Online Information 98 - preliminary report

Online Information 98 ­ preliminary report

The world's largest information eventOnline Information 98, it is claimed, is the world's largest information industry event. This first report highlights some of its main attractions and provides some background information.

Online Information 98 heralded the arrival of four new shows which were aimed at professional end-users from"information-rich" industries:

• 1.

  Online information for accountancy and finance.

• 2.

  Online information for health and pharmaceuticals.

• 3.

  Online information for investment and security.

• 4.

  Online information for sales and marketing.

All were designed to help educate these professionals about the benefits of using information online and contained the data they need. Most cyberneticians and systemists would have been impressed by the range and quality of the systems on view and also by the high standards of presentation.

Each show had a physical "Expo"area on the exhibition floor, an information trail linking exhibitors in this area with relevant exhibitors on the main exhibition floor and culminating in a product presentation theatre. An afternoon conference session was also scheduled for each show.

Online Information 98's marketing director, said that:

... the four new shows reached out to the professionals in these specific market sectors for whom accessing information online is indispensable to their business needs. Each show allowed visitors interested in these industry sectors to identify the companies they wished to see and to plan their visit in advance.

Other key features of this year's Online Information 98 included:

• "Knowledge management at Online Information". Building on last year's KM Expo, exhibitors showed the latest technologies that can be used to capture and exploit both internal and external knowledge, and gave product presentations in the knowledge management theatre on the main exhibition floor. The importance of KM is further reflected in thededication of a whole day of the mainstream conference to the "whys and wherefores" of practising KM.

• "Scientific, Technical and Medical at Online Information" ­ with its own Expo area, information trail and product presentation theatre ­ was dedicated to providing access to a variety of information sources within these fields.

• Two information trails, "Digital Publishing Technologies" and "Legal &Government", aimed at helping visitors to find the products and services of interest to them and helping them plan an efficient route around the main exhibition floor.

Online Information 98 took place from 8-10 December 1998 at the National Hall and Olympia Conference Centre in London, UK and provided the international meeting place for all professionals interested in accessing, distributing and providing information.

For further information on Online Information 98 and future events contact the Exhibition and/or Conference information pages at the Web Site at www.online-information.co.uk; or contact the organisers, Learned Information Europe Ltd. Tel: + 44 (0) 1865 388000.

D.M. Hutton