From June 4 to 6, 2018, the 2018 International Conference on Information Resource Management (Conf-IRM) was held in Ningbo, Zhejiang. The conference was hosted by the University of Nottingham Ningbo China. More than 100 scholars from more than 10 countries including the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, Canada, Austria, India, Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea, Brazil, New Zealand and South Africa attended the conference. Prof. Xiaomi An and Post doctor Hui Chen from SIRM of RUC attended the conference. The theme is addressing global change through digital transformation.

The paper "Effective big data integration in the development of smart cities in China: A digital continuity approach" submitted by Prof. Xiaomi An and Post doctor Hui Chen was elected for the poster exchange of this conference and was included in the conference proceedings. During the meeting, SIRM delegation had an in-depth conversation with representatives of various countries and discussed a number of cooperation intentions on the future research on international cooperation in big data governance in the field of smart cities.