Are you new to knowledge management? Want to learn about all the possibilities for making your organization smarter, more collaborative, innovative, and productive? Join our expert knowledge manager and longtime KM mentor to gain insights and ideas for building a robust KM program in your organization—even if it is called by another name! This workshop highlights a range of potential enterprise KM activities being used in real organizations and shares how these activities are impacting the bottom line. It shows real KM practices and discusses various tools and techniques to give those new to KM a vision of what is possible in the enterprise as well as tips for how to get a dynamic program started in your organization.

KM is all about collaboration, and as our organizations struggle with digital transformation and encompassing a global workforce, platforms matter. In addition to traditional platforms that we are now quite used to, there are 3D platforms that are stretching our capabilities. Learn more about AR (augmented reality), VR (virtual reality), XR (extended reality) and 3D platforms from our expert. Bring your questions and curiosity, and be prepared to play and use your imagination about how new tools might fit into your enterprise and enhance communication pathways.

Humans connect through stories, and KM is all about connecting people. Even so, many KM programs don’t utilize storytelling to drive adoption or teach the art of storytelling. This interactive workshop shares winning storyteller strategies, success stories, techniques, and more. Participants learn about storytelling through several fun activities, get a heightened awareness of the power of stories, and learn how to run storytelling workshops in their own organizations. A special focus is on the “KM Origin Story,” in which attendees learn about telling a story that makes the case for the magic of KM. Come, learn, and enjoy “story-listening,” as other KM practitioners tell their own tales. Led by our KM pros, you will learn lots in a fun environment.

Successfully activating enterprise capabilities, such as KM, sales enablement, marketing, ecommerce, and personalization, among others, requires a robust information strategy. Defining an information model which reflects strategic business goals, addresses the current technology stack, and aligns with the needs of internal and external users improves information connectivity and encourages development of new organizational capabilities. This highly interactive workshop provides practical tactics for designing, building, maintaining, and governing taxonomies, ontologies, and other enterprise information models. Based on hard-won lessons learned from work with everything from large Fortune 50 enterprises to small ecommerce sites, Carlson discusses: modeling basics—a foundation to start creating a consistent vocabulary within large organizations with complex infrastructure, business goals, user profiles, and regulatory needs; a framework for shifting to an enterprise taxonomy model that meets the needs of enterprise and the individual business units, systems, user profiles, and interfaces; the impacts of an information-focused project on technology, governance, workflows, marketing, analytics, search, compliance, and the interaction with master data management; practical tips for providing stakeholders with resources to navigate internal tensions around implementation; and examples and case studies of large scale information modeling projects.

Findability is much more than technology. It needs to be the combination of culture, communication, and technology, as well as how your content is organized. This workshop by our experienced and knowledgeable speaker discusses the most important success factors of enterprise search in Microsoft 365—roles and responsibilities, search metrics, risk management, governance, search lifecycle—and how to implement it well. Molnar uses real-world examples to go through all the steps to enable you to create an actionable plan for your organization. Get lots of practical tips and insights from our popular KMWorld speaker. 

The volume of human and machine knowledge continues to grow exponentially. And as GenAI tools such as Chat GPT and Bard continue working their way into the mainstream, this growth will only accelerate, taxing the limits of traditional KM. As a result, leaders and decision makers will have far less visibility into how and even where their organization’s knowledge is generated, along with its validity. How many of your business decisions are automated? How many business rules does your organization have? How secure are they? What social amplification and other risks are inherent in your organization’s decision processes? If you can’t answer these questions, it’s a sign you need to start incorporating knowledge governance into your organization. In this workshop, you learn how to build a top-level governance model, along with a plan for implementation, including how to measure results and make adjustments along the way. Learn the seven major facets of organizational knowledge governance, how to align them with overall corporate governance, and, most importantly, how to evaluate the range of possible ESG impacts, both positive and negative. Don’t let the volume of knowledge overwhelm you. Rather, create more KM joy by putting a governance model in place, reducing the risk and uncertainty along your KM journey, and gaining greater value from your organization’s ever-expanding collection of knowledge assets.

