My Approach to Industry Events and Resources

I've gotten some interesting feedback lately about what I've been writing about, and in particular how much of it has been about AIIM. I want to address this and some of the underlying concerns. 

I noted in December and January that I had become an AIIM Training Partner and AIIM CIP Ambassador. As I noted in those posts, 

• AIIM Training Partner means I get to teach AIIM training content and I pay AIIM for access to that content. 
• AIIM CIP Ambassador means there is a commission structure in place - if someone uses my referral code to purchase a CIP exam or renew their CIP status, I get paid. To date the only place I've used the referral code is on the CIP Preparatory Workshop page of my website; to date I haven't received a single payment. 

I'm also promoting the AIIM24 conference a lot. That's because I'm attending it, and delivering two presentations and a workshop during the event. I get nothing financially from my participation - in fact, I have to pay my own travel costs. The registration is free for speakers, but as an AIIM Fellow my registration is already free. 

In other words, I haven't gotten any direct financial compensation - yet - from any of my relationships with AIIM (though the possibility is of course there). In fact, I've paid for the privilege. If someone suggests that I'm being paid by AIIM, at best they are ignorant of the actual facts. 

Beyond that, I'm still reposting other events I see like ARMA's InfoNEXT, the ARMA Canada Information Conference, Robert Smallwood's Leadership Summits, etc. I'm just not as vocal about them because I'm not participating in them. I don't know how amazing event X will be or how gorgeous the venue location is. If I get accepted to speak at ARMA InfoCon 2024 this year, I'll be promoting it as heavily as I have been with AIIM24. 

If you want me to be vocal about your events, get me involved, either as a speaker or by making a compelling business case for senior people like me to attend your event. It would also help to not have scheduled your event very close to other events or major holidays. 

I'm also a full professional member in good standing of *9* IG/IM/RM associations: 

• AIIM, since 2001
• ARMA, since 2001
• ICRM, since 2010
• IAPP, since 2017
• IRMS (UK), since 2021
• ACMP, since 2022
• NAGARA, since 2022
• RIMPA Global, since 2023
• CIGOA, since 2024 (previously 2020-2021)

So any time I see webinars, events, etc. from any of these groups, I include them as appropriate in my events listings and my newsletter, and I repost them when I see them on Twitter or LinkedIn. I should also note that, at least so far, I charge nothing to list things in either, or to access either. 

Likewise, I repost relevant training whenever I see it - up to 1x/day. But I can't promote my other training partnerships because, so far, I don't have any. ARMA and the Institute for Information Governance don't offer partnerships (and ARMA doesn't offer instructor-led training at all). If they did, I'd be more than happy to pursue those partnerships and to help create/improve their materials and delivery. IAPP's is too expensive; IRMS partners with other training providers rather than offering their own; and I haven't looked closely at RIMPA's or NAGARA's yet. 

If you want me to be vocal about your training, setting up a partnership so I can teach it is the best way IMO. If you want to give me free access in return for a review, I will, but know that the review will be honest: the good, the bad, the ugly, and will start with the reg process and go all the way through to post-assessment. I'll also disclose that fact. If you want a private review, happy to do the exact same thing except my feedback would be strictly private and designed to help make your offerings better.