Upcoming Industry Meetings and Webinars - March 1-31, 2024

Here are the industry webinars and events I'm aware of for March 1-31, 2024. Conferences and bigger events are listed through May 31, 2024 because they have longer lead times. I don't have anything to do with any of these from a planning perspective, so please reach out to the individual event producers with any questions.

If you know of a webinar or other event during this period that is focused on IM, IG, RM, etc. that's not listed, let me know here or at jesse.wilkins@athroconsulting.com. Vendors, other associations, consultants, etc. all welcome as long as the event is educational and not completely self-serving, e.g., no demos. No charge to list your event or to access the list. 

March 1 - TeachPrivacy, Trust: What CEOs and Boards Must Know About Privacy and AI 
March 5 - ARMA Metro NYC-LI, CONFIRM.NYC
March 5 - AIIM+, Records Management Coffee & Conversation: Planning for RIMM Month (members only)
March 5 - BreezeML, AI Governance in Practice: Compliance and Engineering 
March 5 - Global Information Consortium, The Rise of AI and the Global Battle for Truth & Privacy
March 5 - IAPP and Transcend, Immediate action required: Navigating CPRA compliance and enforcement in 2024 (members only)
March 5-6 - ASU-Arkfeld eDiscovery, Law & Technology Conference, Phoenix, AZ
March 7 - ARMA Triangle, 2024 EDiscovery State of the Industry Trends
March 7 - ACMP Ohio, Navigating the New Status Quo
March 7 - NAGARA, Taking the Saint Louis Zoo's Records Management Training Online! 
March 8 - ARMA Palm Beach-Treasure Coast, Internal Auditing: Promoting Accountability and Transparency
March 11-13 - Gartner Data and Analytics Summit 2024, Orlando, FL
March 12 - ARMA Mile High Denver, AARM Tour and Top Golf
March 12 - ARMA Chicago, Lions, Tigers, Bears, Oh My! Lincoln Park Zoo Records Management
March 12 - ARMA Greater Chattanooga, IG and Cybersecurity
March 12 - Twin Cities ARMA, Better Ways to Work
March 12 - ARMA Northeast Ohio, IM Policies: What is Good Content?
March 12 - ARMA Dallas, It Takes 3 To Do IG
March 12 - IRMS IM Tech Group, Overcoming the Challenge of Managing Records in Microsoft 365
March 12 - InfoGovANZ, Cyber Technologies and Infrastructure Security: The Next 10 Years
March 12 - PrivSec & GRC Connect, in association with OCEG, London, UK
March 13 - ARMA Michigan, World War III - Cybersecurity is Losing
March 13 - ARMA Metro Maryland, Public Records: Accessibility, Privacy, and Challenges for Archives
March 13 - Greater Kansas City ARMA, The Role of RIM in AI Governance

March 13 - IAPP and Exterro, Best practices for building and enforcing global retention schedules (members only)
March 13 - NetDocuments, Compliance, Ethics, and Policy Considerations in the Era of AI
March 13 - ACMP UK, Panel Discussion: What is the Key Ingredient for Change? 
March 14 - Athro Consulting and Helias Consulting, Ask Me Anything About Your Records Coordinator Program
March 14 - IRMS, Roadshow Glasgow 2024
March 14 - ACMP, Improving Change Management with Healthy Conflict (members only)
March 14 - Zasio, Built To Last: Developing Privacy as a Retention Schedule and Program Foundation
March 14 - Contoural, Automating Employee Records Compliance with the Five Second Rule
March 15 - ACMP South Africa, Unlock the Power of ChatGPT for Change Leadership and Management! 
March 15 - IRMS Wales: In-person event, Wrexham
March 19 - ARMA Florida Gulf Coast, Chapter Meet and Greet
March 19 - ARMA Central Missouri, Tour and Presentation of Services Provided by IMS Secure
March 19 - AIIM+, Emerging Technologies: Fail Fast - Where to Start with AI (members only)
March 19 - ARMA Legal Industry Group, 2024 Retention Series #3 - National Approach/Resources (members only)
March 19 - Access and ARMA, Future-Proofing Your Business: Innovative Strategies in Information Management and Archiving
March 20 - ARMA Nebraska, Lights, Camera, Artificial Intelligence - Joint Meeting with NePA
March 20 - AIIM and OpenText, Deploy GenAI with Confidence: Mastering Governance to Unleash AI's Potential
March 20 - RIMPA Global, IAW Roundtable | Are We Surfing or Sinking? Riding the Waves of Information Management
March 21 - ARMA Utah Salt Lake, Spring Seminar - Unveiling the Future of Information
March 21 - Boise Valley ARMA, The Life and Times of a Paralegal Implementing Legal Holds in the Real World
March 21 - ARMA St. Louis, Managing the Historical Documents of the Arch Diocese of St. Louis
March 21 - ARMA Greater Columbus, AI and IG
March 21 - ARMA Oklahoma, RIM Month Mastery: Turbocharging Your Records and Information Management Skills
March 21 - ARMA InfoNEXT, Future-Proofing Information Management: Gen Z Information Managers
March 21 - RIMPA Global, Auckland | Roadshow
March 21 - Info Risk & Governance Summit, New York City, NY
March 25-29 - Enterprise Data World, Orlando, FL 
March 26 - AIIM+, AIIM+ AMA: Operate 10 Times Faster for Free (members only)
March 26 - BreezeML, AI Governance in Practice: Standards and Auditing
March 27 - ARMA New England, Certification Confusion? Where Do You Start?
March 27 - ARMA Houston, RIM Month Mastery: Turbocharging Your Records and Information Management Skills
March 27 - ARMA Sacramento, Data Migration: What Records Managers Need to Know
March 28 - ARMA, Description and Access for Anti-Black Archival Materials
March 28 - IOPD, Deceptive Design - Dark Patterns Beyond the Interface (members only)

April 1-4 - IAPP Global Privacy Summit, Washington, DC
April 2 - Digital Government Institute, 21st Annual E-Discovery, Records and Information Management Conference, Reston, VA
April 3-5 - AIIM24, San Antonio, TX 
April 3-5 - 2024 i-Sigma Conference & Expo, Nashville, TN
April 8-10 - ARMA InfoNext, Palm Springs, CA
April 9-11 - North American Cloud & Collaboration Summit, Dallas, TX 
April 9-13 - IAC Information Architecture Conference, Seattle, WA 
April 10-11 - Docusign Momentum24, New York City, NY
April 16 - ARMA Mile High Denver, Spring Seminar, Denver, CO
April 16-17 - GRC Connect Chicago, in association with OCEG, Chicago, IL
April 18-24 - 2024 AIIP Symposium, St. Louis, MO
April 24-25 - Data Innovation Summit, Stockholm, SWE and online
April 30-May 2 - Microsoft 365 Conference, Orlando, FL 