Humans have always been storytelling animals. From sci-fi to fairytales and anecdotes shared around watercoolers, stories provide opportunities to learn, share, and take action on our hopes, dreams, and fears for the future. Narrative provides a collaborative and meaningful way for KM practitioners to explore the intractable issues of our time, a critical edge in embedding social and human capital into the world of work. Join the Cynefin team for one of their most popular workshop methods, Future Backwards. F-B is an alternative to scenario planning and a side-casting technique designed by Dave Snowden. The method brings groups together through storytelling to increase the number of perspectives that an organization can take both on understanding its past and a range of possible futures. It is a fun, connecting method used for lessons learned, historical analysis, and context setting among other purposes. Learn how to expose the number of perspectives that a group can take, both on an understanding of its past and of the range of possible futures; discover what entrained patterns of past perception in an organization are determining its future; compare and contrast different aspirations as to the present and the future; and generate multiple turning points or decision points for use in the social construction of the Cynefin framework. This interactive and engaging workshop gives a practical approach to engaging employees in storytelling to explore the future of organizations, a means of conditions for novel discovery, cross-pollination of ideas and transformation, and lessons learning in workshops and beyond.

There’s a lot of nuances to architecture using AI, and some are interesting. GenAI is powerful in and of itself, but organizations are struggling with how to make it most useful for the enterprise. The key here is using GenAI to retrieve content and data from corporate sources. This means that the data, content, and knowledge need to be correctly structured and organized. There is no free lunch—GenAI requires that we carefully curated knowledge and data so that the algorithm has a source of ground truth to reference when responding to prompts. According to analysts, academics, and large consultancies, the moist valuable application AI application will be retrieval-augmented generation (RAG)—meaning the large language model (LLM) is accessing corporate sources. This means that RAG will be only as good as the ability to search and retrieve the correct information. There are new approaches for dealing with data quality and completeness using LLMs, new ways of improving retrieval using “modular” RAGH—which applied concepts from the search world (data and content processing pipelines) to RAG. Each of these approaches uses certain patterns to ingest content and data along with various reference sources that can then be used to cleanse product data and knowledge. This is a major breakthrough in the industry and will make AI practical and valuable by impacting both internal facing and customer facing processes. Our speakers discuss principles of LLM applications such as ChatGPT; different types LLMS; the critical element of taxonomies, metadata, and ontologies; how data can be cleansed at scale using templated prompts; prompt design and engineering; use case and business scenario development; ways of addressing and mitigating hallucinations; and more. This interactive workshop shares practical tips and provides a solid understanding of how to make these emerging technologies most valuable for the organization. 

The impacts of AI on our organizations and society since ChatGPT and other GenAI technologies have burst into the mainstream have left knowledge managers with the increased responsibility of stewarding, guiding, and embracing the potential of these new tools, while protecting organizations from its risks. Many organizations are also realizing the renewed need for capturing institutional knowledge and disseminating it across traditional silos in support of the rollout of AI solutions. This facilitated workshop provides tools for participants to steward their organizations and KM programs to create complementary knowledge capture and transfer programs to support their organizations’ objectives and their AI initiatives. It looks at how to articulate and prioritize business needs to key stakeholders; develop personas to guide the discovery, design, and implementation; and plan an assessment of knowledge gaps. It discusses the common knowledge capture and transfer techniques, how to measure and communicate the value of knowledge capture and transfer, and assemble a playbook for organizational knowledge capture and transfer.

Digital employee experience (DEX) is a holistic concept that looks at the entire experience of staff, as they progress through their work. It's about more than just rolling out new technology platforms, and it's as much about how staff work with each other as it is about the digital services provided by the business. This practical, hands-on workshop looks at how evolving intranets and digital workspaces in various industries manage and create great content, design user experiences that work, communicate while cutting through the noise, collaborate with ease, create efficiency, and remove frustration from across the business. This interactive workshop shares best practice tips and real-world examples to bring your intranet or digital workplace to the next level.

