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!)