Events

Due to unpredictability nature of the global Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the risks associated with the virus, we regret we are not able to commit to attending any in-person events at the current time. We will continue to monitor the situation and plan accordingly.

All of our own events in the immediate future will be online.

Access Lab 2020

Our Access Lab 2020 conference theme ‘Simplifying the future together’ reflects our collective commitment to developing a secure, simple and seamless user journey to content.

Topics ranged from user experience, privacy and personalisation to accessibility and the future of authentication.

Guest speakers included Nick Poole, CEO of CILIP and Sam Herbert, co-founder of 67 Bricks.

This year we expanded the number of case studies and interactive sessions. A highlight of the conference was this year’s panel debate ‘privacy vs personalisation’.

We moved our conference online due to risks associated with the Coronavirus (COVID-19) and many more people from the information industry were able to join from across the world. It was an inspiring and information packed day and we look forward to meeting with you all again in the future.

We want to say a huge thank you to everyone that participated, including all of our speakers and sponsors.

All speaker presentations and video recordings will be made available soon from our Access Lab 2020 webpage.

Follow the conference on Twitter #AccessLab2020

The University Press REDUX 2020 conference due to take place in Cambridge, UK this March is cancelled due to concerns around Coronavirus (COVID-19).

The organisers are drawing up plans for an alternative, online event in the summer.

Further details from the conference website.

The London Book Fair 2020, scheduled to take place at Olympia, London, from 10 to 12 March is cancelled following the escalation of COVID-19 Coronavirus in Europe.

Please read the official book fair statement on the London Book Fair website.

We are attending ER&L this year in Austin, Texas at the beginning of March.

For 15 years ER&L has supported improvements in the collection, management, maintenance, and accessibility of electronic resources through in-person events and online learning opportunities.

Our international sales manager James will be on booth #1010.

Follow the conference on Twitter #erl20

Venue: AT&T hotel and conference centre, Austin, Texas, US

Our international sales manager Kieran Prince attended the NISO Plus Conference this February.

This year’s conference focused on standards and big data and is the place where librarians, technologists, publishers, system suppliers, and other information professionals can discuss existing problems, work toward current solutions, and begin to explore cutting-edge approaches to sharing knowledge.

Read the conference write-up.

Venue: Lord Baltimore Hotel, Baltimore, United States.

The OpenAthens team went to Melbourne, Australia for the 20th VALA Biennial Conference.

Our senior business development manager, Christos, met with delegates in the exhibit hall.

We also hosted a business breakfast, with our partner EBSCO. The complimentary breakfast included present and future customers alike. The meeting included a case study with practical steps for setting up OpenAthens and discussions on future roadmaps and industry trends.

Our commercial director Jon presented ‘Single Sign-On and Identity: Integrated Technology for an Integrated Future’ which really engaged the conference audience. Listen to the recording.

Venue: Melbourne convention & exhibition centre, Australia

This meetup was an opportunity for publishers to share their experiences and ideas for improving the user experience.

Venue: Dillons coffeeshop, Waterstones Gower Street, London.

Meet our team in the exhibit hall at this year’s ALA Midwinter conference to find out more how we can help you provide a better access experience for library patrons.

Book a meeting with our team

Publishers and online services can book a meeting with Kieran Prince, our international sales manager.

Follow the conversation on Twitter #MLAMW20

Venue: Pennsylvania Convention Centre, 1101 Arch Street
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19107

Our UX designer Vee Rogacheva will discuss the missing link in the publishing cycle at this year’s STM Week event in London on Wednesday 4 December, 14.15 – 15:00.

Venue: Congress Centre, Great Russell Street, London

OpenAthens exhibited at the vendor showcase at The Charleston Conference on 5 November 2019, with the full conference running from 4-8 November.

The Charleston Conference is an informal annual gathering of librarians, publishers, electronic resource managers, consultants, and vendors of library materials to discuss issues of importance to them all.

We had our best ever engagement with publishers and data analytics companies at this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair. If you missed us don’t worry! Our team are happy to chat any time – just email contact@openathens.net or call us on +44 (0) 20 3880 2626.

