The CIPS INFORMATICS ’06 conference took place May 28 -30 in Victoria, BC. Although I had been aware of the conference for many years, this was my first time to attend. Being in Victoria, it was reasonably on hand and it gave me the excuse to cross the water from the Lower Mainland, something I haven’t done in some time. First of all, I would like to offer my congratulations and thanks to all of the organizers and people who ran the conference for a job extremely well done. There was a nice relaxed atmosphere and yet it was a very “polished” event. We also got very well treated on the edible consumables front!
The program was well thought out and certainly topical with emphasis on security, integration of IT into business, project management, IT governance and certification, and the shortage of skilled labour. In addition there were some very informative and entertaining Keynote Speeches, notably the ‘NEPTUNE Project’ by Dr. Christopher Barnes, ‘The State of Human Resources for the IT Sector’ by Paul Swinwood from the SHRC and ‘Lead Us Not Into Temptation – Why Sometimes We Must Cover Our Eyes’ by Dr. Tom Keenan from the University of Calgary. Tom Keenan’s talk about some of the less than desirable things that happen on the internet was both enlightening and a little disturbing. It was delivered with his customary infectious energy and enthusiasm.
By way of a little sidebar, I knew that I had met Tom Keenan before but I could not think where. Then, when he was introduced, one of his other passions was mentioned; Shad Valley. Tom started the Calgary campus of the SV program and my son attended the program there in 1994. It was a defining moment in my son’s life thanks in no small part to people like Tom Keenan. If you have a grade 11 or 12 child who is bright and keenly interested in science, technology and business then you should look into it. It is an absolutely outstanding program and there are now 10 summer camps right across Canada! My son was so impressed that he gets involved in the UBC SV program each year.
INFORMATICS ’07 is scheduled for May 27 – 29 in Halifax; talk about coast to coast!
Cheers
Graham Jones
Graham, It was good to see you at INFORMATICS as a fellow blogger. I also enjoyed all the sessions. Graham, you gave a fine question at the INFORMATICS CEO/CIO executive roundtable, moderated by Martin Slofstra, editor of Edge magazine at www.itbusiness.ca. It generated a good round of comment. As an added sidebar, Dr. Tom Keenan, FCIPS, I.S.P. was elected as a founding CIPS Fellow and was honoured at an awards dinner on May 27th, for "outstanding contribution to the advancement of IT." Cheers, Stephen Ibaraki