Just released at the end of last week is a blog devoted entirely to the Buying & Selling eContent show. It had kind a stealth launch, but already there have been some thoughtful observations posted on BSECBlog about the future of publishing. It’s not just a shill for the conference, though it’s certainly meant to help promote the observations and ideas of the speakers and organizers. Worth taking a look at — and I should, in the interests of full disclosure, say that I will be contributing some blog posts to it as well as blogging here.

It’s January. The sky is gray. There’s freezing rain outside. Not nice. So, my thoughts drift off to spring and warmer climes. There are several conferences from Information Today, Inc. that should be really great. And, of course, I offer that opinion in a totally non-biased way, not because I’m speaking and/or involved in program planning!

First up is Computers in Libraries (March 30 through April 1 at the Hyatt Regency, Crystal City), which is a 3-day, 5-track conference. It’s also got a "Gaming & Gadgets Petting Zoo" on Sunday night and both pre- and post-conference workshops on Sunday and Thursday. That’s a lot of information packed into one conference! My talk, on evaluating, recommending & justifying 2.0 tools, is Tuesday afternoon. Keynote speakers are Pew Internet & American Life Project’s Lee Rainie, who always has something new to report, Paul Holdengraber from New York Public Library, who was featured in the Shanachies US road trip video, and Donna Scheeder, who’s the director of law library services for the Law Library of Congress. Donna’s the cover story for the January/February 2009 issue of ONLINE, where she talks about the Global Legal Information Network.

The following week is Buying & Selling eContent in delightful Scottsdale, Arizona. This high-level executive conference is the meeting place for the information industry luminaries. Lots of new faces for the speaker list — along with favorites from prior years. Of particular interest are the tributes to the EContent 100 award winners. Keynote speakers include Rafat Ali, Anthea Stratigos, Lior Arussy, Sarah Milstein, and Marty Kahn. I’m really looking forward to BSeC!

In May, Enterprise Search Summit comes back to the New York Hilton. The advance program for this confereence just went up on the website and I confess I haven’t studied it in detail. A quick look, though, shows lots of new topics and new faces. Enterprise search remains an important area for technology buffs and ESS tempers technology with business realities.

Should be an interesting spring. Now, if the freezing rain would just stop, I’d be happy!