We can help you:

• Extend your reach to new customers that use single sign-on
• Gain insights into user online behaviour
• Create a personalised user experience with simple, secure access by following the RA21 recommended practices
• Protect your valuable content
• Preserve users identity and their privacy

SLA Europe will be holding its first ever conference on 5-6 September 2019 and we’re delighted to be a gold sponsor and exhibitor. Come along and meet James and Blake at our exhibition table.

Venue: Newnham College, Cambridge University, UK

If you’re attending this year’s ALPSP conference, why not arrive early and come along to our free half day workshop at the de Vere Beaumont Estate, Old Windsor.

This free interactive workshop will be an opportunity to hear about our research into the user experience of access to online content as well as providing space to discuss and find out more about how to improve that experience.

We are already seeing a number of publishers pressing ahead with changes to the user experience of their platforms. Stay ahead of the game – come and join us to benefit from our experience and knowledge in this area as well as from your peers.

At the 85th IFLA General Conference and Assembly in Athens, Greece this year, Megaron Athens International Conference Centre (MAICC) will host an exhibition in conjunction with the World Library and Information Congress. Attendees are invited to visit the exhibition which will be open from the afternoon of Sunday, 25 August 2019 until Wednesday, 28 August 2019.

You’ll find our international sales manager James on stand B114 with EBSCO. Come and meet him and find out how OpenAthens are helping the dialogue of change for librarians.

Venue: Megaron Athens International Conference Centre, Athens, Greece

Visit the conference site

A group of product managers working in online publishing joined the OpenAthens team at Waterstones cafe in Tottenham Court Road, London for an informal Meetup to connect, collaborate and share their experiences and ideas for improving user access to online content.

We plan to run more of these informal networking events and please join us for the next one

The CILIP Conference is one of the biggest events in the calendar for UK library and information professionals.  This year James and Blake from our sales team exhibited at the conference in Manchester and we also launched our new brand!

Kristina Symes, OpenAthens’ technical solutions lead shared insights from her recent research into authentication methods for digital resources at the UKSG Resource Discovery and Delivery: Understanding the User Journey conference.

CoLRiC’s 2019 Conference acknowledged and celebrated exemplary practice and innovation across the FE and Sixth Form College sector.

This year, we sponsored the conference, as well as exhibiting! Stacey Pattie, our implementation specialist attended. Delegates visited our stand to say hi and to discuss their current identity management needs.

Participants at this year’s ALA annual conference in Washington DC were able to drop by our booth to say hello and discover how our single sign-on technology saves organisations time, money and increases engagement with online resources.

Our UX designer, Vee Rogacheva and Russell Palmer, assistant director of GALILEO virtual library ran a session ‘How user centred design is tranforming GALILEO’s library experience’ on Sunday 23 June.

Their interactive talk explored how the GALILEO consortium has initiated a user-centered design (UCD) methodology for their OpenAthens authentication project, covering a community of more than 2,000 institutions, and how it will transform the experience for their patrons.

The session:

• Described some of the barriers patrons experience when discovering and accessing subscribed content and the specific challenges GALILEO face.
• Explained the design process, what UCD is and what frameworks can be used for library projects.
• Outlined how GALILEO are approaching their UCD and the research methods they’ve used including user interviews, focus groups and collaboration workshops.
• Discussed the results of the GALILEO user research, highlighting trends which have an impact on user behaviour

This year were a bronze sponsor of UXLibsV and our UX designer, Vee Rogacheva attended and presented on UX in the world of OpenAthens.

ARLG conference is the biennial conference organised by Academic & Research Libraries Group a group of CILIP. It covers all aspects of academic & research librarianship & has been a staple fixture on the calendars of librarians working in Higher & further education for many years.

Vee Rogachava, our UX designer, spoke on:

‘How to get quality insight about users’ needs for free. Research methods for librarians.’

Research doesn’t have to be a costly timely exercise. Embracing quick and easy research methods will help library teams get valuable insight into users’ behaviour.

The session provided attendees with the toolkit they need to carry out research to understand their users’ needs, and look at how the data collected can be used. Vee gave examples and shares learnings from her experience doing guerrilla research in libraries in the UK and the USA.

Venue: Teesside University, Darlington Campus, UK

Kristina Symes, technical solutions lead here at OpenAthens and author of ‘Access to Online Resources – A Guide for the Modern Librarian’ shared insights from her recent research into authentication methods for digital resources in ‘OpenAthens: The Authentication Landscape’.

