Next week I'll be headed to the 30th annual Managing Electronic Records (MER) conference for the first time in three years. MER was one of the first conference casualties of COVID - I remember chatting with Seth Williams and Mike Salvarezza at AIIM20 in Dallas and they weren't yet sure whether MER20 would take place in person. As it happens, it didn't; MER had literally about 6 weeks to pivot. And no matter how good a virtual event is, it's just not the same as being there. I'm quite happy that this year's conference will be back to being in-person.
MER is taking place in Indianapolis, IN, this year, the first time it's been held outside of Chicago. MER will also be available as a hybrid event. I'm not sure of the exact logistics of how that will work; I know that it's challenging to speak with a hybrid group because the cues and feedback loops are different.
As is tradition, MER will offer workshops, but this year they will be held after the conference rather than before. Three postcons are available: a Certified Records Analyst (CRA) exam prep workshop, a comprehensive Certified Records Manager (CRM) exam prep workshop that includes the CRA content, and a workshop on IG policy drafting and wording.
Speaking of workshops and training, there will be a big announcement at MER on that topic. I'll share more details once the announcement is official, but I'm incredibly excited about it and to be part of it!
Based on the conference website, it looks like a smaller event vendor-wise, with only 12 solution providers listed. I know a lot of vendors are still leery of travel in this age of COVID.
Where AIIM listed all of their attendees in the Event Hub, it appears that MER requires people to proactively join the event community.
I counted 40 educational sessions and 63 speakers. This is not uncommon for MER - in fact, in any given year the speaker-to-session average is a bit higher, nearly 2 to 1. End users are about 40% of the speakers, with the rest consultants and vendors, but even the vendors are generally well-known as speakers in the information governance space. I counted at least 4 ARMA Fellows and 5 AIIM Fellows among the speakers.
Anyway, I feel incredibly fortunate to be able to go to another in-person conference, and to get back to the MER conference, which has always been a fantastic event. I'll post additional thoughts as warranted, especially after big announcements, and I'll do a post-MER recap as well.
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