Professional Development for the Information Professional Part 2 - The Professional Development Plan

This is a reworking of a post that I originally wrote for the AIIM blog. Because of its length, I'm breaking it into two parts. The first post presents a professional development framework. In this part, I'll present a matrix that can be used to turn the framework into an individual professional development plan. 

Your Professional Development Plan

What if we train our staff and they leave? What if we don’t – and they stay?

-- Often attributed to Henry Ford

Your final step is to put all of this together into your own professional development plan. Every information professional – in fact, every professional – needs a professional development plan. You have to stay current in order to stay relevant. And relevance is relative: there’s a difference between staying where you’re at – treading water – and setting out to get a better position, more pay, or increased responsibilities. You’re the only one who knows what road you’re on – meaning you have to take responsibility for your own professional development plan.

I can’t tell you exactly what should go into your plan, but I’ve put together a framework that is comprehensive, yet flexible, to allow you to develop a plan that makes sense for you and your professional goals.

I’ve already talked about some of the learning mechanisms like conferences, webinars, and training. These are more formal options insofar as they are scheduled, cost money, etc., but this is only one approach. Many professionals have found success through less formal and more experiential sorts of approaches, such as on-the-job training, mentoring, and coaching. In addition, professionals should always cultivate and maintain an understanding of the foundational works within a discipline – industry standards, best practices, books that capture fundamental practices and processes, and so forth. And there are a variety of other less formal resources available, including industry magazines and blogs from associations, vendors, and individual thought leaders.

This framework recommends that individual professionals look at professional development through a matrix. The individual employee would determine what skills to work on in each of the different competency areas, and then would select learning mechanisms based on availability, timing, budgets, etc. This might be reviewed by the individual’s manager, particularly where approval for travel, a training course or conference, etc. is required, but ultimately, it’s the responsibility of individuals to determine their own appropriate learning paths and outcomes.

Here's a template for what this might look like:

And here's what my personal plan looks like for 2022: 

Couple of points. 

• There's no column for degrees, as that's not something you'd do every year. 
• There's no row for organizational competencies, as there aren't really training, webinars, certifications, etc. for those. 
• My columns for coaching and mentoring and OJT are N/A because I'm not focusing on the first ones this year and as a solo consultant OJT isn't really relevant to me (or, alternately, every day is OJT!)

I'll write another post in January that addresses costs and how to pay for things, including some grant opportunities that are out there. 

Professional Development for the Information Professional Part 1 - The Framework

This is a reworking of a post that I originally wrote for the AIIM blog. Because of its length, I'm breaking it into two parts. This first post presents a professional development framework. In Part 2, I'll present a matrix that can be used to turn the framework into an individual professional development plan. 

Once you stop learning, you start dying.

-- Albert Einstein

If you're active in the industry at all, you’ve probably heard dozens of presentations about how much information we create, how much faster we create it, and how much harder it is to manage. While these statistics are all true, we as information professionals can help organizations to clean up their digital landfills, start treating information as a valued asset, and improve business outcomes.

But where do you begin?

What Information Professionals Need to Know

Part of the challenge associated with effective information management is that it’s just so big. There are so many different disciplines, processes, and a seemingly limitless variety of software and hardware solutions. With so many options, how do you determine where to focus your learning?

There are a lot of different information management / information governance / records management / etc. bodies of knowledge out there, and obviously that angle depends on what you want to be when you grow up. (I still don't know.) It's not reasonable to expect to be a deep dive subject matter expert at everything, but I think it's helpful to have at least have some familiarity with the various different information-focused disciplines. 

But these are only one piece of the puzzle. I believe that to remain effective, information professionals need to keep learning in several different areas of competency. 

• Domain competencies. These are specific to a particular sector or industry, or to a particular horizontal work process. For example, individuals who work for an HR consulting firm could work to improve their domain skills in employee onboarding or compensation, while those who work in upstream oil & gas could deepen their understanding of the exploration & development processes.

