2020 Call for Speakers

Creativity & Complexity: Developing Elegant Taxonomy Solutions

We understand this is a difficult time for everyone due to the current health crisis and that you have many other things on your mind, however, our team is still working hard to provide the best ever events in November: KMWorld 2020 & its co-located events Taxonomy Boot Camp, Enterprise Search & Discovery, and Text Analytics Forum.

If you find you have a few minutes to think of messages, experiences, and expertise that you want to share, please do consider sending us a proposal to speak. We understand that you might not know what your organization has planned regarding travel in the fall, so we are happy to have a conditional response to participation now. We plan to confirm speakers in June (or perhaps earlier) as we will hopefully all have a better view of the future at that point. We appreciate your flexibility and look forward to receiving your proposal.

What makes something elegant? On the surface it is simple, beautiful and effortless, perfectly suited for the task, even incorporating artistry. Underneath there is hidden complexity that compels deep thought, effort, and creativity. We bring multiple methods together to make a finished product that looks like it was always meant to be just so.

Taxonomists learn to embrace intricacy and use creative ways to make structures that serve both people and machines. Well-designed taxonomies allow us to harness complexity and create experiences that feel intuitive yet powerful.

This year’s conference will showcase approaches to elegant taxonomy design and implementation. We want to hear about your creative solutions to tough taxonomy problems. This includes designing for diverse use cases, novel ways to engage stakeholders, and using technology and tools to make the complex feel simple.

We’re looking for speakers who can share their experience in creating successful taxonomy solutions and advise on both hard and soft skills to help attendees bring more creativity and refinement to their practice. Hope to see you in November!

About Taxonomy Boot Camp

The Taxonomy Boot Camp program is designed to provide something for everyone, from taxonomy newbies to seasoned experts (and everyone in between). Beginner sessions provide those new to the field with the nuts and bolts they need to get up-to-speed and give more experienced practitioners insight into how others have evolved their approaches. Also hear case studies, practical sessions on taxonomy tools and methods, and cutting-edge developments in the field.

Taxonomy Boot Camp is the only conference dedicated to exploring the successes, challenges, methodologies and products for taxonomies. Share your experiences, knowledge and work with taxonomies, ontologies, folksonomies, tagging mechanisms and other techniques for organizing information at this one-of-a-kind boutique learning and networking event.

Suggested Topics

Topics for Taxonomy Boot Camp include but are not limited to:

Presentation Formats

Taxonomy Boot Camp will have the following formats:

Advice for Presenters

We’re always on the lookout for new, fresh presenters – so don’t hesitate to submit! Here are some helpful tips on how to get your presentation picked.
 
Be specific
Don’t try to cover all things taxonomy in the space of 45 minutes (let alone 20!!), it’s too much. Writing up a submission is one thing, delivering it is another. Broad topics often come across as rushed and confused. Try to whittle your concept down to a small, tight idea and then submit that.

Teach them something they can use
This year’s theme is “Creativity & Complexity: Developing Elegant Taxonomy Solutions”, which means we’re looking for techniques, tools and concrete ideas that people can take home and apply to create a solid taxonomy. You might have some theoretical grounding you need to do for the talk to make sense but keep the theory concise and make sure your takeaways are practical.

Give examples
We’re hot for case studies and visual examples of taxonomies in action. Be sure to mention what real-world examples you’ll be bringing to bear in your presentation.

Know your audience
Sharing insights about taxonomy is not about how clever you are, it’s about how clever you make your audience feel. Taxonomy Boot Camp caters to both novice and intermediate information management professionals, so make sure you tell us which group you’re targeting and match the tone and level of information.

To participate in Taxonomy Boot Camp 2020 as a possible speaker, please submit your proposal no later than April 26, 2020, here.