Is everyone running behind?

Charlie Hull of Lemur Consulting Ltd recently suggested on the LinkedIn Enterprise Search Forum that we all post a calendar of upcoming search events, which strikes me as a good idea (you'll need to log in to see the thread). The excellent shows and conferences are few and far between.

I've always thought the best search show is the Enterprise Search Summit - East run every May in New York by Information Today. Historically it's always been a much more useful conference than their ESS-West in San Jose every November, and far more relevant than the KMWorld conferences they co-locate with ESS in both cities. Search Engine Meeting, run by Infonortics in the Spring in Boston, is another good show, although it's much more appropriate for 'search geeks' who are interested in the bleeding edge of research.

It's been a tough year for shows everywhere though, with attendence way off from previous years. Let's hope next year is a better one, that more people can travel to conferences, and that the shows can rebound.

An odd note: I just looked for ESS East 2010 on the web and it's not been announced yet. Usually they have information on the venue and a call for papers (and for sponsor and exhibitors) by now. Maybe they realize that everyone knows it'll be at the Hilton, and the spring-like weather in New York has them all running behind!

Comments

[Daniel Tunkelang]

As I responded on the LinkedIn thread, there is a calendar on the Information Today site that list loads of search events (not just theirs): http://www.infotoday.com/calendar.shtml

But I agree that great events are sparse. That's why you should come to SIGIR next week--at least to the Industry Track! Yes, a shameless plug, but check out the line-up.

http://thenoisychannel.com/2009/07/15/sigir-meet-the-whos-who-of-search-and-information-retrieval/