TechCommNZ Conference 2022 - Recap

I attended, and presented at the in-person TechCommNZ 2022 conference in Christchurch on Oct 13-15. It was a good feeling, being able to talk to a group of people actually seated in front of you, as opposed to staring at the lens of a web-camera.

About TechCommNZ

TechCommNZ is a membership based, and driven, technical writing community that has been around since 1997 through its various avatars. It provides ongoing support and development opportunities for technical communicators in New Zealand. Read more about this community here.

Conference theme and stats

The conference theme this year was "Connecting and reconnecting" which felt apt in more ways than one. It was a small cozy group of about 50 people, primarily consisting of technical writers, but also had a varied mix of designers, translators, freelancers and techcomm managers.

The event took place at the Ara Institute of Canterbury campus in Christchurch over 2 days, Oct 13 and Oct 14 for talks, followed by two workshops on Oct 15.

So, what happens at a technical writing conference?

Essentially, you would think a group of technical writers would get together and rant endlessly about tools, hard-to-get SMEs, unrealistic documentation deadlines, and of course, the ubiquitous Oxford comma (or lack thereof). You are not far from the truth - while we do use these as handy ice-breakers, there is also a whole lot of interactivity, catching up, networking, and sharing of ideas and knowledge around trends in technical communication. Folks are involved in creating and publishing a range of documentation deliverables such as online or paper-based documentation, instructional videos, screencasts, interactive training resources, and other information design products.

Conference schedule and takeaways

The conference kicked off with a traditional Maori welcome (Pōwhiri), and a reiteration of the fact that "words are a manifestation of our thoughts". The schedule consisted of a keynote speech, followed by 7 talks, an unconference session, and interspersed with two yoga sessions (yep, you heard that right!) before lunch time.

Here are some key takeaways from the keynote and the talks.

Keynote - Lessons in Badassery

This wasn't your typical documentation keynote, but Miraka Davies is known for her vibrant personality and spoke about bringing your authenticity to work and life every single day. She got the audience thinking about the "little voice that tells you what to do", and about what superpowers we bring to work.

Accessibility, "Writing for the unknown", Katherine B

• In her session on invisible disabilities, Katherine B. spoke about how permanent vs temporary difficulties related to cognitive and learning abilities need to be factored while creating content.
• There is a difference between neurodivergent vs neurotypical vs neurodiverse folks, and 15-20% people worldwide are neurodivergent.
• She gave us some tips on how to factor for accessibility in documentation, including content, design, colours. Check out Intopia's checklist for more information.

Videos, "Don't mention the war", Grant M and Melissa K

In this light-hearted talk, Grant Mackenzie and Melissa recalled their struggles when their organisation was purchased by two private equity firms and how they had to make sure the management had visibility of the work the only two technical communicators delivered throughout the organisation.

Learnings, "Software dev lessons", Chris D

Drawing inspiration from the Joel test for creating better code, Chris drew parallels on how to use lessons learnt from developers and apply it to technical documentation. In his talk, he spoke about:

• Using source control, for keeping track of the documentation source files, and a complete history of work done on a project.
• Building in one step, for making the documentation build an easy process. He demonstrated how he used the MadBuilds for nightly builds of his documentation.
• Making daily builds, for the ability to build and deploy documentation on a regular cadence. He demonstrated how he used Windows Task Scheduler for setting up regular doc builds.
• Fix bugs before new content, as it is difficult to predict how long an error fix could take, as opposed to writing new content.
• Having reviewers, to ensure your content quality is up to high standards, and reviewed for consistency.

Discussion on future of technical communication, Ara Institute

We broke into groups of 8-9 folks and discussed some possible trends and future of technical communication, more pertinently:

• What has changed in the last 2 years (of the pandemic)?
• What do customers want with their documentation?
• How have our work habits evolved over the years for documentation?
• Do we need to add new skills or qualifications for technical writers?

Show and tell, "Let's talk about online portfolios", Swapnil O

In my talk, I shared my experiences with creating my online portfolio and how it has helped me with interviews, and the hiring process. I covered topics such as tools, how to organise content, and ways to publish and promote your portfolio.

While I had some issues with my slides clicker, the presentation was well received and some of the feedback from the audience was:

• The talk covered just the right amount of information.
• It was a very relevant talk, especially post-pandemic when people are looking for new work.
• A lot of people are unaware of the benefits of online portfolios, so this talk was a really good to start thinking about building one.

Training, "Alchemy of training", Colleen T

In her talk, Colleen Trolove spoke about, and covered:

• How to make participants the hero of their own story,
• Power of showing what's possible, power of relevance, and power of being supportive, and
• Setting yourself (as a trainer) for success with achievable number of goals.

Personally, I liked Colleen's take on "Be bored, as a trainer, because that means that attendees are doing the learning!", and how "good training creates intrinsic motivation". Another great tip was that "the trainer should be the one creating the vibe, because if they don't, then it is not going to happen".

UX writing, "UX design and writing for the web", Jackie T

Jackie Thomas explored the overlap between traditional writing processes and design methodologies. Using the Double Diamond Design process as her baseline, she expanded on how UX writers can work on, and diverge and converge on problems and solutions.

Unconference

An unconference is a collaborative session where the audience gets to decide on topics, discuss and create learning experiences for the group. The beauty is that it is all impromptu, and topics get voted by popularity. There were quite a few interesting topics that were tabled:

• API documentation
• Translations
• How can potential tech writers find out about tech writing and start their careers?
• How do I get my team to understand the importance of tech writing and value that I bring?
• Finding out about users language, needs and feedback
• Jack of all skills, master of one

I volunteered to lead the discussion around "How do I get my team to understand the importance of tech writing and value that I bring?" by sharing my experience working with AWS teams and my previous roles - demonstrate, get your hands dirty with content, volunteer to help out with other tasks within skill range, and also advocating for being included in team ceremonies and planning.

Exploring Christchurch

One of the things I've regularly kept up at any of the conferences I've attended/presented/organised over the last 8 years is to de-stress by visiting local parks and attractions.

Along with an intense 2 days of conference presentations, I also got time to enjoy sights of Christchurch. I landed a day earlier in Christchurch and headed straight to Hagley Park to watch a T20 cricket game between New Zealand and Bangladesh. It was a brilliant day, until the clouds enveloped the sun and the mercury dropped sharply in a matter of minutes, which hastened my return back to the hotel.

On the 2nd day of the conference, there was a break of about 2 hours around lunch time when the TechCommNZ community held their AGM, and I headed straight up the mountains to visit the Christchurch Gondola. The views from atop the mountain were breathtaking and I was lucky to get some really nice sunshine on my short walk. At the end of the day, after the conference ended, I put on my runners and completed a nice 7k walk alongside the calm and serene Avon River.

Photos or it didn't happen!

Here are some photos from my stay in Christchurch, including my talk at the conference.

Summary

It was nice to be at an in-person conference after 3 years. While it was a nice cozy group, I did feel exhausted at the end of the day talking to so many people. TechCommNZ is a lovely, warm community of documentarians and I enjoyed spending my time at the conference.

Thanks to my Manager and Amazon Web Services (AWS) for supporting my talk.