Programme Advisers
Helen has run her own consultancy since 2007, working as a specialist in taxonomy, metadata, ontologies and enterprise search. She loves getting stuck into projects, and working with clients to figure out how best to use the messy content and data they have. She has worked for organisations including the BBC, gov.uk, Financial Times, Time Out, RIBA, Metropolitan Police, Pearson, Electronic Arts and the Press Association. She writes and speaks regularly, and is always good-humoured if anyone asks her if she stuffs animals for a living.
Fran started her career as a writer and editor of dictionaries and thesauruses in the UK, and, as technology evolved, she specialised in knowledge organisation, metadata, search systems, and digital archives. She is now an Information Architect, Taxonomist, and Ontologist. She lives in Montreal, Canada, where her recent projects include a start up - truba.news - as well as work for Concordia University and Expedia.
Liz is Thesaurus Editor at the House of Commons, responsible for managing Parliament’s controlled vocabularies and working with colleagues in both Houses to increase awareness of the importance of taxonomy and the use of shared terminology. After qualifying as a librarian, she initially worked at ProQuest on projects including the Index to Parliamentary Papers, and on the integration of metadata with citation engines and with MARC records. The arcane knowledge she has gleaned from constructing scope notes is often useful when shouting answers at television quiz contestants.
Michael Upshall
Michael Upshall is Head of Business Development at UNSILO, a Danish machine-learning software company providing AI-based solutions for academic and professional publishers. A former publisher, he is familiar with the opportunities and challenges faced by content owners as they implement digital content enrichment. Publishers he has worked with include Random House, Pearson, TSO, The IET, and CABI. At Cambridge University Press he managed the book and journals online platforms, and has worked in a product role with software developers and technology organisations such as JISC.
Organising Team
Kat Allen, Conference Director, Information Today Ltd
Imelda Bamford Carter, Operations Manager, Information Today Ltd
Caroline Milner, Marketing Director, Information Today Ltd
Sjoerd Vogt, Sales Director, Information Today Ltd
