AIIP 2024 Symposium: A Pivotal Moment for Your Business Growth
Two AIIP members share their insights and experiences from attending AIIP’s annual conference/symposium. Our next symposium is April 18-21, 2024, in St. Louis, MO. Virtual attendance options are available. Conference registration is now open.
So, you may ask, why attend the AIIP 2024 Symposium in St. Louis, April 18-21?
I started my business during COVID. I thought about it for quite a while, and it seemed like a good time. My first AIIP conference in 2022 was a virtual conference. Although the format was new to me, I could tell that the presentation topics as well as the networking opportunities would be extremely helpful.
In 2023, I attended the AIIP23 conference in Milwaukee. It was a great experience to meet so many people in person. My network exploded, and I have been in contact ever since. While AIIP makes it very easy to connect with people virtually because the membership is expansive across the US and into Canada and Europe, meeting colleagues in person really helped grow my network even more.
The topics covered in conference presentations, from running your business to key matters of interest in the profession, have been extremely helpful. At #AIIP23 in Milwaukee, we met Tony Zanders, Founder and CEO of Skilltype, who gave our Roger Summit Lecture. He talked about the digital shift and the modern information professional, and he described how he views the importance of AIIP and the work being done by our members.
AIIP 2024 Symposium in St. Louis looks exciting, too, featuring a sure-to-be-compelling keynote address by educator and technologist Dr. Sarah Glova. Dr. Glova is a globally recognized speaker, successful entrepreneur, university instructor, and business consultant. What a perfect match for AIIP!
By Jan Sykes
I absolutely concur with Margaret that attending an AIIP conference offers a great opportunity to meet and have meaningful conversations with like-minded entrepreneurs in the broader information industry. For independent business owners, it can be a challenge to make time for professional development events. AIIP conferences, now called symposiums, are a solution to that dilemma.
As a longtime member, I have been involved with planning several conferences, including the
unplanned switch from an in-person to a virtual conference at the outset of the COVID pandemic. The highest priority for conference planners is to meet members’ needs. Considerable time is spent reviewing evaluations from previous conferences, ferreting out trending questions and topics on our discussion list and social media, and examining plenty of calls and messaging to arrive at an agenda. Fortunately, AIIP members step up to generously share their expertise and experience and provide insights that lead to further discussion.
Non-members are recruited to support the conference theme and offer fresh perspectives. Presentations focus on helping members keep up to date with tips for growing a business, interacting successfully with clients and prospective clients, taking away general lessons learned, and adopting new tools and resources.
Having attended most AIIP conferences over the years, I have always left with new ideas about my business, with new friends, and with fresh confidence as a business owner. The AIIP24 Symposium in St. Louis might just be the breakthrough moment you need to launch or take your business to the next level.
Margaret Harrison established Harrison Data and Information Services in 2021, focusing on working with companies to identify how data can assist in improved operations and benefit their revenue streams. She has worked with a wide range of companies and industries to find that even a small data set can make a large difference. Margaret has been an AIIP member since 2020. She can be contacted at Margaret.ann.harrison@gmail.com.
Jan Sykes has been a member of AIIP for many years. Her business, Information Management Services, Inc., was established in 1998 and focuses on a wide range of information management and knowledge management projects, helping to increase the productivity of knowledge workers by providing intuitive access to essential information resources. She can be contacted at JanSykes@4Info-Management.com.
