The number of IROs at the CIRI conference is low. Why is this? I posted the above blog entry to try to stimulate discussion on what could be done to get more people going to this conference. I invite you to share your ideas too. - Ryan Lejbak

I'm curious as to where all the vendors are this morning. Missing in Action. Even the SNL guys, who were dancing with chuck wagon wheels around their heads, made it here. :) - Katherine

I also wonder if the close proximity of niri and ciri, if that has some kind of influence over people attending both, I would assume that people would likely be forced into choosing one over the other - Chris Jones

Ian Bacque mentioned members' cost sensitivity and he is right. Why belong to CIRI if it is cheaper to be a NIRI member? That's one issue. CIRI needs to do more to reach out to smaller companies that dominate the Canadian market, and it should do so on the web to keep costs low. Also, bring in different perspectives and adopt a more international outlook. - Dominic Jones

From the delegate floor, many people I talked to thought the program should have dealt with more "current issues." I agree, all of the talk was about the web, yet there was only one session discussing it (and it was a well-attended session). - Ryan Lejbak

One more fact: when I looked at the number of speakers and removed them from my attendee list, there were about 105 IROs (give or take a few who I may have slotted in the wrong category). That number needs to improve next year or this conference will slowly evaporate into nothing. CIRI needs to reinvigorate its membership. - Ryan Lejbak

I think CIRI is on the right track though. Ian Bacque is saying the right things. He is a true leader whom people will rally around. Hopefully, he can right the ship by next year's conference by using CIRI's website, newsletter and chapters to get his message and vision out. - Ryan Lejbak

Those are poor attendance numbers. I want to rant right now, but won't because I did see progress. The fact that Ian, Jeff, Colleen and Bob were on camera on YouTube gives me hope. And I agree with you that they need to do some marketing and create some buzz again. - Dominic Jones from twhirl

Thinking more about this, I wonder if the heavy vendor presence isn't partly responsible for IROs not wanting to go to CIRI conferences. After all, who wants to go to a conference just so that they can be pitched? Not that CIRI events have ever been heavy on the sales pitches, but being outnumbered is unlikely to make corporate IROs comfortable. If the event isn't rethought top to bottom, next year's IRO attendance could well be worse. Just my two cents. - Dominic Jones

I agree Dominic, these conferences are for the IROs. However, vendors play an important role in helping to finance CIRI and the conference, so it would be hard to get rid of them. I do no think that the number of vendors has increased, but the number of IROs attending is declining. So, CIRI needs to deal with that. One thought I had was to have another conference track where each vendor can do a presentation; if IROs are interested, they can attend, if not then they do not need to listen to a pitch. - Ryan Lejbak