Webinar: Thinking About the Future

Thinking About the Future: Planning for Uncertain Times
Brought to you by SCIP, Hosted by The Iowa Chapter

Wednesday, March 4, 2009 1:00PM (EDT) - 12:00 PM (CST)
Program Description
We're living in a time of immense disruptive change -- rapidly sinking housing markets, credit crises, massive layoffs, bankruptcies and dramatic changes in business models. How can your organization have the strategic foresight to weather uncertain times? What forecasting techniques and futures thinking capabilities will help get you through the tough times? What is your organization's preferred future? Do you have the tools to get there?

Dr. Peter Bishop, professor in futures studies at the University of Houston and founding member of the Association of Professional Futurists, will provide an overview of strategic foresight in organizations and describe the tools that professional futurists use to prepare for the future. Learn the difference between traditional forecasting and studies of the future.

"Learning faster than your competitors is the only sustainable competitive advantage in an environment of rapid innovation and change,” said Arie de Geus, former Director of Corporate Planning for Royal Dutch Shell Group. Peter Bishop will introduce you to future thinking techniques that will help you prepare for this environment of rapid change.

Register now!

Registration Fees
SCIP Iowa Region Member: $50.00
SCIP Member: $95.00
Non-Member: $195.00
Student: $25.00 (Non-SCIP Students please contact Dionedra Dorsey (ddorsey@scip.org) for details.

You, or members of your organization, can attend from anywhere in the world. All you need is a personal computer (PC) with a standard internet connection and a telephone. Each registration is for one PC link only and is not transferable to other individuals.

Time zone confusion? Access the world clock for your time zone here to the webinar descriptions that do not include it.

*A site is one computer used to view the Webinar Registration payments for the webinar must be received no later than 12 PM EDT or 11:00 AM CST the day of the event in order to receive log-in information.

Webinar login instructions will be emailed to you prior to the event.

Please note: Registration cutoff will be at 12PM Eastern, 11:00AM CST Wednesday, March 4, 2009.

Contact Information
Belinda Nelson, Iowa Chapter Chair, email: BelindaSNelson@mchsi.com, or (515) 266-3919 or
Robyn Reals, SCIP Education Manager, email, rreals@scip.org 703.739.0696 x107

DPRU conference: papers now available

The Development Research Policy Unit hosted a very successful conference during October of this year with the theme:

The Regulatory Environment and its Impact on the Nature and Level of Economic Growth and Development in South Africa

The regulatory environment is often identified as one of the key challenges to economic growth and development in the developing world. South Africa is no different in this regard, with regulation and the regulatory environment often cited as a constraint to achieving the country’s macroeconomic and poverty reduction objectives.

We hope that, through the papers presented at this conference, we have developed a more nuanced and considered view of this area of economic policy. We invited papers, predominantly, but not exclusively, in the area of economic regulation with the aim of stimulating debate and contributing to our understanding of the growth process in South Africa.

The conference brought together researchers, policy makers, civil society and other social partners to critically analyse the work of peers and to dialogue on the findings and value from a policy perspective.

The key sub-themes, within which discussion took place, included the following:

• Financial regulation

• Local Government and Municipal Regulation

• Sectoral Regulation

• Tax and Tax-related Regulation

• Competition and Industrial Policy

• Labour Markets and Welfare

• Schooling, Higher Education and Industry Training

• Energy, Water and other Utilities

• Telecommunications

• Transport

Research papers focused on the relevant legislation and the key institutions responsible for implementing the regulations in each area.

In addition, the impact of these on economic growth and development was evaluated. A focus was on SMMEs and how the regulations specifically impact on their development as well as the creation of employment. A number of papers were not focused on the economics of regulation, but was more relevant to South Africa’s poverty and labour market challenges.

Here is the list of papers presented.

You’re Invited to the SCIP Women’s CI and Leadership Symposium

Connect with your competitive intelligence peers at the SCIP Women’s Leadership and CI Symposium, an invitation-only experience, that promises to enthrall and inform through exciting speakers and sessions tailored to the professional CI woman.

Cost: $695 for members, $895 for non-members
When: Nov. 13-14
Where: Crowne Plaza, Chicago, Ill.
Deadline for registration: November 11, 2008.

The symposium will encourage an open exchange of thoughts and professional development through education sessions, panel discussions, and social interaction.

Invited guests will hear distinguished keynote speakers:

• Jenny Fisher, vice president of executive leadership at Motorola, will provide her perspective on dealing with senior management and maintaining or expanding your department in lean times.
• Ava Youngblood, president and CEO of Youngblood Executive Search, former manager of CI in the Corporate Strategy division of Amoco, and former SCIP president, will speak about finding good employees and evaluating CI talent.