• Information role-related processes. These are specific to your job function, and as noted above, really depend on what you're doing and what you want to be doing. As a records manager, this would include things like conducting a records inventory or updating the retention schedule. For a privacy manager, this might include how to conduct a privacy impact assessment or respond to a data subject access request. 

• Information-related technologies. These are the tools you need to do your job. These could be very specific to a particular role, like understanding HR information management systems for the HR consultant. They could also be broader-based, such as Visio for anyone who needs to create or consume flowcharts, or SharePoint as a content repository. These skills will need regular practice and periodic refreshing as the tools, and the processes that use them, change or are updated over time. 

• Professional skills, or soft skills, or whatever you choose to call them. These focus on skills that make for a more effective employee, no matter the role. These include but are not limited to things like project management, change management, communication, and budgeting.

• Organizational competencies. These focus on the nuances of doing your job at your current organization. If you change organizations, or even departments within the larger organization, you may need to relearn these. These might include things like an understanding of the organization's risk tolerance, the terminology and acronyms regularly used, how a tool or template is configured or used, etc. 

Different Paths to Professional Development

Now that you've started to identify WHAT you want to learn, you must choose HOW you would like to learn it. There are a variety of options to suit any budget, learning style, and time frame.

Academic degrees. I'm not a fan of focusing on degrees for a number of reasons: 

• They are the most expensive and time-consuming option by far
• They are often significantly more abstract and theoretical compared to other options
• The industry is moving so fast, a degree program is outdated before its first student graduates

In my mind, a degree is generally proof that you were able to put up with a bureaucracy for 4 years or however long it took you. In terms of practical application, I just don't see the value; my degree is in Political Science and it's been and will be completely irrelevant to my past, present, or future success. 

Conferences are a much different proposition than what they were just two years ago. For many even producers, the conference format has been translated to a virtual structure. For me these are a mixed bag - it opens an event up to a broader audience, and is generally cheaper because there is no travel involved, but I think many struggle with engagement. 

I believe that the best learning doesn't always take place in breakout sessions or keynotes. Often, it’s the networking, hallway conversations, meetups, and "birds of a feather" sessions, where you get to learn from your peers. I’ve learned a lot from my colleagues at the hotel bar or while waiting for my turn at karaoke!

Webinars and podcasts can be a great alternative when you’re short on time and money, but still desire great content on timely topics. There are a lot of them out there - vendors, associations, thought leaders, it seems like everyone has something to say on a regular basis. That said, time is the one thing you can't get back - so if the ostensibly educational webinar becomes a product pitch, vote with your attention and leave. 

The market offers numerous sources of research on market trends, developments in information management, and benchmarking against your peers. Great sources include industry associations like AIIM, ARMA, and IAPP; analysts and analyst firms like Gartner and MER; and even solution providers. While these last need to be taken with a grain of salt sometimes, they are often written or ghost-written by industry experts and can provide significant value. 

Training courses can provide you with a deep dive into a specific topic in a fairly short period of time. Instructor-led courses are always a good option because they offer that same peer-to-peer dialogue and learning as a conference. As a trainer myself, I learn from my students at every class I teach.

If you don’t have the time – or the travel budget – online learning can be an effective way to learn or reinforce skills on your own schedule. There are a lot of different options for training in the market - associations, independent consultants and training firms, and vendors all offer quality educational assets. 

There are a number of free- to low-cost microlearning offerings to consider as well. These tend to be significantly shorter, often focusing on just one topic or even one facet of a topic, and are mobile-friendly so they can be consumed whenever you find yourself with a few minutes. 

Certifications are a bit of a different beast. Certifications are designed to demonstrate a candidate’s knowledge and understanding of a topic. This means that there are many different routes to get that knowledge and understanding, including but not limited to the ones I’ve outlined above. Getting a certification puts you in some pretty rarefied company, depending on the specific certification; it also serves as shorthand to an organization or a hiring professional that you know your stuff, and you can hit the ground running.

