View the Schedule at a Glance and Preliminary Program in PDF, or scroll down for the complete program in HTML.
Check out the stellar program we have for New Orleans, then register by June 15th to take advantage of early registration discounts.
9:00-Noon
In this session attendees will learn:
I’ll share real-life examples of how I’ve optimized content for translation at Mastercard, organized around 5 themes:
We’ll do hands-on exercises with actual technical content and attendees can even bring something they’re currently working on to workshop with the group.
Let’s delve into the details of creating a wide-reaching content strategy that builds from various aspects of the content ecosystem. We factor in the role of marketing, R&D, sales, user documentation etc and how these moving content parts co-exist to address various needs and audiences.
In this workshop you will learn:
In this session attendees will learn:
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Join Andrea for a half-day, experiential tour of several techniques used in Design Thinking. Using one or more sample problems, workshop participants will work together to develop solutions following a Design Thinking framework. Because we’ll be face-to-face, we’ll go low-tech and focus on the framework and techniques using flip-chart paper and stickie notes. Andrea will also discuss how to get the most from the process across geographically distributed teams using online tools.
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How to adapt UX and IxD practices to identify the audiences for their content, understand users’ content needs and preferences, and develop and validate customer-centric content and content delivery channels, including:
In this session, you will learn:
7:00-10:30
Location: Mag’s 940
940 Elysian Fields Ave, New Orleans
Sponsored by Saiff Solutions.
Location: Mag’s 940
940 Elysian Fields Ave, New Orleans
Sponsored by Saiff Solutions.
8:30-10:15
A content zombie apocalypse is upon us! An onslaught of new mobile devices, platforms, and screen sizes, hordes of them descending every day. We’re outmatched. There aren’t enough designers and developers to battle every platform. There aren’t enough editors and writers to populate every screen size.
Surviving the content zombie apocalypse is possible. In this talk, Karen will explain how.
Building a global content ecosystem can seem like an insurmountable challenge. To make it work, you need the right mix of people, budgets, buy-in, and (most importantly) trans-silo negotiation skills.
In this session, Michael Goldberg will share what it takes to implement a successful global content ecosystem.
Our profession is on the precipice of something very new and very disruptive. What does the next step really mean for us? Will we adapt or will it spur on another new industry of content professional? How will we produce content for a new medium and still keep the lights on with continued needs for traditional channels of delivery?
Adopt too slowly and you’ll miss the wave. Adopt to quickly and you run the risk of the wave dashing onto the sand. In this session, Rob Hanna will explore how to ride the crest of the new content wave.
10:30-11:30
In this session attendees will learn:
This presentation explores the benefits of having a content delivery solution and looks at two sides of the decision making process – what content publishers should look for in a system and what end users expect from a system.
In this session attendees will learn:
By definition, a Content Ecosystem covers a lot of territory. Just identifying all the moving pieces can be a big job. Implementing one is a whole different story. This workshop will give people a roadmap for navigating the content ecosystem landscape, helping them to chart their path through the Lavacon conference and to organize the many different ideas and innovations, not to mention interesting people, they will encounter. The roadmap will also guide people as they take their next steps.
In this session attendees will learn:
The convergence of Marcomm and Techcomm is a new reality driven by the needs of the evolving customer experience. But how do you prepare for that and leverage your content assets to deliver the greatest value?
This session will discuss how to apply Content Engineering techniques to enable Content-as-a-Service pipelines that unlock the potential of content assets across the enterprise, no matter where they were created, or in which system they are stored in.
11:30-2:30
Menu’s will be announced at a later date.
Menu’s will be announced at a later date.
2:45-3:45
You have the technology and the people, but do you have the best content? This session will highlight four collaborative content strategies that you can implement across your organization to create high-quality content at a more efficient and cost-effective rate.
You’ll learn what it takes to implement these strategies and gain insight into how real companies have improved customer satisfaction and increased revenue through a collaborative content strategy.
In this session attendees will learn:
Join Dustin Vaughn, Head of Solutions Consulting at Adobe, as he discusses the shift to digital experience and how tech pubs can drive this critical organizational change.
In this session you will learn:
Attendees will learn the successes (and failures) my team has had in our first launches of Alexa-based documentation search and how we have implemented VUI-based doc tools. We’ll outline and dive into how we worked through things like voice-based acronym articulation, anticipating things like release numbers (thirteen-dot-oh, for example) and the business case for implementing voice search as a software tool. We’ll discuss the security risks and concerns of VUI-based documentation and how we worked through customer concern and interest to create a viable business concept from idea to inception.
