The LavaCon Content Strategy Conference | 27–30 October 2024 | Portland, OR

2020 Conference Program

Conference at a Glance

Schedule at a Glance

Program Schedule in Table Format

Pre-Conference Workshops
Friday, 23 – Saturday, 24

LavaCon Live! Main Conference
Monday, 26 – Wednesday, 28

Pre-recorded sessions will drop weekly starting in early October. You can watch single sessions on demand, binge watch related sessions, download sessions to watch offline, or participate in organized viewing parties where you can chat with speakers and other attendees.

Friday, 23, October 2020: Pre-Conference Workshops

9:00-Noon PDT

Noz Urbina photoContent Design for Omnichannel Experiences

Noz Urbina
Omnichannel Content Designer
OmnichannelX and Urbina Consulting

Creating Content that Builds Trust and Moves Metrics (two hour workshop)

Jen Schaefer, Content Design Manager, Netflix
R
enee Crawshaw, Content Designer and Strategist, Mobile, Netflix

Managing Writers: An Interactive Playshop

Barry Saiff
Senior Technical Writing Manager
DocuSign

16:30 PDT

Cocktails and Content Trivia

Saturday, 24, October 2020: Pre-Conference Workshops

9:00-Noon PDT

Noz Urbina photoCustomer Journey Mapping for Omnichannel Experiences

Noz Urbina
Omnichannel Content Designer
OmnichannelX and Urbina Consulting

From Content Environment to a Content Ecosystem

Eeshita Grover
Director, Marketing
Cisco Systems

16:30 PDT

The Welcome to New Orleans! Drag Review

Monday, 26, October 2020

8:30 PDT

The “Welcome to LavaCon UX!” Opening Drum Circle

Jack Molisani, Executive Director, The LavaCon Conference, and Skinz N Bonez Drum Corps, live from New Orleans, and LavaCon Attendees, using drumsticks in your experience box!

9:00-10:00
Featured Speakers (three 18 minute TED-like talks back to back)

Bridging Silos to Deliver Delightful and Trustworthy Experiences

Beril Maples, Head of UX Design, Google Analytics

What Dark Side? How to Carve Your Own Content Path, from TechComm to MarComm and Back Again

Jessica Reed, Vice President, Product Marketing & Content Strategy, NBCUniversal

Yuval Keshtcher Photo

Leveraging UX Writers to Create Stellar Customer Journeys

Yuval Keshtcher, CEO, UX Writing Hub

10:00-10:15

Coffee Break

10:15-11:15

The Customer’s Reason Why: New Thinking on How Content Fits with UX, Product, and Design

Tim Sandfort, ExxonMobil’s First Content Strategist

Creating Content Users Can Find

Carl DeBeer, Manager of Information Experience, VMware

11:15-11:30

Coffee Break

11:30-11:50

Fighting Bias with Content Strategy

David Dylan Thomas, Principal, Content Strategy, Think Company

11:50-12:30

Panel Discussion: The Necessity of Diversity and Inclusion in Content Development Teams

David Dylan Thomas, Principal, Content Strategy, Think Company (moderator)
Jordan Craig, Manager, Content Strategy, Twitter
Jill Sheffield, Vice President of Content Strategy and Development, Mastercard
Kendal Sparks, Lead Content Designer, Mastercard

12:30-13:00

Speaker Q&A

All sessions at LavaCon UX are 20 minute TED-like talks: long enough to be substantial, but short enough to stream without losing the audience interest. Throughout the day, type any questions you have into the Slack channel. We’ll address questions the Speaker Q&A and/or answer them in Slack directly.

Highlights from LavaCon UX! Main Stage Speaker Q&A

Press the image above to play the audio (or open here).

13:00-14:00

Pick a room topic, then network and discuss!

14:00-15:00

 

Informal Networking Lounges
Come and go as you please.

Book Club

Espresso Cafe

Crafts

Bier Garden

Zen Garden

Jobs and Career

Tech Talk

Puppies and Kittens

Sports

15:00-
PDT

Second Line Jazz Parade followed by Networking Reception and More Jazz

Sponsored by Adobe Systems

 

17:00-

Live Storytelling Event

Hosted by Phylise Banner and David Dylan Thomas

Tuesday, 27 October 2020

8:30 PDT

Morning Welcome and Coffee Talk

9:00-10:00

Noz Urbina photoStorming the Castle: Winning Support for and Executing a Content Strategy

Britt Ellmer, TSYS and Noz Urbina, OmnichannelX and Urbina Consulting

How to Set Content Strategy in Motion for Sustainable Success

Hilary Marsh, Chief Strategist, Content Company

Are You Ready to Successfully Scale Your Content Strategy Practice?

