NISO Convenes Information Industry Cross-Sector Leadership at New NISO Plus Conference Planned for 2020

The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) announces the launch of its new NISO Plus Conference.  The conference is scheduled for February 23 - 25, 2020 at the Lord Baltimore Hotel in Baltimore, MD. 

The intent behind the new NISO Plus Conference is to integrate the thought-leadership tradition of the well-established NFAIS conference with the hands-on practicality of NISO.   Recognizing the value of the NFAIS Conference over 60-plus years, the NISO Plus conference will build on that value in new ways, celebrating the vibrant nature of today’s information community. NISO and NFAIS formally merged in the first half of 2019. 

According to Todd Carpenter, Executive Director of NISO, “The NISO Plus Conference is expected to bring together a wide range of stakeholders who engage daily with the challenges of delivering high-quality information resources.  Those challenges require stakeholders to come together and work towards a common solution.  They can’t deliver the best user experience working alone; technology requires collaboration -- libraries plus users plus content providers.  The very name of the conference conveys those connections!”  

“Just as one experienced in attending the two and a half days of the NFAIS Conference, NISO Plus attendees will have the opportunity to learn about emerging and exciting areas of change and development -- artificial intelligence and machine learning, augmented reality, virtual reality, decentralization and more,” said Marian Hollingsworth, Director for Editorial Relations, the Web of Science Group at Clarivate Analytics and current chair of NISO’s Board of Directors.  “At the same time, the NISO organization is well-aware of budgetary constraints on conference travel.  The planning group is working to bring costs of attendance within a range that will permit full participation by librarians, entrepreneurs, government employees -- even those traveling internationally.”

Jason Griffey, NISO’s Director of Strategic Initiatives, promises a dynamic program in 2020, one targeted to the practical needs of those wrangling solutions for business units as well as information technology groups.  “We’re planning discussions that will touch on electronic resource management systems, digital humanities, data management, and analytics.  We will also offer attendee-driven segments, lightning talks and other opportunities to spotlight the on-going work and engagement of the community.” 

Development of the NISO Plus conference is under the supervision of a highly engaged committee of notable information industry professionals, including:

• Peter Simon, Vice President, Product Management, Newsbank

• Rhonda Ross, Assistant Director, Marketing Program Management, CAS

• Maria Stanton, Director of Production, American Theological Library Association (ATLA)

• Jabin White, Vice President, Content Management, Ithaka

• Mary Sauer-Games, Vice President, Global Product Management, OCLC

• Keith Webster, Dean of University Libraries, Carnegie Mellon University

Registration will be opening up soon and information pertaining to sponsorship opportunities is available upon request.  For more information or to be added to the mailing list for updates on the 2020 NISO Plus Conference, contact NISO Headquarters (nisohq@niso.org) or via phone at (301) 654-2512.

About NISO (www.niso.org):

The National Information Standards Organization (NISO), a Baltimore, MD based non-profit association, fosters the development and maintenance of standards that facilitate the creation, persistent management, and effective interchange of information so that it can be trusted for use in research and learning.  To fulfil this mission, NISO engages libraries, publishers, information aggregators, and other organizations that support learning, research, and scholarship through the creation, organization, management, and curation of knowledge.  NISO works internationally with intersecting communities of interest and across the entire lifecycle of information standards.  NISO is an American National Standards Institute (ANSI) accredited standards development organization.