In this session attendees will learn:
4:00-5:00
In this session, attendees will learn and discuss strategies for building content professionals. We will go through key stages and milestones to be mindful of when working towards building a content team. Starting from the initial stages of hiring with the goal of building a long-term team, we will discuss ideas on what holds a team together and creates strength for one another.
One of the promises made to companies moving to DITA was the portability of content and flexibility in the approach to future system choices. Years after deploying solutions, many companies are still struggling to make their investment work the way they want and deliver the benefits promised.
Other more mature industries have a more pragmatic approach to core systems with regular reviews and the ability to embrace change, what can we learn from this?
Changing your CCMS needn’t be the herculean task you fear and may help you actually achieve the functionality you have always been promised. Bluestream have taken companies on this journey and developed a comprehensive methodology to ease the path.
If you want to learn the process for successfully implementing content solutions, then join Amber Swope as she leads you through her methodology for empowered and successful content. The methodology includes:
Analysts predict that chatbots will be your customers’ preferred interface. How can you transition from carefully staged demos to real-life customers?
In this session attendees will learn:
Join this session to hear about the lessons learned from establishing and implementing a unified UX and content strategy to product pages at SAP, the world’s largest provider of enterprise application software serving more than 365,000 customers in 180 countries. Explore results with before-and-after comparison and get actionable tips you can consider and implement in your organization.
5:15-5:55
The presentation discusses the shift from “technical information is a backwater department that costs us money” to “technical information is a critical aspect of our customer experience effort” and the implications of that paradigm shift.
TBA
6:00-7:30
Sponsored by Adobe.
9:00-
Location TBA.
9:00-10:20
Without executive-level buy-in and top-down championship, cross-silo content initiatives are doomed to failure. In this session, Jim Edmunds will share war stories of how global companies have wasted millions of dollars are failed content initiatives.
A wise person once said, “Learn from the mistakes of others. It’s faster than making them all yourself.”
As we begin to coordinate content across the enterprise, we need to re-examine our content infrastructure. Will we have a single, unified workflow for everyone creating customer-facing content? If not, what is the minimum viable infrastructure needed to make enterprise content a reality?
This session will help attendees to cut through all of the hype around Chatbots, Voice Assistants, and AI, and what they may all mean for content practitioners and communication professionals. Using a case study, we will clarify the relationship between content and systems, and by doing so we will be able to more clearly understand how content will evolve in the age of the smart machine and how content will come to inform those many moving pieces.
We are at a critical moment in history, with knowledge bursting at the seams of our organizations. Many of us still struggle to manage numerous modes of omnichannel content engagement: published, interactive, and automated. The solution requires vision to move towards a new order of content intelligence encompassing our organization’s entire knowledge graph. It requires spanning silos, especially between marcomm and techcomm.
Join Cruce Saunders as he explores the new content stack, and how to future proof content assets to meet the demands of ever-evolving customer experiences.
9:00-10:20
10:45-11:45
In this session attendees will learn:
In this session attendees will learn:
In this session attendees will learn:
In this session attendees will learn:
In this session, learn how the Mastercard team implemented an enhanced digital platform that transforms the way technical content is delivered to and consumed by Mastercard customers. With this cloud-based solution, Mastercard can target content to a global audience and elevate the customer experience, all while more effectively optimizing internal processes. You will learn about our experience with the technologies and processes involved on the journey, including the use of taxonomy and SSO to support a complex array of user entitlements based on role, ownership and geography. This discussion will demystify some of these concepts as we share our experience with you.
11:45-1:30
Menu’s will be announced at a later date.
Menu’s will be announced at a later date.
1:30-2:30
How do you inspire and empower your team to help you in your mission? Start today with these tips and tricks.
Learn to help your team members:
We will show and explain the main features of a modern style guide that distinguish it from traditional ones:
We will show how these can be implemented using the state of the art technologies available today, such as:
How can you get ahead of the curve in a loud, bright world of short attention spans? In this session, you will learn:
In this session attendees will learn:
Nobody knows paperwork like the Pentagon. Without exaggeration, the Department of Defense (DoD) has policies and procedures for writing policies and procedures.
