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

Leah Guren is the owner/operator of Cow TC. She has been active in the field of technical communication since 1980 as a writer, manager, and consultant. She now devotes her time to consulting on documentation content and usability, and teaching courses and workshops in technical communication internationally. Her clients include some of the top high-tech and biotech companies, including Intel, IBM, Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson, RAD, Cisco, Given Imaging, and Rambam Medical Center. Leah is an internationally-recognized speaker in the field of technical communication, a Fellow in STC (Society for Technical Communication), and a founding member of tekom Israel.

Get Ready, Get Set, and Go Global

You make complex content decisions every day. You also develop expertise with your product and its technology while addressing the “back end” issues of content reuse, automation, and maintenance.
That is a lot! But are you still missing an important element from your content strategy—a global awareness and strategy that guarantees that your content is global-ready.
This means that your content will be:
• easier for non-native speakers to read and understand
• as universally acceptable as possible (contains no embarrassing cultural faux pas)
• ready for localization, reducing translation time and costs

Many American companies are ill-prepared to sell their product or service to a global audience. By mastering these concepts and skills, you can become an expert in an often-overlooked niche. This is your chance to be a global hero in your organization!

This workshop offers a thorough, hands-on approach to tackling a very real content challenge.

In this workshop attendees will learn:

  • The need and value (and business case) for global-ready content for every company
  • Best practices for writing style
  • Guidelines for terminology
  • Guidelines for graphics
  • Best practices for tools
  • Identifying potential localization problems in the UI
  • How to plan and conduct a global audit
  • How to prioritize changes and present the audit results
  • Working with LSPs (language service providers) and translators
  • And more!

By the end of this workshop, you will have the skills and confidence to be a global hero in your organization!