May 8-10 - Privacy+Security Forum, Washington, DC 
May 12-14 - IRMS24 Conference, Brighton, UK
May 12-14 - ARMA Canada Information Conference 2024, Calgary, AB
May 13-15 - Gartner Data & Analytics Summit, London, UK 
May 15 - Microsoft IM Tech Summit Europe 2024, London, UK
May 20-22 - DSF'24, Boston, MA
May 21-24 - FRMA Annual Conference, Daytona Beach, FL

If you're looking for a speaker, I'm available to speak at your chapter or event. For more details, see https://informata.blogspot.com/2023/08/im-available-to-speak-at-your-meeting.html; this post also lists a few other speakers who are available and quite good. I published a separate blog post about how to find speakers and what to look for at https://informata.blogspot.com/2022/06/finding-speakers-for-your-event-part-1.html. 

Live Online RIM Playbook Workshop Scheduled for June 2024

A couple of days ago I posted that I was back to teaching the AIIM CIP Prep course. Today I'm pleased to announce my second course offering, Building and Sustaining Your RIM Program with a RIM Playbook. I've delivered a presentation introducing the RIM Playbook to more than a dozen ARMA chapters and conferences over the last couple of years. 

This workshop builds on that, and gives you the opportunity to really get "hands-on" and build your own Playbook and plays. This is not "death by PowerPoint" - in fact, there will be some assigned reading before the first class session. Most of our time will be spent on building the Playbook and building the plays. We'll also have an assessment at the end. 

While you won't get your entire Playbook done in just 6 hours, you will build some plays. And you'll leave the course with a template that you've started to fill in and the knowledge of how to finish it. 

The course is scheduled for June 4 and 6, 2024. Each session is 3 hours and is scheduled from 12:00 - 3:00 pm MDT. 

Workshop agenda: 

• Session 1:
• Introduction to the RIM Playbook
• The Structure of the RIM Playbook
• Scoping the RIM Playbook
• The Structure of a RIM Play
• Session 2: 
• Building RIM Plays
• How to Build a Playbook
• Assessment and Next Steps

Course details: 

• Each session is 3 hours for a total of 6.0 contact hours. 
• Live Online delivery - no travel required. 
• Cost: $795.00 per student. Volume discounts for 2+ students! 

Also included in the course:

• The RIM Playbook Workbook - digital format
• Access to the learning cohort for one year – keep the learning and networking going!
• Access to public office hours – bring your questions and insights every month.
• Digital badge and certificate denoting completion of the course. 
• Preapproved for 6.0 ICRM CRM/CRA CMPs.
• Preapproved for 6.0 AIIM CIP CEUs.

For more details, or to register, visit my RIM Playbook Workshop page. 

Live Online AIIM CIP Workshop Scheduled for April-May 2024

I mentioned on this blog in December that I had become an official AIIM Training Partner. Today I am very pleased to announce that I have started scheduling instructor-led workshops, starting with the AIIM CIP Preparatory workshop! 

This workshop covers 100% of the topics on the CIP exam in depth and helps students to understand how different information management concepts, processes, and technologies impact each other. 

The course will be taught by, well, me! I have nearly 30 years of industry and training experience, and I've held the CIP certification since its initial release in 2011. 

I do not guarantee that you'll pass the exam after taking this course - anyone making those guarantees is "teaching to the test" which won't help you in the long run. But I guarantee that if you have the suggested background, and pay attention and participate during the course, you'll do better than those who don't. 

Workshop agenda: 

• April 23: 
• Introduction to the CIP Program and the Workshop
• Creating, Capturing, and Sharing Information
• April 25: 
• Extracting Intelligence from Information
• April 30: 
• Digitalizing Information-Intensive Processes
• May 2: 
• Automating Governance and Compliance 
• May 7: 
• Automating Governance and Compliance Cont'd 
• Implementing an Information Management Strategy and Solution
• May 9: 
• Conclusion and Next Steps

Course details: 

• Each session is 2 hours for a total of 12 contact hours. 
• Live Online delivery - no travel required. 
• Cost: $1,495.00 per student. Volume discounts for 2+ students! 

Also included in the course:

• The official AIIM CIP Study Guide - digital format
• The CIP Prep Workbook - digital format
• One year subscription to AIIM+ Pro ($490 value) – all the learning covered on the CIP exam and more
• Access to the learning cohort for one year – keep the learning and networking going!
• Access to public office hours – bring your questions and insights every month.
• Digital badge and certificate denoting completion of the course. Note that this is not equivalent to getting the CIP certification - you'll still need to pass the actual  CIP exam. 
• Preapproved for 12.0 ICRM CMPs.
• Preapproved for 12.0 AIIM CIP CEUs. (Not sure why a CIP would take this course, but maybe it's been a while?)

For more details, or to register, visit my CIP Prep Workshop page. 

Join Me at the ARMA Mile High Denver Spring Seminar on April 16, 2024!

I'm pleased to announce that we've finalized the details for the ARMA Mile High Denver Spring Seminar, scheduled for April 16, 2024 in Denver, CO. We have a full day of education planned, with fantastic speakers including: 

• Alan Pelz-Sharpe, Founder and Principal Analyst at Deep Analysis and Co-Author of "Practical Artificial Intelligence: An Enterprise Playbook"
• Jason Stearns, Senior Practice Lead, Information Governance, Data Privacy and Records Management at Arrayo
• Jeanne Caldwell, CEO of IG Mapware
• Elesha Johnson, City of Boulder City Clerk
• Steve Weissman, The Info Gov Guy™ and President of Holly Group

As part of the seminar, we'll be hosting a silent auction, and we'll have some ARMA Mile High Denver historical artifacts on display. You can also augment your personal IG/IM/RM library and support our chapter charity, Senior Support Services, at the same time! 

The seminar is taking place at the fantastic Balistreri Vineyards, 1946 E. 66th Avenue, Denver, CO 80229. It's a working vineyard and winery and their wines and sangria will be available throughout the day. 

Register by February 29, 2024 to take advantage of the early-bird pricing of $125. After that the prices go up to $150. (Disregard the $175 figure on the image below - the flyer has since been corrected.) 

For more information, or to register, visit https://armadenver.org/meetinginfo.php?id=120. 

