Knowledge Management 98

Knowledge Management 98

Knowledge Management 98 was billed as the first event which offered an overview of the main knowledge management techniques. It was scheduled for 2-3 April 1998 at the Royal Horticultural Halls and Conference Centre, London, UK. The conference and exhibition were sponsored by the Knowledge Management Magazine and by Knowledge Associates, and was supported by Computing, Business Computer World, Management Consultancy and Aslib ­ the Association for Information Management. The event's organiser was Learned Information Europe Ltd, Woodside, Hinksey Hill, Oxford OX1 5BE, UK. Tel: +44 (0)1865 388000; Fax: +44 (0)1865 736354; URL: http://www.knowledge-management.co.uk

There was no doubt that from the programme of the event it was indeed one of the first of its kind to provide such a comprehensive introduction and also an overview of some of the main techniques that are available to those who actually pay for knowledge management within an organisation. It also was equally successful in providing for those who create technology that accesses information and for those who are employed to use it.

Aimed at all levels within an organisation including the IT and Information Managers, the event centred around the growing importance of knowledge management as an integrated corporation information strategy. The exhibition featured companies who provide the technologies for information capture and dissemination while the conference provided an interactive forum for debate about the issues that face an organisation both internally and externally.

Exhibitors featured management systems, databases, intranet solutions, groupware and communications software. Companies such as HyperKnowledge (Europe), Information Access Company,Fretwell-Downing Informatics Ltd and One-Source Information Services, FileNET Ltd and ICC Information will be showcasing their latest products.

Pre-conference workshops were aimed at the practicalities of creating a knowledge management environment within an organisation. One of the sessions identified how technology can enable knowledge management and was led by Dave Snowden, Head of the IBM Global Services'Knowledge Enablement Centre.

The main conference programme covered the two days with speakers from different backgrounds and professions. They covered the key issues of implementing a knowledge management programme from generating revenue through innovations and creativity, to viewing hardware and technical solutions while understanding the strategic goals and building a knowledge sharing culture.

Sessions included "Blending your data with external sources" providing three case studies by Desktop Data,Autonomy and Muscat, who covered a variety of alert products which work with news feeds, e-mail, corporate memoranda, archives and document stores. Other subjects included "The enabling KM technologies", delivered by Roger Williams of Cap Gemini where he identified the key technologies including decision support systems, Inter/Intranets, AI, groupware, data warehousing, electronic (external)competitive data collection, etc. A further session was entitled "Creating the knowledge enterprise: The technological solution to information audit" delivered by Eelco Kruizinga, Senior Consultant, Knowledge Management Kenniscentrum Cibit.

John Snyder of Muscat Ltd believes that:

People need tools that will respond to their constantly changing definitions of information relevance. Yet push technology methods only deliver documents classified to a rigid category which the consumer pre-selects.

In his specific conference session he shared both Muscat's new method of summarisation technology that abstracts documents according to users' individual interests, and the use of dynamic sampling of live news to automatically identify which users need alerting.

Both the exhibition and conference aimed to be highly interactive and there were many opportunities for delegates to interact with the speakers during the sessions and workshops.

In summary, the organisers of the event say that:

Equally, we have designed Knowledge Management to educate individuals about the latest products and services in this sector making it highly specific to the IT Managers within an organisation who are charged with the job of identifying and specifying the right tools. Rolling product demonstrations throughout the exhibition hall,allowed a hands-on approach and enabled delegates to put themselves in the knowledge management driving seat within their organisation.

D.M. Hutton/B.H. Rudall