By Talha Hashmi (SIM Co-op Student)

Neither snow nor construction could stop IWB 2016.  Information Without Borders (IWB) is an entirely student run conference initiated by students of The School of Information Management in 2007. Over the past 9 years it has grown in scope and size, and continues to be a model of professionalism. This year’s conference continued this trend, successfully bringing together a large and diverse audience interested in exploring “Managing Health Information: Technologies and Strategies for the 21^st century”. The IWB committee lead by co-chairs Tess Grynoch and Chantel Ridsdale did an outstanding job organizing speakers that engaged their audience and informed them about how health information is being currently managed, as well as possible alternative solutions. It was refreshing to see an event where knowledge was so actively shared and discussed, both within the room and virtually (#iwb2016).

With almost 200 students and industry professionals in attendance, the 2016 IWB conference committee exceeded their expectations growing attendance by 25%.  The day moved smoothly through speakers, breaks, lunch, the silent auction and a poster session without a hitch.  All the speakers, including the students, highlighted the breadth of the field of health information, highlighting the challenges and opportunities. The opening Keynote speaker was Gail Crook, CEO of CHIMA (Canadian Health Information Management Association) who spoke about “Profiling the HIM profession and Information Governance” and the closing Keynote speaker was Dr. Robert Strang, Chief Public Health Officer for Nova Scotia, who spoke about “Health Information in the 21^st Century: Opportunities and Challenges”. A highlight of the day was the integration of research talks by three students Leah Boulos, Nora McGruer and Scarlett Kelly, who shared topical and interesting presentations on managing health information resources, using non-traditional channels for communicating healthcare information to individuals and the state of electronic health records in Canada. This broad spectrum of presentations allowed attendees to gain a broad exposure to the issues within the field, and provided a call to action.  This added to the success of the conference.

A goal of the conference is to showcase student research. In addition to three student speakers highlighted above there was also a Student Poster Competition.  The poster competition allowed students to showcase their research in progress, and gain valuable insight from the audience.  The winner of the competition was SIM thesis student Zoe Dickinson, for her Poster on “Libraries, Search Engines & The Deep Web: Barriers to Visibility”.

Overall the conference was a great success due to the IWB committee’s strategic planning, organization and hard work. They created an event for like minded individuals to discuss and learn more about information management. We are sure the IWB conference will continue to grow and we hope to see you again in 2017!