Upcoming Industry Meetings and Webinars - February 16 - March 15, 2024

 Here are the industry webinars and events I'm aware of for February 16 - March 15, 2024. Conferences and bigger events are listed through May 31, 2024 because they have longer lead times. I don't have anything to do with any of these from a planning perspective, so please reach out to the individual event producers with any questions.

If you know of a webinar or other event during this period that is focused on IM, IG, RM, etc. that's not listed, let me know here or at jesse.wilkins@athroconsulting.com. Vendors, other associations, consultants, etc. all welcome as long as the event is educational and not completely self-serving, e.g., no demos. No charge to list your event or to access the list. 

February 19-23 - TDWI Transform 2024, Las Vegas, NV 

February 20 - Twin Cities ARMA and ARMA North Dakota, What Can Data Classification and Data Loss Prevention Do For You?

February 20 - ARMA Central Missouri, Data Privacy/Protection, Data Breaches and Cybersecurity. Contact Lori Grothoff at lgrothoff@orscheln.com to RSVP.

February 20 - AIIM+, Unlocking Efficiency: BPMN in Practice (members only)

February 21 - ARMA Southern California Inland Empire, How to Leverage AI Tools

February 21 - ARMA Nebraska, Rescuing Stranded Records from Legacy Systems

February 21 - ARMA & AIIM Old Dominion, Lunch & Learn

February 21 - AIIM and Microsoft, AI and Information Security: Empowering the CISO Office

February 21-23 - ARMA Florida Sunshine Conference, Orlando, FL

February 22 - ARMA Mile High Denver, Cyber Security Briefing for Records Managers

February 22 - Boise ARMA, Lunch & Old Idaho Penitentiary Tour

February 22 - ARMA Northern Virginia, GenAI and ChatGPT: Opportunities, Risks, and Security

February 22 - Digital Government Institute, Modernizing Information Governance

February 22 - ACMP, The Future of Change Management: Integrating Wellness and Purpose (members only)

February 23 - ARMA San Antonio, Annual Seminar

February 23 - ARMA Hawai'i, Using AI To Interrogate Archives

February 23 - IRMS Info Rights: The Global Challenge

February 23 - Leadership Through Data, LTD Microsoft 'Ketchups' 

February 23 - ACMP Pacific Northwest, Neuroscience of Emotional Intelligence in Leadership

February 26-29 - New Zealand Digital Workplace Conference, Christchurch, NZ 

February 26-29 - IAPP Data Protection Intensive: UK 2024, London, UK

February 27 - IAPP and TerraTrue, 3 steps to elevating your third-party risk management process (members only)

February 27 - ARMA InfoNext and Contoural, Creating a Modern, Compliant, and Easier to Execute Records Retention Schedule

February 27 - Access, Navigating the Waters of Global RIM: Strategies from the Front Lines

February 28 - ARMA New Jersey, A More Perfect Electronic Records Strategy: How the New DoD 8180 can Boost your IG Program

February 28 - Meru Data, Key Privacy Metrics & KPIs for Businesses to Track

February 28 - IMCanadaConnect, Data Privacy, Higher Education – Why Should We Care?

February 28 - Earley Information Science, Information Governance in the Age of AI

February 28 - IRMS Ireland: Accountability and record keeping - discussion on records in court and police records

February 29 - ARMA New England, Celebrating Diversity - Embracing Voices of Experience

February 29 - ARMA Madison, Leap (Year) Into M365 Records

February 29 - LegalRM, Team IG: The importance of change management for successful IG

February 29 - Contoural, Automating Employee Records Compliance with the Five Second Rule

February 29 - March 2 - ACMP Change San Diego, San Diego, CA

March 1 - TeachPrivacy, Trust: What CEOs and Boards Must Know About Privacy and AI 

March 5 - ARMA Metro NYC-LI, CONFIRM.NYC

March 5-6 - ASU-Arkfeld eDiscovery, Law & Technology Conference, Phoenix, AZ

March 7 - ACMP Ohio, Navigating the New Status Quo

March 7 - NAGARA, Taking the Saint Louis Zoo's Records Management Training Online! 

March 7 - LegalRM, ILTA Masterclass: Unlocking AI success through a strong information governance framework

March 11-13 - Gartner Data and Analytics Summit 2024, Orlando, FL

March 12 - ARMA Greater Chattanooga, IG and Cybersecurity

March 12 - IRMS IM Tech Group, Overcoming the Challenge of Managing Records in Microsoft 365

March 12 - InfoGovANZ, Cyber Technologies and Infrastructure Security: The Next 10 Years

March 12 - PrivSec & GRC Connect, in association with OCEG, London, UK

March 13 - ARMA Michigan, World War III - Cybersecurity is Losing

March 13 - IAPP and Exterro, Best practices for building and enforcing global retention schedules (members only)

March 14 - IRMS, Roadshow Glasgow 2024, Glasgow, Scotland

March 14 - ACMP, Improving Change Management with Healthy Conflict (members only)

March 14 - Zasio, Built To Last: Developing Privacy as a Retention Schedule and Program Foundation

March 15 - ACMP South Africa, Unlock the Power of ChatGPT for Change Leadership and Management! 

March 21 - Info Risk & Governance Summit, New York City, NY

March 25-29 - Enterprise Data World, Orlando, FL 

April 1-4 - IAPP Global Privacy Summit, Washington, DC

April 2 - Digital Government Institute, 21st Annual E-Discovery, Records and Information Management Conference, Reston, VA

April 3-5 - AIIM24, San Antonio, TX 

April 3-5 - 2024 i-Sigma Conference & Expo, Nashville, TN

April 8-10 - ARMA InfoNext, Palm Springs, CA

April 9-11 - North American Cloud & Collaboration Summit, Dallas, TX 

April 9-13 - IAC Information Architecture Conference, Seattle, WA 

April 10-11 - Docusign Momentum24, New York City, NY

April 16-17 - GRC Connect Chicago, in association with OCEG, Chicago, IL

April 18-24 - 2024 AIIP Symposium, St. Louis, MO

April 24-25 - Data Innovation Summit, Stockholm, SWE and online

April 30-May 2 - Microsoft 365 Conference, Orlando, FL 

May 8-10 - Privacy+Security Forum, Washington, DC 

May 12-14 - IRMS24 Conference, Brighton, UK

May 12-14 - ARMA Canada Information Conference 2024, Calgary, AB

May 13-15 - Gartner Data & Analytics Summit, London, UK 

May 15 - Microsoft IM Tech Summit Europe 2024, London, UK

May 20-22 - DSF'24, Boston, MA

May 21-24 - FRMA Annual Conference, Daytona Beach, FL

If you're looking for a speaker, I'm available to speak at your chapter or event. For more details, see https://informata.blogspot.com/2023/08/im-available-to-speak-at-your-meeting.html; this post also lists a few other speakers who are available and quite good. I published a separate blog post about how to find speakers and what to look for at https://informata.blogspot.com/2022/06/finding-speakers-for-your-event-part-1.html. 

