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How often do technical writers speak at their own organisation's conferences
This has led me to wondering how often technical writers get an opportunity like this. Have you done it, and what sort of feedback did you get?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Kai Weber on -
Hi, Sarah, I think it is an excellent idea. While I haven't spoken at a company's conference as such, I've had the occasional chance to present before colleagues or customers. My one piece of advice would be to do the slightly unpredictable and focus on the effect or benefits of documentation - in short: Why the documentation is cool! :-)
In my experience that goes over much better than presenting on processes, tools or deliverables, no matter how cool or professional these may be. A good starting point to get you thinking might be Kathy Sierra's perennially valuable "kick ass curve" at http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2005/10/getti...
Good luck - and let us know how it works out! :-)
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Permalink Reply by Sarah Maddox on -
Hallo Kai
Yes, great point! The aim is to show people what the technical communication team can do. In particular, it's great to tell people about innovative techniques you've used in the documentation, and how that can affect the company and the customers. In fact, if the customers can apply your techniques to their own documentation, so much the better. They go away talking about your company in a slightly different way from usual -- not necessarily about the products or services, but about the great ideas you've given them.
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Permalink Reply by Axel Regnet on -
Hi Sarah,
I think this largely depends on the organization you are working at - if the company is somehow in the (just to call it something) "content business" it is much more likely that you have something valuable to add to a conference than it would be the case if you provide the documentation for eg. medical instruments.
So if the products are anyhow content- or usability-centered, the tech writing team could of course add interesting insights. More so if they are actually able to use their own products during their tech writing job. I think in your case you should be more than able to give a quite interessting speech :-)
As Kai said: keep us informed!
Regards from germany,
Axel
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Permalink Reply by Milan Davidović on -
How did this "lift to the technical writing team" manifest itself?
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Permalink Reply by Sarah Maddox on
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Hallo Milan
People, from the CEOs down, saw the great things that the team was doing. One of our CEOs remarked specifically that the presentation was one of the best he'd seen. It gave him new insights into an area of the company (technical documentation) and the ideas we had put into practice.Other people in the team saw the way the "outside world" reacted to our innovations, and were inspired to try more experiments and to ask people's opinion more often.
Sometimes we hear from technical writing teams that they're not noticed, and that their opinions and needs are not respected. Speaking at a company event is one way to show the value of the documentation, and even more the value of a technical communicator's expertise to the company as a whole.
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Permalink Reply by Richard S. on -
I'm in the same boat as Kai. I've participated in partner business meetings, technical sessions, training sessions, and of course, the after work dinner & drinks that usually follows team meetups. We don't have an annual conference though, so nothing as formal as you're talking about.
In your case, it makes sense. Lots of folks use Confluence as a documentation authoring and delivery tool, and, for my money anyway, dogfooding goes a long way. I'd much rather hear a talk put on by folks who do the same job I do than by marketing folks.
btw, are you talking about the one in San Francisco in May?
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Permalink Reply by Sarah Maddox on
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Hallo Richard
Yes, the Summit in May. Are you planning to be there? I have no idea yet if I will, but I've started scheming. ;)
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Permalink Reply by Richard S. on
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I might go. There were a few sessions I wanted to attend last year, but I didn't organize myself in time and couldn't score a ticket at the last minute.
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Permalink Reply by Mark Baker on -
When I worked at OmniMark Technologies, I used to speak regularly at the OmniMark User's Group Conference -- but only after I had become a sufficiently proficient OmniMark programmer that I could speak authoritatively enough from my own knowledge and experience to be credible in front of that audience, and to be able to credibly answer any questions they might ask.
In fact, on one of the earliest occasions on which I spoke -- perhaps the first one -- the president of the company actually introduced me by saying "he's just a writer but he does seem to understand this stuff." It was a bit of a backhanded compliment, to be sure, but I think it did actually serve to legitimize me in the eyes of the assembled developers. Of course, if I had flubbed the presentation or been stuck on any of the questions, I would have been finished. People do not come to conference to be spoken to by talking heads. They want to meet and listen to either real experts, or real peers who have already done what they are planning to do. If you can't be credible as one of those two things, you should not be on the podium.
I think the main opportunities for writers to speak at their own company's conference are most likely to come in situations like yours and mine (in my OmniMark days) were the product is itself a tool used in the technical communication business. That immediately gives the writer a leg up on understanding the business case, the technology, and the task domain, all of which is necessary to make an effective and convincing speaker.
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Permalink Reply by Sarah Maddox on
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Ha ha, that's an awesome quote Mark -- the company president saying "he's just a writer but he does seem to understand this stuff." It's just the sort of thing our CEOs would say!
In fact, just recently I was speaking at an internal company meeting, and one of our CEOs introduced me by saying something like this: "And now Sarah, one of our technical writers, will talk about the documentation. By the way, how many of you know that Sarah has written a book? I think that all technical writers are frustrated authors!"
[And... Do you like the way I introduced the mention of my new book? ;) It's gone to the printer today!]
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Permalink Reply by Sanjay G on -
Sarah, i also feel neglected in a crowd of developers and testers. I am the only TW in the company. So people feel that it is an unwanted post in company but when it comes to my outcome of documents and other help documents, the praise comes from every quarter. Hence, i rarely get to speak in the conferences.
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Permalink Reply by Sarah Maddox on
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Hallo Sanjay
It's awesome that you get praise from every quarter. Congrats, especially as you're the only tech writer in the company!
Is there any way that you can use your own products in your documentation processes? If so, that's a good topic for a company conference.
Alternatively, perhaps you could speak at internal events. It's great when other people gain an insight into what you do. They're often amazed at the breadth of the work that a technical writer does, and they are delighted when we share our ideas and insights with them. We're often very in touch with the user experience, which is very important to the company as a whole. Also, much of the way we analyse the readers of our documentation is transferable to analysing the customer base itself.
Cheers, Sarah
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