Our Mission
The Information Resource Management Association of Canada (IRMAC) is the DAMA International Toronto chapter. We are a non-profit, vendor-independent association of information management and business professionals.
We provide Data Management training and certification that help our members and businesses connect with each other to harness data as an asset. They are able to consider the definition and implementation of data and analytics solutions through key disciplines: access; trust; controls through data governance; data architecture; master data management; data quality; data integration; data engineering; metadata; reference data; and, associated best practices for modern data platforms.
Purpose of the Association
- To supply to our members current information in the field of information management.
- To encourage and promote a professional attitude among members in their pursuit of the discipline of information management and in their relations to others similarly engaged.
- To facilitate a community environment for members to develop and enrich their professional network.
- To foster a greater understanding of the vital business role of information management and the enterprise value of well managed information assets among executives, the public, and the members of the Association.
- To promote information management education.
- To maintain close liaison with the vendors and developers of information management software, equipment and services and to co-operate with all organizations affected directly or indirectly by the Association.
Members
Our membership consists of members from across different industries such as finance, telecommunication, Insurance or related areas. Most are practitioners – though industry suppliers are also represented. We are please to welcome our new Corporate members:
- Alation
Meetings
We meet monthly and are now virtual! At each meeting, a presentation or panel discussion is followed by a question and answer period. Prominent past speakers have included Bill Inmon, Ralph Kimball, Ronald Ross, and John Zachman. Presentations are made frequently by the association membership, who speak from personal experience about their plans, approach to problems, and tools and techniques they have tried. The annual IRMAC luncheon, included in the yearly membership fee, is held in June and features a special guest speaker. Topics covered during recent IRMAC meetings include:
- Practical Data Governance
- Big Data strategies
- Semantic web technologies
- Adventures in Agile BI
- Metadata and repositories
- Data journalism: ethics and pitfalls
Special Interest Groups
The purpose of a Special Interest Group (or SIG), as its name suggests, is to focus on a topic that is narrower than the interests of the main body to which the SIG is attached. From time-to-time interest in particular topics become so intense that closer communication is appropriate. Our Data Warehouse Special Interest Group ran for almost 15 years and was instrumental in developing the specialty in the Toronto area. Other SIGs have focussed on Metadata and on Enterprise Information Management.