While it involved a fleeting visit to Singapore, I was nonetheless delighted to be a part of another IKO (Innovations in Knowledge Organisation) conference. What makes this event unique is that it brings heavyweight taxonomy and KM folks together with business folks from a wide range of organisations. There was an even larger international contingent at the event this year, and it benefits from a strong sense of community participation.

Key points from my closing keynote:

• Organisations should be thinking at three levels: modern intranets that provide an enterprise front door to the wider digital workplace, with an overall focus on the digital employee experience that’s provided to staff.
• There are a number of practical frameworks to make use of, including the five purposes of intranets.
• Digital employee experience (DEX) sits as one of three elements of the broader employee experience.
• Great DEX is also a prerequisite for delivering a great customer experience.
• I was asked to identify and share what I thought were the themes from the day:
  • Some things are genuinely complex (eg semantic webs, graph theory), but nonetheless are still crucially important if we’re to deliver desired business solutions.
  • Knowledge organisation is geeky, but sexy, typified by some of the remarkable case studies shared during the day.
  • There is a shift from “innovation” to “transformation”, aligning with the push for digital transformation in many organisations.
  • Design and experience is driving information and knowledge management, which was the topic of my talk and the foundation for the examples shared.
• I shared a number of real-world examples from our global Intranet and Digital Workplace Awards, including:
  • “All about a country” from the IMF
  • The Telstra “me page”
  • “The Bridge” dashboard at Anthony Veder
  • Microservices put to work at Wells Fargo
  • The Digital Assistant at Liberty Mutual

Overall, I think this conference leads the way in breaking down the presenter-audience barrier, and I’m thankful to again have the opportunity to be involved.