Happy Tuesday everybody!
We’re writing today with an update on the fast-approaching Portland conference!
First off, we’re delighted to announce that we’ve finalized our speakers for the event! Every year talk selection gets more and more difficult as we get a larger, stronger batch of submissions. Thank you so much to everyone who took the time to send us a pitch – we literally wouldn’t have an event without you!
We also have some info about ticket purchasing (now’s the time!), trip planning (Portland’s cool!), and our generous sponsors (want to join them?). Read on for more details!
Full speaker line-up¶
Every year, we look to bring a wide range of voices to the Write the Docs stage. Because the role of “documentarian” looks so different to each of us, we aim for a line-up that spans a good mix of practical, philosophical, and technical topics – with the odd whimsical one thrown in for good measure. We’re really excited about the presentations we’re going hear this year – we hope you are too!
- Ashleigh Rentz – The Facts About FAQs
- Beth Aitman – Who Writes the Docs?
- Bob Watson – Audience, Market, Product: Tips for strategic API documentation planning
- Brian MacDonald – Writing the Next Great Tech Book
- Camille Acey – Rewrite the Docs!: Field Notes from the Radical IT department
- Erin Grace – Document Yourself: Practical Tips for a Low(er)-Stress Portfolio
- Erin McKean – What Writing Dictionaries Taught Me About Writing Documentation (And What I Had to Unlearn)
- Havi Hoffman – Not the Docs: content and voice on a developer blog
- Jen Lambourne – Research like you’re wrong: Lessons from user research gone rogue
- Kat King – Building Empathy-Driven Developer Documentation
- Larry Ullman – Making Your Code Examples Shine
- Neal Kaplan – Where do I start? The art and practice of documentation triage
- Sarah Day – Starting from Scratch: Finding and Hiring Junior Writers
- Steve Stegelin – Graphic Content Warning: The Pros, Cons, and Alternatives to Screenshots
- Ted Hudek – 7 Essential Tips for the Enlightened Tech Writer
- Thursday Bram – What They Don’t Tell You About Creating New Style Guides
You can head over to the Speakers page to see the full abstracts. We hope there’s something there for everyone to enjoy, and also something that will stretch your horizons a bit.
Tickets are going fast!¶
If you don’t have your ticket yet, now’s a great time to snap one up. Conference tickets have sold out for the last several years, so if you’re planning to come, don’t leave it to the last minute.
Planning your trip¶
In the next few weeks, we’ll be announcing more details about the conference events, including the full schedule, annual hike on Saturday afternoon, writing day and reception on Sunday, and official party on Monday evening. But on top of that, there’s ALL SORTS of stuff to do in Portland.
We’ve got a couple of excellent volunteers – Mo Nishiyama and Alicia Duncan – who are heading up our Explore Portland committee. They’re already hard at work putting together resources to help you plan your visit! Check out the Visit Portland page on the conference website, or pop into the #wtd-conferences channel on Slack to ask a question.
Thanks to our sponsors¶
We are so grateful to have our sponsors help in bringing these events to life every year. Thanks sincerely to the following companies for supporting the Write the Docs community:
Want to lend a hand? Head over to our sponsorship prospectus for details on how your company can get involved! We have several types of sponsorship available, including the option to participate in a new job fair that we’ll be hosting on Tuesday.
And that’s the latest on the Portland conference. We hope you’re all getting as excited as we are! Stay tuned for more details.
The Write the Docs Team