This year at UKSG we ran an OpenAthens roundtable, ‘Understand the researcher journey to increase engagement’. Our UX designer Vee Rogacheva, and International sales manager Kieran Prince discussed the benefits of federated single sign-on and recent research into students’ online behavior.

Jon Bentley, OpenAthens Commercial Director joined US-based publishers to discuss their experiences and ideas for improving access to online content. Topics discussed were:

• How you track usage and use analytics to inform decision making
• How you design platforms around user journey
• Where you see authentication to content in the context of the publishing lifecycle

The 2019 conference theme ‘User-centred by design’ reflects
our collective commitment to developing a secure, simple and seamless
user journey to content.

Topics ranged from user experience and user consent and privacy, to piracy and practical use of identity and access management.

Guest speakers included:

• Dan Ramsden, creative director for user experience architecture, BBC
• Todd Carpenter, executive director, National Information Standards Organization
• Russell Palmer, assistant director for support services, GALILEO

London Book Fair is a great chance for our International Sales Manager, Kieran Prince, to meet with content providers.

The team had a fantastic trip to Texas. Exhibiting on the 4th and 5th March, and our UX Dsign presenting ‘GALILEO: Implementing OpenAthens for a Large and Diverse Consortium’. Alongside Russell Palmer & Ken Henslee (GALILEO) and Andrew Nagy (EBSCO), Vee discussed the collaboration.

Rob and Michelle enjoyed four fantastic days in Sydney. We exhibited at ALIA Information Online and presented ‘Librarians’ experiences in providing access to digital content’. The presentation discussed the key findings of our 2018 survey undertaken to find out librarians’ experiences of providing access to digital content.

We had some fantastic conversations at ALA Midwinter Conference & Exhibition this year.

Rob, James and Kieran from the OpenAthens attended the event which is a great mixture of in-depth learning, educational sessions, thought-provoking speakers, new publications, technologies and services from expert organizations in the exhibits.

Our new infuser water bottles went down a treat on our exhibition stand!

Our UX designer, Vee Rogacheva, shared how to increase engagement with your online content and making your services stand out by giving researchers the ‘Google’ experience by following our top tips for a simpler, more standardised UX-designed interface. In so doing, expect to see an increase in access to and engagement with your online content.

This year we were sponsoring the event. UKSG E-Resources For Further Education brings together learning resources and library managers to share best practice and innovation in the management, delivery and support e-resources in further education.

We were a sponsor of CILIP’s Employers Forum – Rob, our head of sales, and Blake, our account manager had a great day. The day brought together employers, managers and leaders from across the information, knowledge and library profession to discuss the future skills of our sector.

This year we attended the Vendor Showcase on Tuesday 6 November and spoke on Wednesday and Thursday. Our sessions were:

Why IP-based access is failing end users: How to give patrons a simple, seamless user experience in collaboration with InCommon.

One login, one time; the way to easy and unlimited access in collaboration with GALILEO, NHTI and EBSCO.

Wayfinder Showcase  -The showcase demonstrated how Wayfinder reduces the steps patrons need to take to access scholarly content online, reducing the barriers they previously faced and giving them an easier, secure and seamless journey to content.

Jon Bentley, our Commercial Director, spoke at Internet Librarian this year on Tuesday 16th October. The sessions, ‘Transforming Library Experiences With User-Centered Design’ and ‘Pharma Research: Insights & Challenges’ provided lots of information as to what’s happening within the world or OpenAthens at the moment.

This year was the world’s largest trade fair, the Frankfurt Book Fair, 70th birthday.

Our team were in the International Library Centre, discussing federated our access management solution and how this can support your business aspirations.

‘Wayfinder – How to simplify access to your online content’
Phil Leahy, OpenAthens Service Relationship Manager, demonstrated the exciting new Wayfinder service on 10 October.

This conference provides access to leading, expert speakers and pioneering case studies. This year, our Agile Team Lead, Luke Taylor held an open forum, ‘The Google-generation’s access to academic content’. Lots of conversation around students’ expectations when it comes to accessing content.

We joined other ALPSP members at their annual conference this September.

Our International Sales Manager, Kieran Prince, met service providers and discussed how federated access management can support a wide range of scholarly publishers including those with Open Access or hybrid platforms.