Jordan Craig and Lisa Jennings Young, Content Strategy Managers, Twitter

10:00-10:15

Coffee Break

10:15-11:15

Tony Mann PhotographCreating Content that Truly Resonates by Analyzing Metrics and Data

Tony Mann, Director, Developer Content, DocuSign

How In-product Support Turns Documentation into a KPI-smashing Enterprise Asset

Megan Gilhooly, Vice President Customer Experience, Zoomin Software

TBD

Stefan Gentz, Global TechComm Evangelist, Adobe

11:15-11:30

Tea and Biscuit Break

11:30-11:50

Surbhi Mahendru PhotoBetter Content Through Better Listening

Surbhi Mahendru, Senior Web Content Manager, Amazon Web Services

11:50-12:30

Panel Discussion: Beyond Inclusion. The Importance of Accessible UX Content and  Design

Jennison Asuncion Photograph 

 

 

Jennison Asuncion, Head of Accessibility Engineering Evangelism, LinkedIn (moderator)
Char James-Tanny, Principal Technical Writer, Schneider Electric
Megan Lawrence, Sr Accessibility Technical Evangelist, Microsoft
Dave Goodman, UX Designer, The Paciello Group

12:30-13:00

Speaker Q&A

All sessions at LavaCon UX are 20 minute TED-like talks: long enough to be substantial, but short enough to stream without losing the audience interest. Throughout the day, type any questions you have into the Slack channel. We’ll address questions the Speaker Q&A and/or answer them in Slack directly.

13:00-14:00

Pick a room topic, then network and discuss!

14:00-15:00

 

Informal Networking Lounges
Come and go as you please.

Book Club

Espresso Cafe

Crafts

Bier Garden

Zen Garden

Jobs and Career

Tech Talk

Puppies and Kittens

Sports

15:00-16:00

Starting time subject to change based on attendee voting

Awards Hour

  • Best Mardi Gras Mask Awards

17:00-

Trivia Night

Sponsored by Twitter

Wednesday, 28 October 2020

8:30 PDT

Morning Welcome and Coffee Talk

9:00-10:00

Jonathan FosterBringing the Arts and Humanities to Tech

Jonathan Foster, Principal Content Experience Manager, Microsoft

Content is NOT a Business Outcome

Andrea Ames, CEO/Founder, Idyll Point Group

The Headcount Hustle: How to Grow Your Content Team

Selene De La Cruz, Content Design Manager, Mastercard

10:00-10:15

Coffee Break

10:15-11:15

Use Your Words: The Business of Content

Joe Gollner, Principal, Gnostyx Research Inc.

Why Your Company Needs a Digital Council

Jackie Pysarchuk, Senior Director, American Bankers Association

11:15-11:30

Hydration Break

11:30-11:50

Impacting the Bottom Line: Creating Experiences that Convert Trial Users to Paying Customers

Dean Atchison, Senior Director, CRM Content Experience, Salesforce

Fiona Moriarty, Lead Technical Writer, Small Business Platform, Salesforce

11:50-12:30

Surbhi Mahendru, Senior Web Content Manager, Amazon Web Services
Beril Maples, Head of UX Design, Google Analytics
Jonathon Colman, Senior Design Manager, Intercom
Kit Brown-Hoekstra, Content Operations Lead, [A]

12:30-13:00

Speaker Q&A

All sessions at LavaCon UX are 20 minute TED-like talks: long enough to be substantial, but short enough to stream without losing the audience interest. Throughout the day, type any questions you have into the Slack channel. We’ll address questions the Speaker Q&A and/or answer them in Slack directly.

13:00-14:00

Pick a room topic, then network and discuss!

14:00-14:30

 

Informal Networking Lounges
Come and go as you please.

Book Club

Espresso Cafe

Crafts

Bier Garden

Zen Garden

Jobs and Career

Tech Talk

Puppies and Kittens

Sports

14:30-17:00

Cocktails and Failure Celebration

“Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself!”― Eleanor Roosevelt

From Jack Molisani, LavaCon’s Executive Director:
I believe an “expert” is someone who has made all the mistakes possible in a given field (assuming you don’t keep repeating them).

As Eleanor Roosevelt said, let’s learn from the mistakes of others. So grab a drink and your  best failure story. You’ll learn from others, and others will learn from you!

I anticipate we’ll hear people boasting, “You think you screwed up? What until you hear what I did!”

Join us for an evening of cocktails and failure celebration!