In this session attendees will learn:
2:45-3:45
In this session attendees will learn:
Attendees will learn about tools developed by Facebook’s in-house content strategy team, with examples to demonstrate how they’re applied by about 200 writers at the company. Anyone who works in content knows it’s hard enough to get a team of writers aligned on applying the same voice. Writing with the same voice while adjusting tone compounds the challenge. This talk shares strategies for how to guide writing teams in mapping content to a range of emotions and developing content that’s consistent and contextual.
Today, we find ourselves facing a future where content production is becoming far more Precise, Complex, Collaborative, and Distributed across large enterprise systems.
In this session, you will learn about:
Are your writers spending hours copying SME content, cleaning the content, and adding XML markup? SMEs are contributing information in many formats. Writers copy and paste content from many sources. Do you need your SMEs to add comments or changes directly to the XML source content and see comments from other reviewers simultaneously? Are your writers spend hours compiling comments and changes from reviewers and automatically incorporate into the content?
Join Vasont Systems as we explore options to address these concerns and look for ways to optimize the content development process.
In this session attendees will learn:
4:00-5:30
In this keynote, Alexander will discuss an alternative way beside typical ROI business case to obtain funding for your key content development strategy initiative.
This talk will establish the vision for a new way of thinking about content that will help content strategists bring people together in a new way to make better content for more effective results.
In this session we’ll look at real-world examples of how the way we phrase a question or design an interaction can have a huge impact on the quality of conversation, and the three rules they share.
Being right feels good. But great things happen when we prove ourselves wrong. In this talk, Megan will tell stories that illustrate the power of learning you are wrong.
6:00-
Bourbon Cowboy, 241 Bourbon Street, New Orleans. Sponsored by Web Works.
9:00-10:00
In this session attendees will learn:
How well does your voice travel to France, where language is more formal? Or Brazil, where it’s more casual?
In this session, we’ll share our fixed-flexible-free framework for crafting voice guidelines that work for different markets while maintaining a consistent global brand.
Attendees will leave with:
In this session attendees will learn:
In this session we will examine love and hate from both perspectives:
Customers seeking product support don’t want to browse your site, engage with your content, or contact you. Stop using marketing success indicators for your support content. Attendees will learn how to:
10:15-11:15
Your migration journey is going to involve fear, frustration, skepticism, exhaustion, and maybe even dysentery. We learned a lot about humanity while migrating our Markdown-in-Github docs to DITA. We’ll share our experience, describe our lessons learned, and help you prepare for the emotional aspects of your own content migration projects. You’ll learn about :
We discuss background issues, how three sets of numbers (cost cutting, efficiency, and growth) were identified as a business target, and how they made their CCMS decision based on specific KPI they tracked. We’ll discuss how they got to where they stand now (2 years later) and what comes next.
I’ll demonstrate a number of approaches you can use to minimize risk and maximize success in an organizational transition to structured content, and illustrate them with specific examples from companies such as GE Healthcare, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and Ericsson. You’ll learn:
In this session, attendees will learn:
This session draws on use cases from a range of organizations as they aimed to increase the reach and value of their content assets by providing highly engaging user experiences beyond the traditional help or documentation. In this session attendees will learn:
11:30-12:30
When it comes to content strategy, *cost* is king.
In this session, Stilo’s Conversion Services Manager, Helen St. Denis, will show how organizations can get rid of unwanted specimens and deadwood, identify opportunities for reuse—create once, publish everywhere—and put in place strategies for maintaining your content assets so as not to get overgrown again.
Helen will cover:
During this session Berry Braster will paint the big (IoT) picture and inform technical communicators and technical documentation managers on the crucial role technical documentation plays in this new landscape.
In this session attendees will learn:
In this session attendees will learn:
12:30-1:30
Menu’s will be announced at a later date.
1:30-2:30
In this session attendees will learn:
In this session attendees will learn:
In this session, attendees will learn actionable ideas, how to plan your content strategy for the future, while taking advantage of existing content investments, and how the content strategy landscape is shifting. This interactive session aims to get attendee creative juices flowing in the following areas:
In this session attendees will learn:
In this session attendees will learn:
2:45-3:45
In this session, attendees will learn how preparing now can make the transition to new platforms and tools (both known and unknown) less daunting and overwhelming. Topics will include:
Attendees will learn how we:
We will surf you through our journey which began with traditional help authoring tools to a wiki solution to optimize multilingual customer collaboration. So grab your board and shoot the curl as we surf through the process.
In this session attendees will learn:
4:00-5:00
The LavaCon Conference Grand Ballroom
7:00-