The symposium will encourage an open exchange of thoughts and professional development through education sessions, panel discussions, and social interaction. Content for this highly interactive symposium include:

• Managing Senior Management Expectations
• Ways to Maintain or increase your department in lean times
• leadership issues in competitive intelligence
• Demonstrating CI Value in the Organization
• How to position CI within your company
• How to demonstrate leadership within your organization
• How to build and grow the CI function
• Demonstrating CI Value in the organization
• The future of CI
• Cutting edge tools and techniques
• Cooperative intelligence

If you do plan on going dress warmly! Chicago drops to -19C in November and rarely rises to more than 10C.

Explore everything business under one roof

On Wednesday 3rd September 2008, leading business schools and affiliated institutions from across the country will converge at the annual SABSA Business School Expo in Sandton, Johannesburg.

For managers, executives and entrepreneurs aspiring to get ahead, and companies wanting to invest in their human capital, this represents an ideal platform to accelerate leadership, management, career and business development.

Why Attend?
Apart from the various MBA and Executive Education programmes that are available nationally, the business schools will be presenting a number of short courses, bursaries, scholarships, competitions, giveaways, value offerings, career initiatives... the list goes on.

Business Schools: Meet with faculty, admissions staff and alumni from across the country at one venue, on one day

Explore: Everything you need to know about MBA programmes, executive education and short courses

Funding: Find out about bursaries, scholarships and funding options

Prizes & Giveaways: Over R200 000 worth of business school prizes and giveaways up for grabs

Value Offerings: Business school value offerings available to both individuals and companies.

Register
In order to gain free entrance to the SABSA Business School Expo, register online . Alternatively, pay R50 when registering at the event.
Venue: Sandton Sun

Date: Wednesday, 3 September 2008

Times: 12h00 to 20h00

Call for papers - SAAIR

The Southern African Association for Institutional Research is awaiting papers on the following theme:

Institutional Research responding to the changing Higher Education Environment

Presenters are encouraged to make use of the Forum 2008 section of the SAAIR website for submission of abstracts and outlines. You can also use ciruclar 2008-346 on the UJ Intranet for more detailed information.

Format for abstract:

• English only
• A maximum of 150 words
• No illustrations, graphs or references to be included.
• This should be pasted into the"Abstract" text box for web submissions

Format for outline:

Please submit your outline as a document in the following format:

• Type of presentation
• Title of presentation Text (500-600 words)
• This should be submitted as a separate document for web submissions.
• Do not add the author’s name or any other identifying information to the outline.

Submission due date: 30 July 2008.

E-mail the documents as file attachments to Ms Carin Strydom . Alternatively, fax the documents to Ms Strydom, at +27 12 429 2295.

Presenters will be notified by 15 August 2008 of acceptance of proposals.

9th SA ONLINE INFORMATION MEETING 3-5 JUNE 2008

Preliminary Announcement and Call for Papers
The meeting provides a forum for the exchange of information on current developments, applications and opportunities in the expanding field of online information in the broadest sense. The aim is to provide an insight into the extent of growth and activity taking place in the information industry. Coverage will include not only the traditional online systems and services, but will extend to some of the newest areas of information transfer and exchange. SLIS and OSALL will also be contributing to this event in 2008.

Keynote speakers already confirmed include:
Derek Law - Head of the Information Resources Directorate, University of Strathclyde.
Geoff Hoy has been associated with UCT libraries for many years, and is now involved with TENET, the tertiary education network which is used by all tertiary academic institutions in South Africa.

Suggested Topics for Papers include (but is not limited to):
Web search
Federated search
Social networking & Global best practices
Taxonomies, folksonomies
Evidence-based librarianship
Information policy
Web site usability
Needs assessment
Collaborative working
Career development talks
Content Management
RSS Feeds
Embedded Librarian
Development and Compentency issues/skills
Web search engines
Planning next generation users
Disappearing mouse – touch screens/voice
Knowledge Sharing & Collaboration
Training and teaching
Internet resources
Managing e-resources
Mobile technology
Library 3.0
Distance learning, e-learning
Multimedia searching
Innovative projects
Incorporating new technologies Web design
Content management

Call for Papers: Whilst priority will be given to contributors on the suggested themes, presentations on other relevant topics will also be considered.
· Concise papers (20 minutes maximum) based on practical experience or practical applications of information technology are preferred. Supporting and supplementary detail may be included in the complete, written paper.
· If you wish to submit a paper, please submit your 250 word detailed abstract by no later that 14 March 2008.
· If your paper is provisionally accepted, you will be asked to submit the complete paper in machine readable format by 16 May 2008 at the latest.

For more information contact: (012) 331-3404 Cell: 082-7853510
E-mail: rdutoit@yebo.co.za
http://www.saoug.org.za/

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