ARMA Seeks Volunteers for Certification Oversight Committee

In an email today, ARMA announced that it is soliciting nominations to serve on a new Certification Oversight Committee. From the email: 

Calling all Information Governance Professionals! Are you ready to shape the future of your profession and help elevate your peers' competencies? ARMA’s Certification Oversight Committee is seeking passionate individuals like you to help expand the IGP certification program and enhance ARMA’s credential offerings. This is your chance to contribute directly to the strategic practice of information governance and make a lasting impact in your field.

As a member of the Certification Oversight Committee, you'll be at the forefront of the IGP program, contributing to its growth and quality improvement. From reviewing policies to promoting the IGP credential, your expertise will play a pivotal role in supporting aspiring IGPs and enriching our industry's body of knowledge. Members serve staggered two-year terms, providing a fresh perspective to the committee every year. If you're an IGP holder in good standing and eager to take on this exciting challenge, we encourage you to apply today!

The web page goes on to note that the Committee will review policies, contribute to the IGP body of knowledge, promote IGP as a certification, and identify ways to support aspiring IGPs. 

I can't serve on it because of the potential perception of a conflict of interest with my role as an AIIM Training Partner and CIP Ambassador. But I think it's a great idea and I hope ARMA is able to quickly find volunteers who are passionate about doing certifications the right way and growing them into something that really has value in the marketplace. 

Upcoming Industry Meetings and Webinars - February 1-29, 2024

Here are the industry webinars and events I'm aware of for February 1-29, 2024. Conferences and bigger events are listed through April 30, 2024 because they have longer lead times. I don't have anything to do with any of these from a planning perspective, so please reach out to the individual event producers with any questions.

If you know of a webinar or other event during this period that is focused on IM, IG, RM, etc. that's not listed, let me know here or at jesse.wilkins@athroconsulting.com. Vendors, other associations, consultants, etc. all welcome as long as the event is educational and not completely self-serving, e.g., no demos. No charge to list your event or to access the list. 

2/1/2024 - NAGARA, Archiving the Asylum: Demystifying Our Hidden Collections

2/2/2024 - Austin ARMA, Seminar - Records Ringleaders: Leading the Circus of Records and Data Management

2/6/2024 - AIIM+, Records Management Coffee & Conversation: Developing an Information Coordinator Program (members only)

2/6/2024 - IRMS Roadshow Manchester 2024

2/6/2024 - ACMP, In Pursuit of the Relevant Change Strategy (members only)

2/7/2024 - ARMA Metro Maryland, Creating a Defensible Disposition Program

2/7/2024 - ARMA Metro NYC-LI, RIM Trends & Your Future Panel

2/7/2024 - ACMP UK, Changing Change Management: Are You Sure You are Solving the Right Problem?

2/8/2024 - ARMA Triangle, The Presidential Records Act, NARA, and Donald Trump: Everything You Want to Know

2/8/2024 - ARMA Seattle, Employee Trainings: Educating in Compliance

2/8/2024 - ARMA and Access, Global Information Governance Day: Empowering Digital Transformation through Effective Information Governance

2/13/2024 - ARMA Chicago, Trends in Information Governance and Risk Management

2/13/2024 - ARMA Chattanooga, How to Conduct a Business and Technical Assessment for an Information Management Initiative

2/13/2024 - ARMA Northeast Ohio, How to Streamline Records Management with ChatGPT

2/13/2024 - ARMA Dallas, Becoming a RIM Influencer

2/13/2024 - ARMA Legal Industry Group, Retention for Law Firms Session #2 Information Governance Policy Development

2/13/2024 - AIIM+ and Infotechtion, M365: Meeting the Challenge - Proving Microsoft Purview through a Proof of Concept (members only)

2/14/2024 - ARMA Greater Kansas City, All Things ARMA. To RSVP, email gkcarma@gmail.com.

2/14/2024 - Contoural, Creating an AI Governance Program (It's Go-Time) 

2/15/2024 - ARMA St. Louis, Differentiating Data Governance and Information Governance

2/15/2024 - ARMA Michigan, IG and Artificial Intelligence

2/15/2024 - ARMA Oklahoma, Building and Sustaining Your RIM Program with a RIM Playbook

2/15/2024 - ARMA Utah, Current State of Cybersecurity

2/15/2024 - IAPP and Osano, Demystifying data mapping: Why it matters and how to do it well

2/15/2024 - Zasio, Anatomy of a Legal Citation: “Can’t You Just Google That?”

2/19-23/2024 - TDWI Transform 2024, Las Vegas, NV 

2/20/2024 - Twin Cities ARMA and ARMA North Dakota, What Can Data Classification and Data Loss Prevention Do For You?

2/20/2024 - ARMA Central Missouri, Data Privacy/Protection, Data Breaches and Cybersecurity. Contact Lori Grothoff at lgrothoff@orscheln.com to RSVP.

2/20/2024 - AIIM+, Unlocking Efficiency: BPMN in Practice

2/21/2024 - ARMA Southern California Inland Empire, How to Leverage AI Tools

2/21/2024 - ARMA Nebraska, Rescuing Stranded Records from Legacy Systems

2/21/2024 - AIIM and Microsoft, AI and Information Security: Empowering the CISO Office

2/21-23/2024 - ARMA Florida Sunshine Conference, Orlando, FL

2/22/2024 - ARMA Mile High Denver, Cyber Security Briefing for Records Managers

2/22/2024 - Digital Government Institute, Modernizing Information Governance

2/22/2024 - ACMP, The Future of Change Management: Integrating Wellness and Purpose

2/23/2024 - ARMA San Antonio, Annual Seminar

2/23/2024 - IRMS Info Rights: The Global Challenge

2/23/2024 - Leadership Through Data, LTD Microsoft 'Ketchups' 

2/26-29/2024 - New Zealand Digital Workplace Conference, Christchurch, NZ 

2/26-29/2024 - IAPP Data Protection Intensive: UK 2024, London, UK

2/27/2024 - ARMA InfoNext and Contoural, Creating a Modern, Compliant, and Easier to Execute Records Retention Schedule

2/28/2024 - ARMA New Jersey, A More Perfect Electronic Records Strategy: How the New DoD 8180 can Boost your IG Program

