USQ to host Australasian Conference on Information Systems

Research into the applications of information systems will be explored during the 2007 Australasian Conference on Information Systems (ACIS) to be held at the University of Southern Queensland (USQ) from 5 – 7 December 2007.

Presenters from more than 20 countries will attend the 2007 conference with four keynote speakers including Head of the National Centre for Information Systems Research, Professor Shirley Gregor AO, and Professor Robert Winter from St Gallen University in Switzerland.

ACIS Chair and Senior Lecturer in Information Systems (IS) at USQ, Dave Roberts said the University is delighted to host the conference.

'It is the most prestigious IS conference in Australia and we are proud to be the host,' he said.

The themes of the conference for 2007 are Research, Relevance and Rigour, in line with the Research Quality Framework (RQF), one of the highest priorities of the Australian Government, which is designed to maximise quality research in Australia.

'The theme aims to ensure the research carried out in the universities is relevant and not just theoretical or done for the sake of it,' Mr Roberts said.

'However, doing research only in the industry can lose some of the rigour you apply when conducting research in universities. So the conference will focus on the importance of industry relevance, but with academic rigour as well.

'We wanted the research papers to have relevance to industry so practitioners can see the connection between what we do in academe and what they do in business.'

Conference delegates will hear from authors of 118 research papers, to be presented in sessions over three days.

Presentations will follow a number of tracks such as Health Information Systems; Information Systems in Small Business; Information Systems Security and Privacy; and a new theme, Environmental Sustainability of ICT.

'ICT plays a major role in helping the world address sustainability issues,' Mr Roberts said.

Registrations are still open to attend the conference.

Media Contact: Jane Urquhart USQ Media +61 7 4631 2559