Self-study. We've been learning from the written word for eons. There are some very, very good books in the marketplace - and of course some bad, terrible, awful, not very good ones as well. This is a cheap way to get a deep dive on a particular topic, but it only works if you read the book - simply having it on your desk or bookshelf is not enough! And it's not just printed books - digital ones count too, as do things like standards, guidelines and checklists, templates, case studies, etc. 

With all these options, what’s the best choice for you? I say, “Yes.” It depends on where you are in your career, what you’re trying to accomplish, your budget (including time and travel), and your interests. For me, it’s always been a combination of all the above. 

Social learning. There are some really, REALLY smart people out there blogging, and Tweeting, and Instagramming, etc. I follow several amazing learning management system vendors who regularly post awesome stuff on adult learning, I also participate in collective social events like Tweetjams, chat forums, and meetups (in-person when possible, online when not). 

Coaching and mentoring. These are closely related terms that refer to working with someone else to improve your job performance. Coaching is more structured and designed to elicit specific performance improvements and results within a specific timeframe, while mentoring tends to be less structured and more holistic and with more focus on overall development. Kent State offers a good comparison here: https://www.kent.edu/yourtrainingpartner/know-difference-between-coaching-and-mentoring

On-the-job training. This last option is ideal to ensure that you are learning exactly what you need to in order to do, or improve how you do, your actual job. But it takes a very mature organization to offer this; most organizations don't want you unless you can hit the ground running. I think that's short-sighted, because it overlooks the potential for an employee to move over or move up into new responsibilities. 

Up next: How to combine what you want to learn with how you want to learn it and create your own professional development plan. 

Records Management and Information Governance Assessments and Maturity Models

This post is an attempt to gather all of the publicly available assessments and maturity models in one place, for my own use as well as a resource to others. There is a pretty strong bias towards public sector models because they are the ones that are publicly available. 

If you know of one I'm missing, please let me know - language is not an issue, geography is not an issue, and if it's behind a registration or pay wall that's OK too. Even analyst or vendor assessments and maturity models are OK - provided the assessments and models are. In other words, no 10-question "assessments", no super sales pitches. Send them to me at jwilkins13@gmail.com.

If you are aware of a maturity model for a discipline that would fit under the broader IG umbrella besides RM, e.g. IM, privacy, eDiscovery, etc. let me know about those as well and I will either list them at the end or make a separate post. 

Archives New Zealand Information Management Maturity Assessment - https://www.archives.govt.nz/manage-information/how-we-regulate/monitoring-and-audit/information-management-maturity-assessment 

ARMA International The Principles Maturity Model - https://www.arma.org/page/PrinciplesMaturityModel This is available through the ARMA Bookstore for USD $70 for non-members and free for ARMA Professional members. 

CGOC Information Governance Process Maturity Model - https://community.ibm.com/HigherLogic/System/DownloadDocumentFile.ashx?DocumentFileKey=fa0b2e30-817b-b948-1833-c097d6eb651e&forceDialog=0 Note that CGOC seems to have gone dormant, so no idea how long this link will be valid. 

Iron Mountain IGHealthrate - https://www.ironmountain.com/ca/en/resources/best-practice-guides/m/measuring-enterprise-ig-maturity-with-ighealthrate Note that this is more of a framework than a formal assessment and maturity model. The assessment itself is available from Iron Mountain. 

Public Records Office Victoria Information Management Maturity Measurement Tool - https://prov.vic.gov.au/recordkeeping-government/learning-resources-tools/information-management-maturity-measurement-tool-im3

Scottish Parliament Records Management Maturity Model & Road Map - https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/files/record-keeping/public-records-act/element13-SP.pdf

State Records Office of Western Australia Information Management Maturity Model (IM3) - https://www.wa.gov.au/government/announcements/new-draft-src-standard-and-supporting-tools Note that this page links to the proposed draft RM standard, RM plan template, and IM3. 

U.S. National Archives and Records Administration RIM Program Maturity Model - https://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/resources/inspections.html The linked site includes a guide to self-evaluation, a guide to the maturity model, and the actual questionnaire. 

