It’s hard to believe that the inaugural NISO Plus conference was less than six months ago — so much has happened since then. Our community has reacted swiftly to accommodate remote working, support virtual teaching and learning, and show our support for the fight against racism and other forms of social injustice. It’s almost impossible to know what additional changes we will face in the next six months. But one thing is certain — we will have plenty to talk about at the next NISO Plus meeting, now officially scheduled for February 2021. We hope you’ll join us there — email us to receive registration information when available.
Due to uncertainty about the COVID-19 situation, NISO Plus 2021 will be a born-digital meeting, which gives us a unique opportunity to engage with a much broader and diverse, fully international audience — one of our key strategic goals for 2020-23.
Our first step has been to form a global program committee, with members from all over the world representing all our key stakeholder groups — libraries, publishers, and the vendors that serve them. They’ve been tasked with helping us define the programming and topics and with identifying potential speakers. Along with invited sessions, this year we are also planning a public call for proposals, and the program committee will be evaluating the submissions.
As an organization focused on improving information technology, it goes without saying that we want to embrace the technical opportunities that moving online-first offers. We are researching options and plan to experiment with some of the new formats available at NISO events later this year, to figure out the best ways to facilitate meaningful engagement and discussion with all participants, irrespective of where you call home. We welcome your feedback and suggestions!
A major goal is to make NISO Plus openly available to everyone who wants to participate — from Baltimore to Berlin to Brisbane and beyond! NISO Plus 2020 was sponsored by an amazing 29 organizations and, to make next year’s conference fully open, we’re hoping that we can count on our community’s generosity again, as well as your commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. There are a range of sponsorship opportunities available; please don’t hesitate to contact us for more information.
Last, but not least, we are watching the global situation carefully, and are hopeful that there will also be the option of hosting an in-person NISO Plus meeting at some point next year, so please watch for updates on that in the coming months.
We’ll be posting more information about the planning for NISO Plus 2021 here, and we very much hope to see you there!
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