On 26 April Paul Corney (Knowledgeetal) and I will be co-hosting what is probably the first ever event to consider good practice in expertise discovery. Between us we have been in the expertise discovery business for over five decades. Until fairly recently expertise management was probably a topic in knowledge management but now there are companies offering specific applications to support expertise discovery, many of them in the enterprise search sector. Based on our experience we see expertise discovery as made up of four processes; expertise profiling, expertise finding, expertise ranking and expertise sharing. The arrival of IT applications that seek to support all four of these processes requires there to be a joint perspective on expertise management from IT, KM, HR and (given the potential impact of GDPR) legal departments.

Expertise 2018 will take place in central London, and tickets are now available on Eventbrite. Please note that this event is not open to vendors or consultants so that the discussions can be as open as possible. This initial event will be a workshop where there is considerable opportunity for participants to share their experience and plans under the Chatham House Rule. There will be presentations on the four processes, each of which will end with a set of questions to provide a framework for the discussion. Notes will be taken at the meeting but these will be completely anonymised and only circulated to participants. One of our objectives is not just to bring together participants for a workshop but also support the development of a community of delegates to facilitate further exchanges of experience. Paul and I know from our experience that it is often not until you get back to the office and talk to colleagues that you realise that you failed to ask a particular question or are unclear about the outcomes of a discussion. We will continue to support you.

The outline programme is on the Eventbrite site. After your booking is confirmed we will sent you the detailed programme and some  briefing documents so that you can come to the workshop with an initial appreciation of the topics that will be tabled for discussion. To our surprise and delight some of the people that we have spoken to about the workshop have already signed up, so you might like to make a decision to come in the relatively near future. As well as a substantial amount of documentation you will also leave with our Six Interesting Questions to ask any vendor of expertise discovery applications. Needless to say there will be no vendors at Expertise 2018.  Paul and I are co-hosting and co-sponsoring the workshop so not only will you get the Questions but also the answers to expect.

Martin White