Just last week I attended the 22nd annual AIIP (Association of Independent Information Professionals) conference in Pittsburgh, PA at the beautiful Renaissance Pittsburgh Hotel as a vendor representing Dow Jones & Company. This gathering of roughly 122 professional researchers all had the opportunity to Converge, Connect and Communicate with each other from April 30 – May 4, 2008. Although a relatively small group when it comes to conference numbers, AIIP members are a lively bunch who love to network and consume information. The organizers of the conference promised a busy schedule packed with pre-conference workshops, vendor training, general sessions facilitated by wonderful speakers, roundtable discussions and numerous networking opportunities.
INTIMATE is the word I would use to describe the venue setting, and PASSIONATE is the word I would use to describe most of the attendees. One of my roles during this conference was to provide vendor training for our Dow Jones Factiva product. Dow Jones Factiva is an award-winning service with powerful tools to monitor your competitors, customers, and industry, while also conducting in-depth research, gathering company financial data, and more. I delivered two training sessions to the attendees:
1) Factiva.com Overview: The Best Choice for Global Business Information
2) Factiva Search 2.0: Build Competitive Advantage with a Simple Search
During my first session, I had about 15 attendees who were quite engaged and asked many questions, especially when it came to talking about the Discovery Pane within our Factiva Search 2.0 component of Factiva.com. This great feature further analyzes your search results providing you with visual cues and insight. When I delivered my second session which focused primarily on the Factiva Search 2.0 component, the majority of the attendees stayed from the first session with new faces also in attendance. Here is where I truly learned how much these people love to consume knowledge and information.
Over the next couple days, my colleague and I sat at our exhibit table and mingled with attendees and other vendors while continuing to demonstrate the many features of our Dow Jones Factiva product to everyone who stopped by. I can’t remember many moments when I wasn’t engaged in conversation with someone who wanted to know if they could find specific information from our award winning product. The 3rd day of the conference, there was a wonderful opportunity for everyone to get to know each other when they announced that we all had to walk up to a microphone and provide a 30 second introduction of ourselves. During this time, AIIP presented several awards to their members which included:
*Myra T. Grenier Award
*Sue Rugge Memorial Award
*Roger Summit Conference Sponsorship
*AIIP President’s Award
*Connections Writer’s Award
As I said earlier, AIIP members are an intimate group who are passionate about what they do and who they meet, so this really made many of the first time attendees (both members and vendors) feel welcomed.
I departed the conference early Saturday morning for my flight back into the Philadelphia area. However, another networking opportunity was planned for that evening as the AIIP folks were having a gala banquet aboard a historical Riverboat that would cruise them along all 3 Pittsburgh rivers. I left the conference and once I was home pondered those three C’s: CONVERGE, CONNECT and COMMUNICATE. If I learned to embrace these 3 words in all of my endeavors as the AIIP attendees did back in Pittsburgh, could I somehow portray that same passion no matter what the circumstance?
Ciao,
Vinnie
INTIMATE is the word I would use to describe the venue setting, and PASSIONATE is the word I would use to describe most of the attendees. One of my roles during this conference was to provide vendor training for our Dow Jones Factiva product. Dow Jones Factiva is an award-winning service with powerful tools to monitor your competitors, customers, and industry, while also conducting in-depth research, gathering company financial data, and more. I delivered two training sessions to the attendees:
1) Factiva.com Overview: The Best Choice for Global Business Information
2) Factiva Search 2.0: Build Competitive Advantage with a Simple Search
During my first session, I had about 15 attendees who were quite engaged and asked many questions, especially when it came to talking about the Discovery Pane within our Factiva Search 2.0 component of Factiva.com. This great feature further analyzes your search results providing you with visual cues and insight. When I delivered my second session which focused primarily on the Factiva Search 2.0 component, the majority of the attendees stayed from the first session with new faces also in attendance. Here is where I truly learned how much these people love to consume knowledge and information.
Over the next couple days, my colleague and I sat at our exhibit table and mingled with attendees and other vendors while continuing to demonstrate the many features of our Dow Jones Factiva product to everyone who stopped by. I can’t remember many moments when I wasn’t engaged in conversation with someone who wanted to know if they could find specific information from our award winning product. The 3rd day of the conference, there was a wonderful opportunity for everyone to get to know each other when they announced that we all had to walk up to a microphone and provide a 30 second introduction of ourselves. During this time, AIIP presented several awards to their members which included:
*Myra T. Grenier Award
*Sue Rugge Memorial Award
*Roger Summit Conference Sponsorship
*AIIP President’s Award
*Connections Writer’s Award
As I said earlier, AIIP members are an intimate group who are passionate about what they do and who they meet, so this really made many of the first time attendees (both members and vendors) feel welcomed.
I departed the conference early Saturday morning for my flight back into the Philadelphia area. However, another networking opportunity was planned for that evening as the AIIP folks were having a gala banquet aboard a historical Riverboat that would cruise them along all 3 Pittsburgh rivers. I left the conference and once I was home pondered those three C’s: CONVERGE, CONNECT and COMMUNICATE. If I learned to embrace these 3 words in all of my endeavors as the AIIP attendees did back in Pittsburgh, could I somehow portray that same passion no matter what the circumstance?
Ciao,
Vinnie
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