ARMA to Update the Certified Information Governance Professional (IGP) Program in 2022

 I received an email today asking me to participate in the IGP Task Analysis survey. More on that in a second. When I went to the main IGP page, I saw the following notice at the top of the page: 

NOTICE:

An updated IGP exam is underway!

If you are applying for the exam or purchasing materials for the IGP exam, please note the current version of the IGP exam will only be available until April 2022. All IGP education materials will become null at that time.

No further details were available as of this writing, and since I'm not directly involved, what follows is speculation based on my experience developing and updating the CIP and other industry certifications. 

1. It could be that the current IGP will only be available through April 2022, but this does not mean that the new exam will be ready by then. In fact, I'd be shocked given that it usually takes more like 6-9 months from kicking off the job task analysis to the exam going live. 

2. Technically the current IGP materials will be outdated insofar as some things will be dropped, some will be added, some will be refocused. If you're heavily relying on the materials to prepare for the exam, you should wait for the new ones (and no timeline was provided for that), but the core elements should be similar if you're just using them as a reference or guideline for good practices for your organization. 

3. Whenever a certification is updated, it's also an opportunity to update the program: qualifications, costs, etc. So watch for those to be announced as well. 

TL; DR for this section: If you're well down the road to preparing for your IGP, you should take it sooner than later so it's the same exam you've been studying for. If you wait, you'll get the freshest stuff, but you may be waiting a while if you need official study materials to prepare. Also, I expect ARMA will do a beta exam as they did last time and is typical. This usually translates to a reduced exam fee in exchange for a delay in score reporting because they have to use the beta exam results to validate the exam and set the passing score. 

About that survey. I wish I'd output it to PDF so I could review as I typed this. I found the original IGP to be pretty easy - if you assumed that a records manager would be leading an organization's IG efforts. I know people whose title is RM-ish but who are doing IG; I didn't get that sense from the questions at the time. 

The survey questions seemed to be moving away from that, so that's good. However, there were a ton of questions for which I selected "Not applicable" because IMO IG professionals aren't doing them. Again, some may be, just like some CRMs drive forklifts on occasion; unless I'm sorely mistaken, there are no forklift driving questions on any of the CRM exams. Same thing here. I think ARMA has significantly missed the boat on the role of an IG professional and turned it almost into a slightly more strategic CIP. As the former "Mr. CIP", I can appreciate this, but I view IG as a much more strategic thing than all the tactical implementation things listed on the survey. 

I do encourage anyone who gets that email from ARMA to complete the survey. It took me about 20 minutes, so it isn't onerous, but as you do, think about what you expect from IG vs. some amalgamation of CRM and CIP. If it's to be that amalgamation, why have it at all, since those two cover those areas in much more detail?

As always, I welcome your thoughts as a comment here or directly to jwilkins13@gmail.com, and happy to chat or share your thoughts, including anonymously. 

My Look Back at 2021

I don't see nearly as many of these retrospective blog posts as I used to, which is unfortunate. I like seeing what others in my industry and community though was relevant or important. I especially liked the ones that bookended a year with a prediction for the year to come, and a look back at the end of the year with how accurate they were. I'm nobody to predict the future, so not sure I'm ready to take that on, but I will take a look at how 2021 shook out. 

January. I spent most of January, and in fact most of my last months at AIIM, working on what would become AIIM+ Pro. I also held virtual training / office hours sessions for a private client; 2 of the 3 attendees were successful in attaining their CIP before I left AIIM. Oh - and I recovered from COVID-19 (tested positive in December 2020). 

February. Finished off the private class, hosted some Records Management Coffee and Conversation (RM C&C) meetings, but otherwise a pretty quiet month working on training development. 

March. I delivered what I thought was a pretty successful workshop on professional development that was made available to early bird registrants for the AIIM21 virtual conference. Later in the month I re-recorded it to be available as part of the on-demand content for the conference. I also hosted a couple more RM C&C calls, and on March 25 I got my first dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccination. 

