Online show to boost firms' web knowledge

The Online Information Show - oddly a face-to-face event - starts this week in London

Starting 28 November, the Online Information Show in London promises to offer firms an insight into the latest online content and information management technologies on the market.

Running over three days at Olympia in conjunction with Information Management Solutions 2006, the show has attracted exhibitors including Applied Network Solutions, Autonomy, Integra Software Services, VeriSign, Fast, and Microsoft’s Windows Live Academic Search.

Visitors will be able to attend a number of free presentations that include an overview of business intelligence solutions, information skills masterclasses, and seminars on RSS, blogs, wikis, content management and enterprise search.

A keynote by Richard Edwards of analyst firm Butler Group will advise visitors on the business value of "findability", while Paul Sonderegger, chief strategist at Endeca Technologies, will present a keynote entitled Information access convergence: The future of search, navigation and analysis, and Raul Valdez-Perez, chief executive and co-founder at Vivisimo, will discuss the Challenges of doing search right.

Tony Hart, senior director of Fast Business Consulting, will present The future of search - Empower your business. Hart told IT Week that he will tell IT managers precisely how they could be using enterprise search, and what it can do for their business.

“Search is more than just finding stuff on your corporate network,” said Hart. “Used right, it can empower your business. Enterprise search can give you all the capabilities that portals were set to do five or six years ago, but never delivered. But you have to understand who your users are, and what they are searching for.”

Other presentations at the event include intranet case studies, and advice on how best to refine searches and improve results.