2/28/2024 - Meru Data, Key Privacy Metrics & KPIs for Businesses to Track

2/28/2024 - Earley Information Science, Information Governance in the Age of AI

2/29/2024 - ARMA Madison, Leap (Year) Into M365 Records

2/29/2024 - LegalRM, Team IG: The importance of change management for successful IG

2/29-3/2/2024 - ACMP Change San Diego, San Diego, CA

3/5/2024 - ARMA Metro NYC-LI, CONFIRM.NYC, New York City, NY

3/5-6/2024 - ASU-Arkfeld eDiscovery, Law & Technology Conference, Phoenix, AZ

3/11-13/2024 - Gartner Data and Analytics Summit 2024, Orlando, FL

3/21/2024 - Info Risk & Governance Summit, New York City, NY

3/25-29/2024 - Enterprise Data World, Orlando, FL 

4/1-4/2024 - IAPP Global Privacy Summit, Washington, DC

4/3-5/2024 - AIIM24, San Antonio, TX 

4/3-5/2024 - 2024 i-Sigma Conference & Expo, Nashville, TN

4/8-10/2024 - ARMA InfoNext, Palm Springs, CA

4/9-11/2024 - North American Cloud & Collaboration Summit, Dallas, TX 

4/9-13/2024 - IAC Information Architecture Conference, Seattle, WA 

4/10-11/2024 - Docusign Momentum24, New York City, NY

4/18-24/2024 - 2024 AIIP Symposium, St. Louis, MO

4/24-25/2024 - Data Innovation Summit, Stockholm, SWE and online

4/30-5/2/2024 - Microsoft 365 Conference, Orlando, FL 

If you're looking for a speaker, I'm available to speak at your chapter or event. For more details, see https://informata.blogspot.com/2023/08/im-available-to-speak-at-your-meeting.html; this post also lists a few other speakers who are available and quite good. I published a separate blog post about how to find speakers and what to look for at https://informata.blogspot.com/2022/06/finding-speakers-for-your-event-part-1.html. 

Upcoming Industry Meetings and Webinars - January 16-February 15, 2024

Here are the industry webinars and events I'm aware of for January 16-February 15, 2024. Conferences are listed through April 15, 2024 because they have longer lead times. I don't have anything to do with any of these from a planning perspective, so please reach out to the individual event producers with any questions.

If you know of a webinar or other event during this period that is focused on IM, IG, RM, etc. that's not listed, let me know here or at jesse.wilkins@athroconsulting.com. Vendors, other associations, consultants, etc. all welcome as long as the event is educational and not completely self-serving, e.g., no demos. No charge to list your event or to access the list. 

1/16/2024 - ARMA Florida Gulf Coast, "I Love Our Organization's Policies," said no one.

1/16/2024 - ARMA Michigan, "I Love Our Organization's Policies," said no one.

1/16/2024 - ARMA Central Missouri, A Real-Life Lesson in Shared Drive Clean-Ups. Contact Lori Grothoff at lgrothoff@orscheln.com to RSVP.

1/16/2024 - ARMA San Antonio, AI-Enhanced Records Management: From Hype to Practical Implementation

1/16/2024 - ARMA North Dakota, Demystifying Digital Preservation: An Introduction. Contact Susan Carlson at susan.carlson@und.edu for an invitation. 

1/16/2024 - AIIM, AIIM+ Insights: Emerging Technologies - What is "Ethical and Responsible" Use of AI? (members only)

1/16/2024 - ARMA InfoNext and Contoural, The Impact of AI on Information Governance

1/16/2024 - OneTrust, Getting started with AI Governance

1/17/2024 - ARMA Nebraska, ComPriSec: Intersection of Compliance, Privacy & Security Match Game

1/17/2024 - ARMA Southern California Inland Empire, Managing Records Retention & Data Minimization Strategies with AutoClassification

1/17/2024 - ARMA Metro NYC-LI, January 2024 Social & Networking Event

1/17/2024 - ARMA Upstate NY, RIM and Information Governance Education in the Fourth Industrial Revolution Virtual Panel

1/17/2024 - IAPP and TerraTrue, Three practical tweaks to optimize your program in 2024

1/18/2024 - ARMA St. Louis, Building and Sustaining Your RIM Program with a RIM Playbook

1/18/2024 - ARMA Oklahoma, IG Education and Leadership

1/18/2024 - ARMA Liberty Bell, Law Firm Information Governance – What are YOUR Resolutions for 2024?

1/18/2024 - ARMA Utah, Tour of Arctic Wolf Data Center

1/18/2024 - Gimmal, Privacy, Please! Keeping Up with Data Protection Laws

1/18/2024 - IAPP and OneTrust, Let's do it live: Role-playing a GenAI project risk assessment

1/20/2024 - ARMA Golden State, Sharks, Ducks, and ARMA, oh my! 

1/22/2024 - IAPP, Data Privacy Day and 2024 Predictions

1/23/2024 - ARMA Mile High Denver, Five Ways You Need to Upgrade Your Records Program When Transitioning from Paper to Digital

1/23/2024 - ARMA Dallas, Demystifying AI and ML

1/23/2024 - IAPP and BigID, Regulation radar: A guide to today’s US data privacy laws (members only)

1/24/2024 - ARMA Calgary, Implementing Records Management with Microsoft Purview

1/24/2024 - ARMA Madison, Out-of-the-Box Disposition in Microsoft Purview with Cadence Solutions

1/24/2024 - ARMA Houston, Finding the Data Enablement Sweet Spot

1/24/2024 - ARMA New Jersey, Designing Effective Training: A Personalized Approach to RIM/IG Training and Program Awareness

1/24/2024 - IMCanadaConnect, Where Worlds Collide - Privacy Impact

1/24/2024 - IAPP and Exterro, Mastering data inventories: Strategic privacy compliance and data governance

1/25/2024 - ARMA Jacksonville, The Reality of Cybersecurity: A Case Study

1/25/2024 - Dave & Dave Present: The ECM Innovation Dilemma

1/25/2024 - ACMP, Introduction to Agile Change (members only)

1/25/2024 - Global Privacy Day LIVE, virtual

1/26/2024 - IAPP and Workday, Prioritizing Privacy to Bolster Trust in Innovation (members only)

1/26/2024 - 2024 Privacy Everywhere Conference, Urbana, IL and online

1/29-2/1/2024 - ALM and Law.com Legal Week, New York City, NY 

1/30/2024 - Atlanta ARMA, How to Motivate Employees to Stop Hoarding Documents

1/30/2024 - AIIM+, Understanding 8180: A Closer Look at DoD's Vision of ERM (members only)