April. Second dose of COVID vaccine, of course. Two more RM C&C calls. And had a minor role in the AIIM21 conference. The high note for me was seeing four new Fellows named, including Harvey Spencer, Nishan DaSilva, Walter Koch, and Donda Young, each impressive and deserving in their own ways, and my friend and colleague Steve Weissman receiving the Order of Merit, AIIM's highest award, for his lengthy and significant service to AIIM and the industry. Only 48 individuals have received that award since its inception in 1954, so august company indeed! 

May. Another quietish month professionally, with two RM C&C calls and a lot of focus on training development. This month was more impactful personally, as my daughter completed her middle school and Catholic school tenures and moved on to Denver Public Schools as an incoming high school freshman in the fall. 

June. Busy, busy, busy! I delivered live training sessions for a private customer - two cohorts, seven 2-hour sessions each, for 14 total sessions, plus a public course with four more 2-hour sessions. I was teaching almost every day in June! We also hosted three more RM C&C calls. 

July. Traditionally a slower month for many of us. I had five more sessions to deliver with the private client, including a case study tailored to their organization. I suspect that this was the impetus for the AIIM Mastery product offering, but as I wasn't involved in its development, I don't know that for sure. Two more RM C&C calls! 

On July 28th, I gave AIIM my 30-day notice. I wrote a little about it in early August: What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been...and What Comes Next!

August. That meant that August had to be focused on getting done as much of the training updating as I could and doing what turnover I could. I also hosted my last two RM C&C calls and, as of August 31, became a former AIIM employee. 

I also attended my first in-person event since AIIM20 in the form of ILTACON 2021 - I shared some thoughts at https://informata.blogspot.com/2021/09/my-take-on-iltacon-2021.html. Las Vegas was...well, Las Vegas. It was immensely satisfying to be able to interact with my colleagues in person - even masked and socially distanced. 

September. I spent a lot of September deciding what I wanted to do next, and decided to return to what I did before joining AIIM - consulting. So a lot of my time went to creating Athro Consulting - from the logo and website, to the LLC, bank accounts, all the things that go into starting a business. I did a bunch of blogging, mostly on training & certification topics (which remain my true love). I also attended the RM C&Cs for the first time as JAM (just a member). 

And I attended the inagural InfoGov World Expo 2021. I'm not generally a fan of 3D/VR platforms - while they've come a long way, they are still very immature in my opinion - but the platform did address one of my big issues with virtual events - the lack of serendipitous engagement. It remains the best virtual conference I've attended in these last two years because of the ability to do some meaningful networking outside of individual sessions. I think the other big events in the space really need to think through how to provide that engagement, interaction, and serendipity - and to have it persist between and around individual conference sessions. 

Finally, on September 23, the AIIM Certified Information Professional (CIP) program turned 10 years old. I still consider it my single most significant contribution to the industry, having served as the technical lead under Atle Skjekkeland for its initial development and then as the lead architect for it in its relaunch in 2016 and its update in 2019. I haven't heard anything about plans to update it, which seems odd given that any updates will take some time and effort, and given how rapidly we all understand the industry to be changing and evolving. But I do see a CIP prep workshop on the AIIM22 website. 

October. I started on a project with a delightful client courtesy of a long-time colleague. It's a short-ish project, but I think we made good progress in a couple of key areas and I hope to continue to work with them in 2022. It took up about half of my time between mid-October and the end of 2021. I did carve out time to attend the two RM C&Cs held in October. 

I also attended ARMA InfoCon 2021 on the free pass, which only gave me access to keynotes and some vendor resources. I found it fascinating that they pivoted from in-person to virtual just eight weeks before the event - but didn't reduce the prices to the more typical virtual event costs. They said it was successful, though.... Again, not a fan of the platform they used. 

November. Lots of work on the client project. I also gave my first chapter speaking presentation in a while - at least a couple of years! It was virtual, but I really appreciated Austin ARMA's hosting me to talk about "Harnessing Your Information to Create Business Value." Something happened with the RM C&C calls - instead of being on Nov 2, Nov 16, and Nov 30, continuing the schedule, there was only one on Nov 9. 