This free one-day workshop facilitated discussion around the future of access to scholarly content. There was lots of shared learning around the challenges of and solutions to identity and access management with peers.

Our APAC Sales Manager, Dune, attended IFLA this year, alongside EBSCO. A great lunch and learn was held with lots of conversations around identity management.

OpenAthens and EBSCO held a lunch to discuss authentication in the modern environment and why we need to move away from IP recognition as an access mechanism. There were lots of discussions around why authentication has become an extremely important issue as libraries increase their digital content.

This event was the first European Association for Health Information and Libraries (EAHIL) Conference! Adam and Blake from the OpenAthens team had a great time in Cardiff, exhibiting and attending the conference sessions.

This year we had James and Blake manning our exhibition stand. They had two very busy, enjoyable days catching up with Librarians and other exhibitors, chatting about the latest developments happening in OpenAthens.

Kris, Kieran and Rob had a great time in New Orleans, with lots of exciting conversations and meetings around identity and access management.

‘How can user centred design transform the library experience?’

Our UX Designer, Vee Rogacheva, spoke about her recent UX research she has carried out in UK and US academic libraries.

The conference featured awards ceremonies/presentations and a choice of breakout sessions/workshops on a range of topics including; the transition from FE to HE and the importance of learning resource centres and library services in FE.

Jon Bentley, OpenAthens Commercial Director, took part in the RA21 focused discussion.

Jon presented: ‘Has federated single sign-on failed the end user?’

This event brought together the information community to discuss the means by which the community may be able to simplify the user experience while still preserving necessary privacy and security protections for all stakeholders.

Phil Leahy, OpenAthens Service Provider Relationship Manager, spoke in the Foundational Technologies Panel on ‘What can SAML / Shibboleth do for your institution?’.

MLA draws more than 2,400 participants including medical librarians and other health information professionals, international attendees, and exhibitors.

The Powers of Single Sign-On and the Benefits to All
Robert Scaysbrook spoke alongside EBSCO & Sentara Health about the benefits of single sign-on to clinical resources.

Top questions medical libraries ask OpenAthens
Kristina Botyriute discussed how different technologies work together to increase patron satisfaction.

The London Book Fair hosts over 2,000 exhibitors from the publishing industry in 56 countries, attracting around 25,000 visitors from 118 countries.

Jane and Kieran from the OpenAthens team had lots of exciting conversations with a wide variety of publishers over the two days.

The UKSG Annual Conference attracts almost 1,000 delegates from across the global knowledge community, including librarians, publishers, and intermediaries.

Our presentation on ‘User-focused authentication and resource access fit for the 21st Century’, had a great turn out on both days. Jon Bentley discussed the integral role that Federated Access plays in the success of RA21.

Our event, at the British Library was a chance for anyone working in the educational and research, healthcare, medical and pharmaceutical, corporate and publishing industries with an interest in identity and access management for access to digital content, to attend sessions where topics ranged from user-centred design and measuring user access and engagement to data protection, security and piracy.

View the audio recordings, slides and photos.

The goal of the ER&L Conference is to bring together information professionals from libraries and related industries.

Our session, ‘Moving Beyond IP Authentication: The New Frontier in Single Sign-On’, with EBSCO and Laredo Community College, discussed how libraries can move beyond IP authentication to one that is more secure, personalized and easy to setup and manage.

ALA Midwinter is a great mixture of in-depth learning, educational sessions, thought-provoking speakers, new publications, technologies and services from expert organizations in the exhibits.

We had some great conversations around Identity and Access Management. Our new travel coffee cups went down a treat on our exhibition stand!

American Association of School Librarians, which is the only National Conference & Exhibition, held every two years, is the leading professional development event for school library professionals.

Rob and Kieran from the OpenAthens team attended and had some great Identity and Access Management discussions with delegates of the event.

This October some of the OpenAthens team headed to the Frankfurt Book Fair.

Our launch presentation of OpenAthens Cloud was great, hosted by our Service Relationship Manager, Phil Leahy. The team also had the chance to meet with our customers and browse the exhibition.

Our customer conference bought together information professionals and technical experts from across the spectrum of healthcare, academia, corporates and publishing under the theme of Creating Connections to discuss the key challenges and opportunities facing organisations in the context of Identity and Access Management (IAM).