Talis Insight Europe 2018 was held for the fourth time, this year in the REP theatre in Birmingham. Talis welcomed higher education library professionals from over 70 institutions over the two-day event, as well as over 20 speakers.
The day kicked-off with a keynote from Professor John Grattan, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Student Experience and International, Aberystwyth University. In his keynote, John told us about the decisions he had made in his role, from cancelling exams and renovating study spaces, to the student success plan at Aberystwyth University and the impact this had on student experience. This session was followed by an update from Talis CEO, David Errington, who talked about the developments made since last Talis Insight and plans for the near future.
Across both days, there were sessions from a wide range of universities, with speakers from the Talis Aspire User Group (TAUG) community, who presented on the latest projects they had undertaken in their libraries and their successes with Talis Aspire. This included talks on academic engagement, reading-list policies and reporting projects.
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With over 70 universities present, there was plenty to discuss. There were four networking sessions with different topics, from an opportunity to chat with the Talis teams, to discussions around the LTI tool with Talis Aspire where users shared how they had enabled better teaching and learning practices with VLE integration. The TAUG Representatives also held a networking session, where they invited nominees for the TAUG Creativity Award to discuss their entries.
The awards were held at the Library of Birmingham, in the impressive book rotunda. There was a live band, sponsored by VitalSource, who kicked off the evening with jazz. Alongside the TAUG Creativity Award, there were three other categories: Excellence in Marketing and Engaging Academics, Excellence in Implementation and Management, and the Talis University of the Year. The Talis Awards Dinner was a fantastic way to celebrate success within the university community, as well as provide a chance for more networking after the first day of the conference.
Partners were an important part of Talis Insight Europe 2018, with Askews & Holts, British Library, Dawsons Books, EBSCO, Innovative, OCLC, Proquest, VitalSource and Wordery exhibiting on both days. Education Technology and University Business magazines were also present as media partners.
New to the agenda this year, was a live Q&A with the Talis Management Team. With new developments having been announced earlier at the conference, this was a great opportunity for the audience to ask questions and to find out more about upcoming plans, about Talis, the product and the people. This was an important element of Talis Insight, with most of the Talis team present throughout the day, hosting breakout sessions or doing live demonstrations of the product at the Talis stand, giving you the chance to get to know the team who make it all happen.
The conference ended with a closing keynote from Kate Price, University Librarian at Queen Mary University of London, who shared reflections on her career in academic librarianship. As well as sharing her own journey, she invited the audience to share their motivations and advice.
Over the two days, there were many stories shared, with lots of experience to learn from and ideas to take away, on how we can improve teaching and learning practices with technology.
To see content from Talis Insight Europe 2018, visit talis.com/insight.