This high-demand workshop, given by a KM pioneer and popular KMWorld speaker, focuses on how to build a successful KM strategy and revitalize knowledge sharing within your organization. Snowden, our workshop leader, engages participants, taking them through a step-by-step approach to rethinking the role of the KM function within an organization. It includes creating a decision/information flow map to understand the natural flows of knowledge; defining micro-projects that directly link to the decision support needs of senior executives; mapping the current flow paths for knowledge within the organization; and finding natural ways to manage the knowledge of the aging workforce as well as the IT-enabled apprenticeship. Using real-world examples, Snowden shares winning strategies and insights to rejuvenate your knowledge-sharing practices. Always fresh and filled with interesting stories, this workshop continues to stand out with our audience!

Neuroscience has found that we are wired for story. Storytelling uses story as a communication strategy, while story thinking uses story as an operational strategy. This workshop goes beyond the foundations of story psychology and focuses on applications for KMers. Specific approaches and exercises are included to support strategies around KM systems, cultures, leadership, knowledge sharing, project documentation, evaluation, and continuous improvement. Direct comparisons are shown between story structure as our fundamental sensemaking framework and popular certifications, like Six Sigma DMAIC, Design Thinking, Change Management, Project Management, Kahneman, Kolb, Kotter, and Kubler-Ross. Discover how story thinking produces quad-loop learning and organizational flow, transforms change management into change leadership, and develops knowledge workers into knowledge leaders.

Knowledge doesn’t manage itself. No matter how far AI/ML evolves, knowledge, whether human or digital, will always need human curation. And as the growth in edge computing and hyper-automation continues to accelerate, having a reliable, consistent curation framework in place is more critical than ever. There is no shortage of tools and techniques for building knowledgebases and repositories. Yet the question remains: “How do I stay on top of the explosive growth in human and machine knowledge in my organization?” This workshop helps you do this by gaining an understanding of the three main pillars of knowledge curation: 1) knowledge capture and transfer; 2) governance; and 3) architecture, including the tools, platforms, and processes for putting it all together. Key elements include how to determine what knowledge is worth capturing and in what form; reconcile different world views, mental models, and learning modalities across various human and machine knowledge sources and recipients; determine which tools and approaches are appropriate for different types of knowledge; integrate the various tools and approaches into a single system; vet knowledge and keep it up-to-date; and make knowledge flow and grow, from a single individual to an entire community of experts and practitioners. Join our experienced KM expert and take home an initial plan for creating more KM joy in your organization by setting up and implementing a world-class knowledge curation program. 

You have more Team workspaces then you know what you do with, your employees don't know the difference between a team and a channel, group chat is all over the place and documents are more likely to be shared from a personal OneDrive than from a shared Team. Does any of this sound familiar? Our experienced presenter shows how to “tame Teams” and help employees develop good collaboration practices so that digital lives easier. Get lots of tips and see how other organizations have tamed their KM workspace.

Have you been working with complex challenges and methods for a long time and wish to add something new to your toolkit? Or are you new to complexity and looking for a place to start? Join this workshop to learn about a complexity-informed approach to navigating the seas of organizational needs within the bigger-picture global tides. Estuarine mapping was presented for the first time at last year’s conference by Dave Snowden, and it is gaining traction worldwide in industry and government as a conflict-free approach to strategy. In this hands-on, interactive session, learn how to assess the constraints at play in the organization and networks to make the energy cost of doing “bad” things harder and “good” things easier while allowing for emergence along the way. Explore how this framework links into radical new means of distributed decision making at the intersections of technology and human sensemaking using the power of narrative and human connection to find novel possibilities along the path. The workshop covers what we can change and manage in a complex environment, what we do when simple goals don’t work, how we plan for uncertainty, how we combine the grand vision with the day-to-day to build collaborative organizations, and how we do sensemaking at scale with human sensor networks. Get a practical compass to start working with different ways to create conditions for novel discovery, cross-pollination of ideas, transformation, and more.

