Giving the first talk of the day at any event is never easy, but there was a good turnout at the Business Information Forum at Online Information 2008 this morning for my session on "Proving your Value as a Research Team in the Current Financial Situation". This is a subject close to my heart, and not just because of the services Dow Jones provides to many customers around the world, but because of the type of organisation we also are.

Within our own company, my group includes the Market Intelligence team, so we are ourselves a research group which has to prove its value every day. After a few generalities about the information landscape (clouded, turbulent and currently prone to violent eruptions), my talk today was mainly devoted to a case study of the "Research the Researcher" project which Dow Jones carried out to understand the challenges facing professional researchers.

In addition to pointing the way to areas where these researchers feel that they could add more value --focusing more on producing analysis and recommendations rather than gathering and organising facts -- it also showed us where their pain points are and how we can help. (Of course it was also an excellent example of how a research team -- mine -- can add value to organisation -- Dow Jones!) And it goes without saying that expertise in areas such as taxonomy and the organisation and management of an organisation's information assets is critical in adding value.

Overall impressions of the Online conference: fewer exhibitors perhaps, with smaller booths, and maybe not quite as much traffic. But that's only to be expected in the current environment. Nonetheless, there's still plenty of activity and plenty of buzz around the place.

If you are interested in the Dow Jones research study results on 'The Evolving Role of the Business Researcher', a recorded Webcast with Product Manager, Ken Sickles and Market Research Manager, Ellen Maccabe from October 2007 is available on demand.

Photo|Flickr|lija

I am approximately 5,371 miles (8,645 km) from London in sunny California but hope that even this far away i can enjoy and learn from the various outputs that i predict will be coming out of the Online Information 2008 Conference- including making some new connections by joining in on the conversation remotely!

Just yesterday on my Sunday afternoon walk i listened to a few episodes of the Panlibus podcast series leading to the conference including the Conference Chairman Adrian Dale's overview of the conference and a preview of Clay Shirky's keynote who I am a fan of and who is of course making some interesting predictions about the industry.

If you are at the conference there is a Crowdvine site setup where you can connect with fellow attendees which i will keep an eye on. But of course i plan to follow the Twitter conversation with this search i created of some of the possible hashtags that attendees will be using. There is also a listing of Bloggers on the conference site that will probably be blogging the conference as i am sure many others will be doing.

Our UK based Dow Jones team will be at the conference and in addition to attending the conference and exhibiting , Dow Jones will also be presenting these sessions:

Simon Alterman will be conducting a Seminar titled: Proving your Value as a Research Team in the Current Financial Situation - On Tuesday 10:30-11 in the Gallery Rooms where he will take a look at the changing nature of the Info Pro role within organisations and why the technologies and processes they are adopting can act as catalysts for growth. Simon is a dynamic speaker and a great advocate for the profession.

Mark Stapleton will be presenting on Effective News Integration for Better Business Decisions - on Wednesday at 15:30 in Theater A. Mark has years of experience in delivering solutions to clients and has lead our European team as they delivered some great solutions that drive our customers' bottom-lines.

And me?

Well i will be in sunny San Francisco at our office downtown and on Twitter (@danielabarbosa and @synaptica)- but if you stop by the Dow Jones booth- mention that you saw this post, drop your business card and tell them you want Daniela to send you some California sunshine- i will send you something special from California. See ya in the cloud! (the cloud where sun and rain don't matter that is!)