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Sep 09, 2012

Timesaver's guide to the ARMA conference

Over 70 educational sessions covering information governance and technology.

ARMA International, the Association of Records Managers and Administrators, is holding its 57th Annual Conference and Expo on September 23-25 at McCormick Place in Chicago. In-house counsel, chief information officers, industry consultants and records managers will be among those looking to keep up with the latest trends in electronic content management and to find solutions to everything from developing accurate retention schedules to managing content flows on mobile devices. Corporate secretaries often collaborate with IT professionals to improve records management and information governance, and the ARMA conference is the best place to get the education and best practices needed to ensure success.

A roaring good time

Conference attendees will have plenty of activities to take their mind off of work. The host hotels, the Hilton Chicago and Palmer House Hilton, are located near Lake Michigan, Millennium Park and the famous Magnificent Mile, with its many museums and shops.
The conference also has plenty of scheduled events including a pub crawl on Monday afternoon and a White Sox baseball game on Tuesday evening. Chicago offers some of the best dining in the country, so venture out and enjoy or sign up for the Chicago ‘dine-around’ on Sunday, where you can sample some of the city’s top restaurants. The Sunday night Welcome Party has a ‘Roaring 20s’ theme to it, so be sure to dress the part!

Must-attend sessions

This year the conference offers over 70 educational sessions on a number of different tracks so everyone from the most experienced executives to newbies can expand their knowledge.

On Sunday, John Bagby, professor of information science and technology at Pennsylvania State University, will set the tone for the conference with the opening general session address, ‘Tales from the litigation war room: high stakes in information governance’, which is intended to help corporations prepare themselves to defend their information management practices in court.

ARMA International president Komal Gulich will then deliver a keynote address covering ‘Your professional roadmap’, outlining the many different paths professionals can take when carving out a career in information governance.

On Monday, Brian Hill of Forrester Research will moderate a powerhouse panel entitled ‘Information governance considerations in a social, mobile and cloud-based world’, which will help organizations determine their individual needs in this era of social networking and mobile technology. Information gleaned from these sessions could make all the difference for companies trying to navigate the new realities surrounding information privacy and data security.

Cutting-edge topics

Many of the concurrent educational sessions will focus on information governance, corporate privacy and security policies, and implementing new technologies to improve data management. On Sunday, panels include ‘What is required for proper information governance?’, ‘Security risks: managing, mitigating and monitoring’ and ‘From e-discovery to information governance’. Monday offers sessions that include ‘How to index 400,000 records in 24 hours’, ‘Developing a retention policy that aligns with privacy objectives’ and ‘Ahead of the curve: RIM for the next generation’. Tuesday conference offerings include ‘Weathering the legal storm with your cloud readiness kit’, ‘How to design a legally defensible records retention plan’ and ‘Properly managing your records in an e-discovery world.’