1/30/2024 - IAPP and OneTrust, Data Privacy Day: How privacy champions can build a privacy-centric culture (members only)

1/30/2024 - IAPP New Jersey, 2024 Privacy Perspectives

1/30/2024 - Zasio, Virtual Coffee with Consulting: Identifying and Breaking Down Privacy Requirements for Your Program

1/31/2024 - ARMA New England, Introduction to Internships

1/31/2024 - AIIM and Box, Protecting Your Content in an AI-powered World

1/31/2024 - IRMS and Objective, PII Uncovered: Methods for Identifying and Managing Personal Information

1/31/2024 - Privado, Bridge 2024: A Technical Privacy Summit

1/31/2024 - IAPP and Securiti, Mastering the art of AI governance to unlock generative AI innovation (members only)

1/31/2024 - OneTrust, Data Privacy Day 2024: Reflecting on the past year and anticipating the next

2/1/2024 - NAGARA, Archiving the Asylum....

2/1/2024 - Contoural, Creating an AI Governance Program (It’s Go-Time)

2/2/2024 - Austin ARMA, Seminar - Records Ringleaders: Leading the Circus of Records and Data Management

2/7/2024 - ACMP UK, Changing Change Management: Are You Sure You are Solving the Right Problem?

2/13/2024 - ARMA Chicago, Trends in Information Governance and Risk Management

2/13/2024 - ARMA Chattanooga, How to Conduct a Business and Technical Assessment for an Information Management Initiative

2/13/2024 - AIIM+ and Infotechtion, M365: Meeting the Challenge - Proving Microsoft Purview through a Proof of Concept (members only)

2/15/2024 - IAPP and Osano, Demystifying data mapping: Why it matters and how to do it well

2/15/2024 - ARMA, Global Information Governance Day: Empowering Digital Transformation through Effective Information Governance

2/19-23/2024 - TDWI Transform 2024, Las Vegas, NV 

2/21-23/2024 - ARMA Florida Sunshine Conference, Orlando, FL

2/26-29/2024 - New Zealand Digital Workplace Conference, Christchurch, NZ 

2/26-29/2024 - IAPP Data Protection Intensive: UK 2024, London, UK

2/29-3/2/2024 - ACMP Change San Diego, San Diego, CA

3/5/2024 - ARMA Metro NYC-LI, CONFIRM.NYC, New York City, NY

3/21/2024 - Info Risk & Governance Summit, New York City, NY

3/25-29/2024 - Enterprise Data World, Orlando, FL 

4/1-4/2024 - IAPP Global Privacy Summit, Washington, DC

4/3-5/2024 - AIIM24, San Antonio, TX

4/3-5/2024 - 2024 i-Sigma Conference & Expo, Nashville, TN

4/8-10/2024 - ARMA InfoNext, Palm Springs, CA

4/9-11/2024 - North American Cloud & Collaboration Summit, Dallas, TX 

4/9-13/2024 - IAC Information Architecture Conference, Seattle, WA 

4/10-11/2024 - Docusign Momentum24, New York City, NY

If you're looking for a speaker, I'm available to speak at your chapter or event. For more details, see https://informata.blogspot.com/2023/08/im-available-to-speak-at-your-meeting.html; this post also lists a few other speakers who are available and quite good. I published a separate blog post about how to find speakers and what to look for at https://informata.blogspot.com/2022/06/finding-speakers-for-your-event-part-1.html. 

Tracking Your CEUs - and a CEUs Tracker

If you have a formal certification, you know you need to maintain and renew it regularly. Sure, you could retake the test again every X years - but most people don't want to do that, and it's often cheaper to renew via continuing education (CEUs) compared to retaking the test. 

If you have multiple certifications, it becomes even more important to track things because, on the one hand, some events may qualify for more than one certification's CEUs, and on the other hand, some events are likely to be very specific to a particular certification, or to not qualify for every certification you hold. 

Finally, I like keeping my own tracker in case there are any questions when it's time to renew. I can pull up the tracker and see what I did, when I did it, what proof I have, and even when I submitted it. 

Like many certified professionals, I track my CEUs in about as old-fashioned a way as there is: a spreadsheet. I do this on an ongoing basis so I can be confident that I didn't miss anything. I thought I'd share my tracker spreadsheet in case anyone else is interested in using it. I also built a tab called "Instructions" that explains what I put in each tab and why. 

You can view or download my tracker at https://athroconsulting.box.com/shared/static/wbyevgvtyfk4tbcxuyswp0wu3nl6oy7l.xlsx - clicking the link will automatically download the tracker. 

I Am An AIIM CIP Ambassador

It's no secret that I've been a fan of certifications for many years. And my history with the AIIM Certified Information Professional (CIP) program is pretty well known at this point. But the nature of that support is changing, and I want to be completely transparent about that.

I've signed an agreement with AIIM to become a CIP Ambassador. What that means is that I'm going to be supporting AIIM with some awareness raising activities, such as writing articles or blog posts about CIP, participating at events in support of CIP on AIIM's behalf, and helping them envision and execute the strategy for CIP.

This is a commissioned role, meaning I have a financial stake in the success of CIP. It's not a huge financial stake, but nevertheless, I think it's important to disclose that. To that end, many of my social media posts will have a link to this blog post, with this disclaimer, and/or with one of the following links, or with at least some disclosure that the link is an affiliate link. 

This link: https://www.aiim.org/cip will take you directly to the AIIM CIP home page, where you can get more information and register for the exam.

This link: https://aiim-international.myshopify.com/cart/39897823051810:1?discount=Jesse_Referral_NewCIP is like an Amazon Affiliate link - if you use it, I will get a commission on your CIP exam fee. It doesn't get added to your fee, so it doesn't cost you anything. In this way the choice is always up to you.  You can also use the main link and enter this discount code: Jesse_Referral_NewCIP

If you are renewing your CIP, the same thing applies - you can go directly to the AIIM website at https://www.aiim.org/cip and renew. If I helped you with your renewal in some way, and you want AIIM to send me part of your renewal fee, you can use this link: https://aiim-international.myshopify.com/cart/40391517437986:1?discount=Jesse_Referral_RenewCIP or the main link and this discount code: Jesse_Referral_RenewCIP

This does not mean that I will be forsaking the rest of the industry and announcements related to other certifications, either. But it does mean that you should start seeing more marketing and visibility of the CIP program.

