indicated that we were all off to do just that. Roll on PIC 2010!
