since July 7, 2004.I first went to the Information Processing Management Association's (IPMA) forum about five years ago, tagging along with Dad, who's in his thirtieth year of employment with the State of Washington. It's kinda ironic: IPMA says - in the forum program and on their website - that the two-day forum is open to the public, yet it's mainly state employees and corporate vendors who attend, rarely anyone outside those two spectrums. In fact, my mom attended Tuesday and kept asking over and over, "Is it really OK that I'm here?" I guess the sign-in sheet asking for your agency's name is a little intimidating.
Nonetheless, the forum is a great event to attend to learn about new products, such as Gateway's slate laptop that is designed for note-taking and transcribes the user's "writing" into a word-processed document as well as working in sync with your notes while recording a lecture. (Don't you wish you had that for class?)
Sure, vendors get to show off their products, and the state employees (some of them, anyway) manage to get connections for newer, better products that will help their departments work more efficiently. But the majority just go for the free handouts, which range from coffee mugs to high-tech pens to shoehorns to toy airplanes to stress cows (versus stress orbs - thank you, Mitch, you orb boy-wonder!). And who can blame them? A lot of that stuff - like bubble pens and highlighters with internal post-it notes - you just can't find anywhere else, at least not very easily.
Perhaps the state and IPMA should work harder to publicize the forum and let the public know that, yes, they too can attend and become the proud owners of cool high-tech pens and stress orb-type objects, while learning about the latest in technology. And I don't mean a small blurb or ad in The Olympian either, but a better campaign to seriously draw the public into this annual event. What would they have to lose? It would just be good PR for IPMA, the state and the corporate sponsors (vendors), with whom the public could interact with on a person-to-person basis. Imagine the possiblities if that happened!
And the vendors - representing such corporations as Gateway, Hewlett-Packard, Novell, Xerox, as well as several state agencies - aren't a bunch of scary, impersonal suits; they are (relatively) down-to-earth "talk to you, not at you" types who are knowledgeable about their company's products, and if they're not, they are wise enough to refer you to someone who does. And usually, talking to the vendors will get you better stuff, like a second stress cow and a tiny, folding Gateway pen, about two inches long, max.
The forum itself is not just walking around, picking up stuff and talking to people. Over the two-day period, many technology workshops and sessions are held, and each day begins with a keynote presentation. The event may or may not benefit people in various ways, but furthering one's technology knowledge should not be limited to those either involved with IPMA or employed by the State.
So, until next May, I bring the IPMA to task: Increase public awareness about the forum and technology in general. Until then, I'll be busy with my stress cow and bubble pen.
For more information about the forum, visit http://www.ipma-wa.com.
Copyright © 2004, Talia M. Wilson
published in Cooper Point Journal, May 27, 2004
since July 7, 2004.