If anyone reading this has any questions, please feel free to reach out to me directly at jesse.wilkins@athroconsulting.com, or you can contact Theresa Resek at AIIM at tresek@aiim.org. 

Upcoming Industry Meetings and Webinars - January 1-31, 2024

Here are the industry webinars and events I'm aware of for January 1-31, 2024. Conferences are listed through March 31, 2024 because they have longer lead times. I don't have anything to do with any of these from a planning perspective, so please reach out to the individual event producers with any questions.

If you know of a webinar or other event during this period that is focused on IM, IG, RM, etc. that's not listed, let me know here or at jesse.wilkins@athroconsulting.com. Vendors, other associations, consultants, etc. all welcome as long as the event is educational and not completely self-serving, e.g., no demos. No charge to list your event or to access the list. 

1/4/2024 - NAGARA, Ask the Archivist....

1/6/2024 - ARMA New England, Post-Holiday Networking and Charity Event

1/9/2024 - ARMA Chicago, Generative AI

1/9/2024 - Twin Cities ARMA, Creating a Retention Schedule: Understanding Your Options

1/9/2024 - ARMA Northeast Ohio, Microsoft Informational – M365, eDiscovery, Data Security, and AI

1/9/2024 - AIIM+, Records Management Coffee & Conversations: Good Documentation for 2024 (members only)

1/10/2024 - Greater Kansas City ARMA, Building & Sustaining Your RIM Program with a RIM Playbook

1/10/2024 - Meru Data, Implementing Privacy by Design: A Practical Guide

1/10/2024 - ACMP UK, How Change and Wellbeing are Linked

1/10/2024 - NetDocuments, Upcoming Trends in Automation and AI

1/11/2024 - ARMA Triangle, How to Delete a Lot of Email and Files Quickly and Defensibly

1/11/2024 - AIIM+, CIP 2023 Town Hall (members only)

1/11/2024 - IAPP, Managing Cybersecurity and CISO Risk—SolarWinds and New SEC Rule Implications

1/11/2024 - Leadership Through Data, Microsoft Co-Pilot: Navigating the Impact on Information Managers and Privacy Officers

1/16/2024 - ARMA Florida Gulf Coast, "I Love Our Organization's Policies," said no one.

1/16/2024 - ARMA Michigan, "I Love Our Organization's Policies," said no one.

1/16/2024 - ARMA Central Missouri, A Real-Life Lesson in Shared Drive Clean-Ups. Contact Lori Grothoff at lgrothoff@orscheln.com to RSVP.

1/16/2024 - ARMA San Antonio, AI-Enhanced Records Management: From Hype to Practical Implementation

1/16/2024 - AIIM, AIIM+ Insights: Emerging Technologies - What is "Ethical and Responsible" Use of AI? (members only)

1/16/2024 - OneTrust, Getting started with AI Governance

1/17/2024 - ARMA Southern California Inland Empire, Managing Records Retention & Data Minimization Strategies with AutoClassification

1/17/2024 - ARMA Metro NYC-LI, January 2024 Social & Networking Event

1/17/2024 - IAPP and TerraTrue, Three practical tweaks to optimize your program in 2024

1/18/2024 - ARMA St. Louis, Building and Sustaining Your RIM Program with a RIM Playbook

1/18/2024 - ARMA Oklahoma, IG Education and Leadership

1/18/2024 - ARMA Liberty Bell, Law Firm Information Governance – What are YOUR Resolutions for 2024?

1/18/2024 - IAPP and OneTrust, Let's do it live: Role-playing a GenAI project risk assessment

1/20/2024 - ARMA Golden State, Sharks, Ducks, and ARMA, oh my! 

1/23/2024 - ARMA Mile High Denver, Five Ways You Need to Upgrade Your Records Program When Transitioning from Paper to Digital

1/23/2024 - ARMA Dallas, Demystifying AI and ML

1/23/2024 - IAPP and BigID, Regulation radar: A guide to today’s US data privacy laws (members only)

1/25/2024 - ACMP, Introduction to Agile Change (members only)

1/26/2024 - IAPP and Workday, Prioritizing Privacy to Bolster Trust in Innovation (members only)

1/26/2024 - 2024 Privacy Everywhere Conference, Urbana, IL and online

1/29-2/1/2024 - ALM and Law.com Legal Week, New York City, NY 

1/30/2024 - AIIM+, Understanding 8180: A Closer Look at DoD's Vision of ERM (members only)

1/30/2024 - IAPP and OneTrust, Data Privacy Day: How privacy champions can build a privacy-centric culture (members only)

1/30/2024 - Zasio, Virtual Coffee with Consulting: Identifying and Breaking Down Privacy Requirements for Your Program

1/31/2024 - IAPP and Securiti, Mastering the art of AI governance to unlock generative AI innovation (members only)

2/19-23/2024 - TDWI Transform 2024, Las Vegas, NV 

2/21-23/2024 - ARMA Florida Sunshine Conference, Orlando, FL

2/26-29/2024 - New Zealand Digital Workplace Conference, Christchurch, NZ 

2/26-29/2024 - IAPP Data Protection Intensive: UK 2024, London, UK

2/29-3/2/2024 - ACMP Change San Diego, San Diego, CA

3/21/2024 - Info Risk & Governance Summit, New York City, NY

If you're looking for a speaker, I'm available to speak at your chapter or event. For more details, see https://informata.blogspot.com/2023/08/im-available-to-speak-at-your-meeting.html; this post also lists a few other speakers who are available and quite good. I published a separate blog post about how to find speakers and what to look for at https://informata.blogspot.com/2022/06/finding-speakers-for-your-event-part-1.html. 

My Look Back at 2023

I did one of these retrospectives in 2021, and think I ended up being too busy to do one last year. My hope is that I can turn these into an annual thing. 

2023 At a Glance

I delivered 26 separate presentations, mostly on building a RIM/IG Playbook (8); professional development (5); or certifications (5). I also got to participate in a total of 8 in-person events including an onsite client visit, several chapter seminars, and AIIM23, MER 2023, ARMA Canada 2023, and ARMA InfoCon 2023. 

I made the conscious choice to limit my consulting hours to about 40%, which gave me time to continue my events listings, relaunch my newsletter, do all of those presentations, and otherwise try to support my associations and my industry. 

Finally, I spent more than 200 hours as a volunteer subject matter expert helping AIIM to update the CIP exam, including writing questions, reviewing and editing questions, and helping to set the passing score. The updated exam launched at the end of November; more about this in December. 

January

January was a quiet month. I got to attend, and present at, the ARMA Mile High Denver chapter meeting, on building a RIM playbook. I spent most of the month heads-down on client work and preparing for my February presentations. 