This interactive workshop bridges theory with practical application for building collaborative organizations and navigating the complexities of the digital age. Led by industry experts versed in the art of fostering teamwork and innovation, it shares a blend of case studies, group exercises, and dynamic discussions, so participants uncover the fundamental pillars of collaboration, learning how to cultivate an environment where collective intelligence thrives and silos crumble. With a focus on leveraging technology as an enabler rather than a barrier, the workshop delves into strategies for fostering seamless communication, knowledge sharing, and cross-functional cooperation. Explore cutting-edge tools and methodologies to break down traditional hierarchies and empower employees at all levels to contribute their unique insights and expertise. Get an understanding of the transformative power of collaboration and be poised to implement actionable strategies that drive organizational success in an increasingly interconnected world.

GenAI continues to astound, but it also continues to struggle to produce real business value outside of a few applications like customer support chat and the productivity gains of producing rough drafts. While those are valuable, there is so much more that GenAI could do if it can overcome its current well-known limitations. GenAI’s limitations include its tendency to hallucinate, that is, make up false facts. LLMs were trained on public information, but as we’ve seen many times, the content and vocabularies behind the enterprise firewalls are quite different; this is why transparency—understanding why it says what it does—is so important. Text analytics can refine the general answers of GenAI with text analytics precision. Learn how to set up both a text analytics and GenAI environment starting with selecting the right components (software, LLMs, etc.). Then get the basics for creating a text analytics foundation (autocategorization, data extraction, and more) and a GenAI approach that combines text analytics, prompt engineering, merging enterprise LLMs with the larger public LLMs, and RAG capability. This collaboration of text analytics and GenAI has the potential to transform how your business operates and competes. Join our experienced speaker and Text Analytics Forum chair to get tips and techniques to develop a strong foundation for business value in your organization.

Microsoft 365 is packed with powerful tools and features for building an effective intranet. But with so many options, it can be overwhelming to know where to start. Hanley takes a deep dive into the "out-of-the-box" features of SharePoint Online and Microsoft 365 and shows you how to leverage them to build an intranet that meets your organization's unique needs. From creating and organizing content with SharePoint to enhancing communication with Teams and Viva Engage, she covers everything you need to get started, including new capabilities like the Brand Center and Copilot for SharePoint. By the end of the workshop, you'll have a solid understanding of the key features of SharePoint Online and how to use them to build an intranet that helps your organization communicate, collaborate, and succeed. You will also understand what is possible “in the box” and where you may want to invest in third-party solutions or custom development.

“This ain’t my first rodeo,” and our three KMers, with a combined 52 years of experience in knowledge management, have gained wisdom by learning from failures while also seizing serendipities. They work with participants, whether it’s their first rodeo or not, to crowdsource the biggest barriers being faced by their KM programs today and facilitate the co-creation of solutions to remove those barriers, focusing not only on what works, but what doesn’t. Have fun as you gain insights into other participants’ programs and immediately implementable ideas to stay on that bucking bronco. Be ready to gain insights and gather tips and techniques to strengthen and problem solve in your organization.

This practical workshop focuses on the lifecycles and workflow processes that knowledge engineers require to effectively manage complex and large volumes of knowledge. Knowledge assets represent diverse types of information, such as terminologies, information models, data elements, quality metrics, protocols, decision support rules, policies, etc. Content vendors provide collections of knowledge assets for different domains, but companies have to ensure that all active knowledge assets are integrated with delivery workflows. Systematic processes for asset review and curation are necessary, including consistently updating and tracking changes. Speakers provide an introduction to the most important KM activities, including the need to catalog and index knowledge assets, author and track asset metadata, manage relationships and dependencies among assets, import and export assets to/from various information systems, validate structural and semantic integrity when assets change, and implement a comprehensive asset lifecycle process. Get KM best practices, in combination with examples, challenges, and lessons learned from the extensive practical experience of speakers. Simple examples from the healthcare domain are used to illustrate the lifecycle and process management aspects.

Celebrate the grand opening of the Enterprise Solutions Showcase. Explore the latest products and services from the top companies in the marketplace while enjoying drinks and light bites. Open to all conference attendees, speakers, and sponsors.