December. I reprised my November presentation with the ARMA Mile Hi Denver chapter. As with November, there was only one RM C&C call, on Dec 7. I posted to the AIIM Community about the 2022 schedule on December 21, and the response was that 

It has traditionally been (and will continue to be) held on the first Tuesday of the month. We have decided, however, to hold off the January 4th event since most people will be returning from a bit of a holiday hiatus, and will resume on February 1st! 

I don't know whether this is confusion on the part of the AIIM staffer, or an unannounced change. Either way, I think there is enough interest in continuing these conversations to warrant every other week scheduling, and if AIIM doesn't want to do that, I may pick up the slack. So watch this space! 

I'm also wrapping up this phase of the client project next week.

So what's coming in 2022? Lots of stuff, most of which I'll write about over the next couple of weeks. But as a tease: 

• More consulting - if you're interested drop me a note at jesse.wilkins@athroconsulting.com. Here's what I charge as a starting point.
• Possible participation in AIIM22, ARMA Houston Spring Seminar, MER 2022, ARMA Canada 2022, ARMA Kelowna 2022, and ARMA InfoCon 2022. 
• Lots of how-to resources you'll be able to download and use, and share with others, for free.
• Some training announcements I hope will be of interest.
• Speaking engagements for ARMA Toronto, ARMA Twin Cities, ARMA Chattanooga, ARMA New England, and working on firming up ARMA Vancouver and ARMA Edmonton and Calgary. I still have some availability - if you have a chapter and my schedule allows, I'm happy to do so - just drop me a note. 

I'm also going to be spending a lot of time and effort on the overall industry education space. There are huge gaps not being addressed by any of the current players and it's time IMO for one of them to step up...or someone else to. Again, watch this space. 

Informata in 2021 - My Top 10 Most Read Blog Posts

Today I'm taking a look back at the most-read blog posts from this past year. With no further ado....

10. When Cheating Exam Cheaters Cheat 

9. AIIM+ Launches

8. Certifications and Renewal Requirements

7. Here's What I Charge as a Consultant 

6. What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been...and What Comes Next! 

5. Why I Don't Like Virtual Events 

4. I'm Available for In-person Events in 2021

3. I'm Back on the Speaking Circuit 

2. Where I Ended Up - a 30-Day Update 

1. How to Determine the Ownership of Information Stores 

I'm going to double down next year - more content for sure, and looking to write a lot more actionable, "here's how to do X" stuff like that #1 ranked post. 

Thanks to everyone who read my posts, and special thanks to those who thought them valuable enough to share them! If you have a topic you think I should cover, drop a comment or send me a note at jwilkins13@gmail.com. 

AIIM Opens Call for Industry Experts to Lead Sessions at AIIM22

AIIM22 is scheduled for April 27-29, 2022 in Denver, CO.  

From the conference website:

Thank you for your interest in leading an AIIM Conference session.  The AIIM Conference sessions will focus on group learning, collaboration, and problem-solving vs. traditional PowerPoint slide presentations. 

Given this change, we are not doing a formal ‘call for speakers’ this year but that doesn’t mean we aren’t looking for industry experts to lead sessions. 

Session leads can be end-users or unbiased consultants, analysts, or authors. Please note that solution providers have to become sponsors to receive a conference session – email success@aiim.org for details.

Gone are the days of speaker over powerpoint, instead we are seeking speakers and facilitators who encourage mindful connections, and peer-to-peer learning through their session content delivery.   .

So apparently they don't want PowerPoint. 

Proposals are due January 15, 2022; for more details or to submit, visit https://www.aiimconference.com/event/4f09d415-22a0-4ada-b774-2b2705b59567/websitePage:f8ff4b94-a242-463d-9313-c3a437223358

ARMA Opens Call for Proposals to Speak at ARMA InfoCon 2022

 ARMA has announced its Call for Proposals to speak at ARMA InfoCon 2022, scheduled for October 16-19, 2022 in Nashville, TN. Proposals are due no later than January 31, 2022. For more information, or to submit a proposal, visit https://pheedloop.com/EVELDLZEJQSGO/proposal/start/?call=CALOM8QL52E1JLK. 

