In-person or remotely, choose from over 70 sessions on how to plan, manage, and implement content initiatives. Our 2023 program includes tracks and sessions on:
Content Strategy and UX Design
Generative AI and Machine Learning
The Convergence of MarComm and TechComm
Authoring Tools and Technology
Headless Content Management
And more!
Optional workshops are on Saturday, 14 October and Tuesday afternoon, 17 October.
Main conference is Sunday–Tuesday, 15–17 October 2023.
Saturday, 14 October 2023
Optional Half-day Workshops
7:00am–5:00pm
Registration Open
8:00am–Noon
Intro to AI Workshop: Excel with AI Before the AI Apocalypse
Noz Urbina, Founder & Omnichannel Strategist, Urbina Consulting, and Timi Stoop-Alcala, Principal Content Strategist, IKEA
To Move Forward First Know Where You Are
Dawn Stevens, President, Comtech Services
Look Before You Leap: Taxonomy is a Foundational Technology for Natural Language Processing:
Margie Hlava, President and Heather Kotula, VP, Marketing and Communications, Access Innovations, Inc.
Noon–1:00pm
Lunch on your own
1:00–5:00pm
Advanced AI Workshop: Creating and Publishing Text, Images, Music, and Video Using Cutting Edge Generative AI Tools
Jason Kaufman, President and Principal Consultant, Irrevo
Content Design with Progressive Disclosure
Eeshita Grover, Director, Product User Content,
Cisco Systems
Actually Completing a Real Enterprise
Content Strategy for the Entire Enterprise and Getting it Right
Kevin P Nichols, Executive Director, Experience and Rebecca Schneider, Executive Director, Content, AvenueCX
5:30–6:30pm
Meet and Greet
Exhibit Hall
7:30–8:30am
Registration, Continental Breakfast
Everyone
8:30–9:00am
Welcome to LavaCon!
Jack Molisani, Executive Director, The LavaCon Conference
9:00–10:00am
Featured Speakers
(three sequential 18 minute TED-like talks)
Beyond the Horizon: Make AI Work for your Enterprise Content
Stefan Gentz, Principal Worldwide Evangelist, Technical Communication, Adobe Systems
Shifting the Spotlight: Elevating Content’s Impact on the Customer Experience
Scott Abel, Content Strategy Evangelist, Heretto
Creating the Content Experience Beyond the App
Jo Ward, Senior VP, Content Experience, Salesforce
10:15–11:00am
Five breakout sessions
Unlocking the AI Advantage: Transforming Content Creation for Technical Writers and Content Strategists
Jason Kaufman, President and Principal Consultant, Irrevo
Five Principles of Cross-Functional CX
Sara Feldman, Director of Member Engagement,
Consortium for Service Innovation
From Vision to Reality: Supercharge CX by Truly Integrating Marketing and Technical Content
Stefan Gentz, Principal Worldwide Evangelist, Technical Communication, Adobe Systems
Dirty DITA Deeds Done Dirt Cheap: A Case Against Structured Authoring and the Status Quo
Carol Hattrup, Manager, Client Learning, Netsmart and
Amy Etheridge, Dir. Customer Success, NICE – CXOne Expert
Content Structure 101: The Building Blocks for Innovation and Digital Transformation
Marianne Calilhanna, VP Marketing, Data Conversion Laboratory
11:15am–Noon
The Technical Writer’s Unlikely Ally : Generative AI for Documentation
Jarod Sickler, Senior Solutions Architect, Heretto
Customer Experience and Content: Time for a Less Dysfunctional Relationship
Kevin P Nichols, Executive Director, Experience, AvenueCX
The Intersection of Content Strategy and Information Architecture: Storytelling from Both Perspectives
Amber Swope, DITA Strategies and
Lief Erickson, Intuitive Stack
The Best of Both Worlds: How Mayo Clinic Delivers Personalized Content Experiences
Sebastian Fuhrer, Dir of Content Engineering, Mayo Clinic and
Bernard Aschwanden, Executive VP, Precision Content
Overcoming Content Conversion Obstacles
(an Interview with Avalara)
Jackson Klein, CTO, Stilo Corporation
Noon–1:30pm
Networking Lunch + Dessert and Vendor Demos in the Exhibit Hall
1:30–2:15pm
How AI Enables an Enterprise-wide Content Strategy
May Habib, CEO and Co-founder, Writer
Building a Data-Driven UX Strategy
Minnie Tuteja, Sr. Technical Writer, Invafresh
Translation and Localization: It’s All Greek to Me
Dana Aubin, Senior Consultant, Comtech Services
How Measuring and Managing Content Quality Can Help You Prioritize Your Work
Alex Masycheff, CEO, Intuillion Ltd.
