The past couple of years, I’ve been attending the academic/research BPM conference – BPM 2008 in Milan, BPM 2009 in Ulm – where BPM researchers from corporate research facilities and universities present papers and findings all about BPM. This is BPM of the future, and if you’re interested in where BPM is going, you should be there, too. This year, for the first time, it’s in North America, hosted by the Stevens Institute in Hoboken, NJ, which provides an opportunity to participate for those of us on this side of the pond with little travel budget. Before you look at my coverage from previous years and cringe in horror at the descriptions of papers rife with statistical analysis, keep in mind that this year there will also be an industry track in addition to the educational paper track, showcasing some of the more practical aspects.
If you’re a BPM vendor, you should be sending along people from your architecture and development labs who are thinking about future generations of your product: they will definitely come away with valuable ideas and contacts. You might even find yourself a smart young Ph.D. candidate with research that specifically matches your interests. If you have your own research that you’d like to share, there’s still time to submit a paper for one of the pre-conference workshops.
Vendors, you should also consider sponsoring the conference: this is a prestigious place to have your name associated with BPM, and is likely to have more lasting benefits than sponsoring your standard BPM dog-and-pony show. You can find out more about sponsorship opportunities here. Tell Michael that I sent you. 🙂