About IWMW

A year ago, in a post entitled “Call For Submissions for Iwmw 2014” I reviewed the history of IWMW, the Institutional Web Management Workshop series which was launched in 1997 and, from 1997 to 2013, provided the main annual event organised by UKOLN in its role as a national JISC-funded Innovation Support Centre.

Following JISC’s cessation of core-funding for UKOLN the future of the event was uncertain. However requests from many members of the UK higher education’s web management community made it clear that there was still demand for such an event. Last year I was therefore able to announce that:

I’m pleased to announced that the IWMW event will continue! The IWMW 2014 event will be held at the University of Northumbria on 16-18 July.

The IWMW 2014 event was a great success: details of the programme were announced on 14 April 2014, with a report and a summary of the feedback provided in the evaluation forms was published in August 2014.

In addition to the valuable comments which were made the feedback for the overall rating of the content of the event and the organisation was particularly impressive. As shown in the accompanying graphs on a scale of 1 (very poor) to 5 (excellent) the majority of respondents felt that the content was either excellent or very good, with an overall rating of 4.3 and 75% of the respondents gave a rating of excellent for the organisation of the event (the overall rating was 4.7).

The comments provided about the event show the value which participants place on the event:

• Highly recommended, the IWMW event offers the chance to network with colleagues from other higher education institutions across the country. The event is always well attended and you can expect to see a variety of knowledgeable presenters and take part in individual workshops over the course of the 3 days, as well as get the chance go out and socialise and take in some of your surroundings.
• I found IWMW 2014 to be practical, encouraging, empowering, and enthusiastic. Brilliant opportunity to network with other people in the sector, and learn that you’re not just on your own. Other teams are going through exactly the same things. Definitely the best IWMW conference I’ve been to.
• Over the years IWMW events have had more positive and direct effect on my career, the working practices of my team, and the University of Aberdeen than any other developmental conferences or activity. The only opportunity for UK HE’s web professionals to gather in person, compare practices and reflect on current challenges. An engaging and thought provoking event that challenges those in the sector to look ahead and see the possibilities as well as the pitfalls.
• IWMW has been a constant in my working life since 2003. It allows me space to think, to test new ideas and to develop a strong social and professional network. With contacts built through IWMW I can contact folk anywhere across the UK on any one of a number of (often specialist) topics for a useful insight or debate.
• Should be in the calendar of every web professional in the higher ed sector. Quality sessions, a great community and excellent value for money make it a no-brainer for me. IWMW offers a unique opportunity for digital professionals to come together, share experiences and learn from each.

IWMW 2015: Call for Submissions

In light of the strong support for the IWMW 2015 I am pleased to announce that call for submissions for IWMW 2015 is now open.

This year’s event will be held at Edge Hill University during the week beginning 27 July (the exact dates are still to be confirmed)

Submissions for plenary talks (lasting for 45 minutes) and workshop sessions (lasting for 90 minutes) are invited. In addition we also welcome proposals for other approaches for engaging with the participants which might include panel sessions, debates or masterclasses (lasting for 3 hours).

Although IWMW events have also provided a forum for those who work in institutional web management teams to share their experiences with their peers we have also found that speakers from the commercial sector have proved useful so we also welcome submissions from the commercial sector.

Submissions can be made using the online submission form. If you would like to discuss possible proposals feel free to send an email to [email protected].

Theme for IWMW 2015

At last year’s event the most highly rated plenary speaker was Ross Ferguson, Head of Digital at the University of Bath; 78% thought his talk on “Using the start-up playbook to reboot a big university website ” was Excellent and 22% felt it was Very Good.

In light of this talk and subsequent discussions we feel that ‘Thinking Digital’ might be an appropriate theme for this year’s event. However we welcome suggestions for other variants on this theme. As ever comments on this blog posts are welcomed.

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