Applying the Principles of Structured Writing to Unstructured Content Creation
Dipo Ajose-Coker, Product Marketing Manager, MadCap Software
2:30–3:15pm
Positioning Your Content Strategy for Success in the Era of AI and Machine Learning
Dmitrii Kustov, Founder and CEO, Regex SEO
Managing Up, Down, and Sideways: How to Lead Effectively During Times of Chaos
Alexa Apallas, Director, Content Design, PayPal
Unclogging Long Translation Turn-around Times
Eric Kuhnen, President, GlobalLink CCMS
Content Quality Is not an Accident: Defining and Measuring KPIs
for Enterprise Content Quality
Torsten Machert, Senior Consultant, Congree
The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and TechComm in Action
Nenad Furtula, CEO, Bluestream Software
3:15–4:15pm
Snack Break in the Exhibit Hall
4:15–4:55pm
Featured Speakers
(two sequential 18 minute TED-like talks)
Peril and Possibilities: AI in Content Operations
Sarah O’Keefe, CEO, Scriptorium
Technical Content: The Business Booster Every CEO Should Care About
David Hoare, VP of Content Experience, ServiceNow
5:00–6:30pm
Networking Reception
Marina Courtyard
8:00pm–
Annual Storytelling Event
Location: Side Bar San Diego
From poetry to stories and stand-up, grab your beverage of choice and hang out with your LavaCon peeps as we “talk story” (as they say in Hawaii).
They’ll be a place to sign up if you want to participate (five minutes per person).
No prior speaking experience required!
Monday, 16 October 2023
7:30–8:30am
Registration, Continental Breakfast
Everyone
8:30–9:30am
Featured Speakers
(three sequential 18 minute TED-like talks)
When Perfection Is The Enemy
Megan Gilhooly, Sr. Director Self-help & Content Strategy, Reltio
Getting Business Buy-In For Your Content Initiatives
Maura Moran, Senior Content Consultant, Contiem
Building Trust and Credibility: Creating an Enterprise Content Strategy from Scratch
Samantha Azzarello, Executive Director, Global Research, J.P. Morgan
9:45–10:30am
Stories with Soul: Staying Alive in the Era of ChatGPT
Keith Boyd, Senior Director, Digital Employee Experience, Microsoft
and Mario Juarez, CEO, StoryCo
Driving Content Changes in a Change-Adverse Organization
Christi Guzik, UX Content Strategist, Rocket Companies
Unlocking Documentation’s ROI: Tech Content as Your Business Superpower
Stefan Gentz, Principal Worldwide Evangelist, Technical Communication, Adobe
Microcontent Pipeline to Chatbots and Voice Assistants
Rob Hanna, President, and
Patrick Baker, Director AI, Product, and Support, Precision Content
Leveraging Semantics to Provide Targeted Training Content
Heather Hedden, Semantic Web Company and
Esther Yoon, Senior Data Architect, Google
10:45–11:30am
Case Study: Experiments in Using AI for Content Personalization and Writer Efficiency
Fawn Damitio, Documentation Leader in AI and Machine Learning and
Marilyn Beck, Documentation Engineer, Meta
What’s next: Heading up to Social and Semantic Tech Doc
Fabrice Lacroix, Founder, Fluid Topics
Adventures in Structured Content Authoring: Bringing XML to Regulated Industries
Regina Lynn Preciado, Sr. Director of Content Strategy Solutions, Content Rules Inc.