When Solution Providers Speak at Events

I try to keep abreast of industry events, even if I don't plan to attend them. When I see calls for participation, I try to share them widely - here, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. - because I know event producers often struggle to get good speakers. 

What's a good speaker? In a nutshell, I think a good speaker should be: 

• Knowledgeable. I mean, that's the reason you'd want them as a speaker in the first place, right?
• Prepared. The session is logical and flows well, and the speaker is rehearsed and comfortable. 
• Interesting. The speaker doesn't read the slides (or a canned script) to the audience, and doesn't bore everyone to sleep with a monotone delivery.
• Responsive. Marketing takes time. Send your bio and description over in a timely fashion. Send the slides by the deadline. Be reasonable. 
• Flexible. Things happen at both ends. This doesn't mean bending over backwards, or eating travel costs if something comes up from the event planner's end, but it does mean recognizing that, for example, COVID may require changing from in-person to virtual.
• Focused on education, not selling. Good speakers don't pitch their wares to the audience, either, unless the session sets those expectations. For example, if I attend a solution provider's demo, I fully expect to see the solution demonstrated. Same thing with a case study. But even solution providers should focus on educating, not selling. 

This brings me to the point of this post. As a consultant, I am a solution provider. I'd like to think I'm a decent speaker as well. I would never dream of pitching to an audience, and I think 20+ years of speaking, nearly all of it while working as a consultant or for a company that sells software and/or training, supports my assertion. But being a speaker and solution provider raises a number of issues for me and that I see constantly. 

1. Selling from the podium. Event planners always have a concern about solution providers selling from the podium - and for very good reason. There are still far too many solution providers who send speakers to events with presentations that are long on their solution, its features and capabilities, and how superior it is in the market, and short on anything remotely educational. If you're a vendor, and you do that, I'm walking out, and you shouldn't be surprised or offended - you're the one wasting my time. 

2. Pay to play. At industry events, there seems to be an ever-increasing link between sponsoring and speaking. And this is not just for "expo hall" sessions, but in the main tracks and even keynotes. For several well-known events, if you are a consultant or solution provider, you can't speak at all unless you sponsor the event. The reason generally given is that there are only so many slots, and it wouldn't be fair for Vendor X or Consulting Firm Y to get to speak for free while other vendors and firms have to "pay to play." And it is pay to play - very few of these events even review their speakers' sessions, much less hold the line on the amount of sales-y content they include. And they wonder why their event registration numbers are in decline....

At the same time, the right solution providers, and the right people working there, can deliver fantastic content, chock full of great learning, stats, etc. that are educational and entertaining. Often they bring years of experience as an end user, tempered with experience with a number of different organizations by virtue of working for that vendor. Yet because they work at solution providers, these speakers are off limits. Again, I get it, but I've seen a number of them create their own companies with innocuous names, or even submit using just their name, and hoping that the event planners won't connect the dots. So you still end up having the same problem, because someone will recognize them as being with Vendor X. 

3. Perceptions of quid pro quo. This last is very personal to me because I take my professional ethics very seriously. Especially at smaller events, I'm generally willing to at least get a booth, and I may kick in for other sponsorships if they make sense for me and my consulting firm. But I also want to speak at those events where I think I have something of value to share. What I don't want, and I've been very explicit about this, is to connect those two things. I don't want to "pay to play". I don't want an event to consider me as a speaker in the hopes that I'll write a check - or turn me down if I don't. 

So. 

Solution providers: recognize that the audience appreciates your content when it's educational, and if you try to sell, you're liable to turn them off. 

Event organizers: Ease up on the "pay to play", and label those sessions that are vendor-provided. Put them in their own track, call them "Industry Intelligence" or some such, but let us know in advance. And do your due diligence in setting their expectations! 

For my part, I think I'm going to start posting the agendas of conferences and breaking down end user vs. solution provider sessions, and if I attend, the "good" (non-sales-y) vs. "bad" (pure pitch) solution provider sessions, in the hopes that it will help to improve the overall educational quality in our industry.