The inaugural iSchool iAffiliates Day - a 'lightly planned unconference' to explore areas of collaboration between the iSchool and key external stakeholders, or iAffiliates - was held on April 20. The event was attended by over 100 people representing over 40 companies and organizations, as well as many iSchool faculty and Ph.D. students.

Participating companies and organizations included Avanade, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, BlackRock, Boeing, Cisco, Costco, Deloitte, Expeditors, King County Library System, Microsoft, Seattle Public Library, Serials Solutions and VX Technologies, to name just a few.

The event kicked off with two-minute lightning presentations from iAffiliate partners and iSchool faculty and Ph.D. students. Attendees could then choose which presentation topic they wanted to explore further in breakout sessions.

The forum allowed for thought-provoking discussions, challenging attendees to creatively address organizational information issues they are facing, and providing an opportunity to meet and interact with other information professionals which resulted in ideas for collaboration between the iSchool and iAffiliate partners.

Topics that generated the most interest where Cybersecurity and Information Assurance, Digital Curation and Social Media, The Future of IT, How to Leverage Social Networking in a Public Library System, Knowledge Management and Social Media, Project Management & Social Computational Systems.

Discussions in the breakout sessions led to a number of great collaboration ideas, such as mapping how and why information flows through social media, what is the future of libraries and how to engage iAffiliates in the iSchool's cybersecurity and information assurance curriculum.

The event was a fantastic way to spark discussion, and since the event in April the iSchool has talked with Boeing, Costco, Deloitte, Expeditors, Microsoft and VX Technologies about collaboration areas, and how these partners might work with and support the iSchool in the future.