Boost Results by Bringing SEO & A/B Testing Inside Your CMS
Stephen Fahlsing, Founder/Managing Director, BonfireLA Productions
and Jonathan Ames, Director of Marketing, ButterCMS
A Migration Is a Terrible Thing to Waste: A Roadmap For Your Next Big Content Migration
Mark Dorison, CTO and
Chris Free, President, Chromatic
11:30–1:30pm
Lunch and Dessert in the Exhibit Hall
1:30–2:30p
Putting Up the Guardrails for AI Success
Brian Trombley, Managing Partner, Commercial, and
Hugues LaRicca, Managing Partner, Technology, Ariza Content Solutions
You Have Something in Your Content: Trust in a Time of Misinformation
Jennifer Kaufman, Director, Information Engineering, NetApp
Going Omnichannel in Pharma: A Multi-Project Case Study
Noz Urbina, Founder & Omnichannel Strategist, Urbina Consulting
Headless: Catch Silos If You Can
Tomas Nosek, Director of Customer Enablement and
Martina Farkasova, Customer Education Leader, Kontent.ai
Makeups and Breakups: Content Migration in the Real World
Jennifer Obert, Content Strategy and Delivery Supervisor and
Jessica Caldwell, Information Architect, Jack Henry & Associates
2:30–3:15pm
Ghost in the Machine: Integrating AI into your International Content Strategy
Elizabeth Riley, Accounts Director, Supertext USA and Mike Wald, Chief Marketing Officer, Oniracom
Putting Your Customer First in Your Content—Literally
Marcia Riefer Johnston, Senior Technical Writer
Product Information: Expensive, Cheap, or Priceless?
Matt Reiner, Customer Advocate, K15t
Building Business Value Through User-Centric Content Design
Aditi Kashikar, Director, Documentation, Automation Anywhere
Enabling Contextual Delivery of Procedural Guidance
Greg Chapple, Chief Technology Officer, Propylon
4:15–4:55pm
Evolution of Content Consumption
Eeshita Grover, Director, Product User Content, Cisco Systems
4:20–5:00 pm
Synergy: A Crowdsourced Exercise in Learning Retention
Andrea Ames, Customer Success/Retention Strategist, Idyll Point Group
5:00–5:30 pm
GenAI & Wine
Location: Booth 47 in the exhibit hall
5:30pm
Mariachi Parade to dinner venues: Butcher’s Cut, Greystone, Saltwater
7:30pm–
Annual Karaoke Night
Location: Side Bar San Diego
7:30–8:30am
Continental Breakfast
Everyone
8:30–9:15am
How Netsmart Unified our Marketing, Support, and Documentation Content Strategies
Sarah Owings, Senior Director, Client Learning, Netsmart
Delivering Skill Based Learning with Adaptive Content
Max Swisher, Dir of Technology, Content Rules and
Maria McGinn, Head of Partnerships, Xyleme
Taking The Pulse of ContentOps With a Maturity Model
Peihong Zhu, Information Architect, Precision Content
Content and Silos and Users, Oh My! Transforming Our Customers’ Content Experience
Nitza Hauser, Senior Director, Technical Content Strategy and
Frances Gambino, Vice President, Medidata Global Education
Medidata Solutions
Changing the Wheels While Driving:
Migrating Legacy CMSs to a Single Help Center
George Lewis, Service Delivery Director, 3di Information Solutions
9:30–10:15am
Google Analytics 4 Is Here And You Better Get Used To It: Recalibrating How We Measure Content Engagement
Jesse Ringer, Founder, Method + Metric
A KB Doesn’t Have to Be a KO: How to Build Big with a Tiny Team
Jayme Perlman, Senior Technical Writer, GitHub
Optimizing Productivity through Time Management and the Art of Saying “No”
Jackie Damrau, Sr. Business Analyst, Cathedral Plumbing of TX
Transform Traditional Content Into Intelligent Modular Content
Cecil Lee, Sr. Director, Content Strategy, Commercial, Eli Lilly
Ciena’s Journey to Consistent Product Documentation Using Controlled Language
Robin Melanson, Ciena & Torsten Machert, Congree Language Technologies
10:30–11:15am
Overcoming Roadblocks in Your Projects: A Guide to Success!
Daniel Schommer, Content Strategy Consultant, Intuitive Stack
Moving the Cheese: Redesigning the IA of a Beloved Product Without Driving Users Mad
Emily Straubel, Principal Content Designer, Slack
Reserved to repeat standing room only sessions
Why Nextworld Is Writing Our Own Content Applications and How We’re Working Towards Content 4.0
Carrie Sheaffer, Director of Information Development, Nextworld
Reserved to repeat standing room only sessions
11:30am–12:15pm
Closing Panel Discussion: The Future of Content
Jack Molisani, The LavaCon Conference (Moderator)
1:00–5:00pm
Beyond Design Thinking: Innovation Through Co-Creation and Questions
Andrea Ames, Customer Success/ Retention Strategist
Idyll Point Group
8:00p–
Closing Social
Location TBD