February

Short, but busy month! Lots of client work, and 4 separate presentations: virtual sessions for ARMA Chattanooga on the RIM playbook; a panel at InfoGovDay on "Selecting an IG Consultancy" and an Ask the IG CEOs Anything panel; and an in-person session on certifications at the ARMA Florida Sunshine Conference. 

March

March was another month focused more on work and on preparation for events rather than attending them. I did do one virtual presentation for ARMA Southern California Inland Empire on the RIM Playbook. 

March was also my last issue of my newsletter before I put it on hiatus - work and industry stuff took more time than I expected. 

April

April is celebrated as RIM Month in the U.S. and ARMA generally provides some resources to help organizations raise awareness about RIM practices. At my main client we were able to put together an entire month of activities including an in-person lunch & learn that I delivered, a scavenger hunt, and much more. I posted about it here: https://informata.blogspot.com/2023/04/celebrating-rim-month-2023.html. 

I also delivered a virtual presentation for ARMA Western Michigan on the RIM Playbook and then went to Omaha, NE to deliver 4 sessions at the ARMA Nebraska Spring Seminar. My topics included "Harnessing Your Information to Create Business Value"; "Modernizing Your Retention Schedule in the Age of Privacy"; and my sessions on professional development and the RIM playbook. 

I finished the month by heading to New Orleans for the AIIM23 Annual Conference. I delivered a session on "How to Leverage Privacy Practices to Build Customer Trust", and moderated a panel on "The Top Skills for IM Pros of the Future". 

May

May took me to Chicago for what we didn't know then would be the final MER conference. At MER I got to co-present with my colleague Donda Young of Helias Consulting on the topic of Building an IG Playbook. 

Later in the summer, the MER conference was rebranded to ARMA InfoNext, moved to Palm Springs, CA, and scheduled for the week after the AIIM24 conference. More on that in July. 

I also started thinking about getting back into training. This was in part because of the post-MER workshop I was doing in June, but more because I didn't really see any in-person training being delivered. And the thing about in-person training is not so much the content as it is the interaction, the networking, the chance to ask questions and seek clarification, etc. So I started talking to AIIM about the potential of becoming an AIIM training partner. 

June

In June I co-presented a 4-hour workshop on How to Build an IG Playbook, again with Donda Young. Now, I say co-presented, but it was more like the "Jesse, with interjections by Speaker #2 Show", because I hadn't properly planned it out and ended up taking it over. Lesson learned! 

I also began a blog series on IG/IM/RM industry certifications. This month's post was an introduction to certifications in our industry and my approach to certifications. 

July

I got the chance to attend the ARMA Canada Information Conference (ACIC) in Toronto, where I delivered a couple of sessions on certifications and professional development, including a panel with ARMA CEO Nathan Hughes and AIIM CEO Tori Miller Liu. 

ARMA and RIMPA also formally announced the Global Information Consortium (GIC); while I attended that presentation, I'm still not sure what its intent is. As of this writing, AIIM is not part of the GIC; in fact, there is almost no information on the website other than a nebulous "fill out this form for more information" page. 

All of these announcements and machinations led me to write "IGIM Industry Associations Playing Nicely - Or Are They?" 

I wrote Part 2 of my certification series, on the ICRM CRM and CRA. 

Finally, in July I officially became the President-Elect for the ARMA Mile High Denver chapter. It's been a great chapter year so far, and I'm really looking forward to our Spring Seminar in April. 

August

August was quiet, as it often is, and I filled it with client work and prep for September and October. I did get a chance to do a presentation/interview with John Mancini on "The 6 most common mistakes in creating a records modernization strategy." I also spent a lot of time this month, and indeed from July through November, working as a volunteer subject matter expert on AIIM's updated CIP exam. 

I also wrote Part 3 of my certification series, this time on ARMA's IGP. 

September

In September I celebrated the 2nd anniversary of Athro Consulting. It's been a fun and exciting two years with some fantastic client work, and I'm looking forward to what year 3 brings! 

I also got the chance to do a virtual session for AIIM True North on Generative AI and an in-person keynote at the ARMA New England Fall Conference on "Industry Trends to Keep Your Skills Sharp." 

October

In October I relaunched my newsletter and delivered a virtual session to ARMA San Diego on certifications. I also had the opportunity to talk about certifications and professional development to a private organization. 

I also went to Detroit to speak at the ARMA InfoCon 2023 conference, where I delivered a preconference workshop on professional development. Only two people showed up so it was a very custom, very intimate workshop. I also moderated another panel on professional development. 

And I got to attend a good session on autoclassification at the ARMA Mile High Denver October meeting. 

November

The big news in an otherwise fairly light month is that the 2023 update to the AIIM CIP exam was finally launched. Earlier in the month I participated in the Beuk psychometric score-setting exercise, which resulted in setting the passing score at 60% again. 

I also got to attend a great session by the indefatigable Steve Weissman at the ARMA Mile High Denver November meeting. 

And I onboarded a new client for a very short-term project, building them a RIM playbook! 

December

I began December with Part 4 of my certification series on the newly relaunched AIIM CIP. Initially I had planned to include the CIGOA CIGO and the InfoAdvocates SIPC, but I can't seem to get much information from them other than what's on the website, and since I don't want to post something without at least giving them the chance to weigh in, those are on the back burner for now. 

I attended a wonderful holiday lunch courtesy of the ARMA Mile High Denver chapter. We had a "white elephant" gift exchange, and I ended up with a plush throw that was an instant hit with my daughter and her old chihuahua - it may have been the best gift exchanged that day, and it's certainly my favorite white elephant gift ever. 

I also delivered two more virtual sessions, to ARMA Madison on the RIM playbook and to ARMA Florida Gulf Coast on certifications. And I wrote another blog post about how difficult it appears to be for event planners in our industry to read a calendar. 

Finally, December marked my coming full circle with AIIM training to become an AIIM Training Partner. I'll be teaching both AIIM content and my own starting in 2024. The schedule isn't listed yet, but you can check my training page for my offerings and approach. 

I have also signed up to be a CIP Ambassador. I'll be writing and speaking about CIP in order to help it gain traction in the marketplace. I'll still be talking about all certifications, their pros & cons, etc. - but I was doing that while I was running the CIP program as an AIIM employee. So nothing there will change, and my being an ambassador will not lead me to treat CIP any better or worse than other certifications. 

So! Here's to a nicely busy yet balanced 2023. I wish all my readers and everyone in the industry a happy, safe, and prosperous 2024!