Tech comm, social media, a tweetup and a party at Tekom tcworld and AUG Wiesbaden

Tekom tcworld 2012 starts in just a couple of weeks! I’m so looking forward to this conference. The sessions look amazing. Above all, it will be great to say hallo to friends from other conferences, and to meet more technical communicators. Are you coming too? Hope to bump into you. The conference is closely followed by a meeting of the Atlassian User Group Wiesbaden. I’ve been invited to present a session there too. Very exciting.

I’ll be speaking about using social media to engage readers in your documentation.

Here’s a bit of fun: I’m learning German! I don’t think I’ll be able to say much in German, but at least I won’t look like a complete banana when people speak all round me. Well, that’s the plan anyway. I’m following a Michel Thomas course. Be kind to me.

Engaging your readers: how and why with social media

Black cockatoos in Curl Curl, Australia

Should we, as technical communicators, make use of social media to help customers use our companies’ products? How about harnessing social media to spread the word about our documentation? Even more daring: should we incorporate social media into our pages?

Have you seen this blog post on Forbes.com: The Death Of SEO: The Rise of Social, PR, And Real Content? I’d love to know your thoughts on how the topic of that post affects technical communication.

Those are the questions that I’ll address in my Tekom tcworld session. I’ll also show some real examples of social media in and around documentation, based on the experiments and projects of my technical writing team at Atlassian. Then we’ll look at the “how to”. My aim is to give attendees a set of ideas and tools for use in their own technical communication projects.

Party on Tuesday evening

W00t, there’s a Tekom tcworld welcome session on the Tuesday of the conference, sponsored by Atlassian and K15t Software.  Free beer, and a little bird tells me there’ll be some T-shirts too.

Date: Tuesday 23 October
Time: 18:00–20:00
Place: Associations World, Foyer 1st floor

It’s going to be great! Thanks to Sven Peters and the K15t Software team for organising it.

Tweetup #tcworld12

Do you know people via Twitter, and want to say hallo in real life? Or do you want to know more about Twitter and #techcomm? We’re having a tweetup at the welcome party!

Date: Tuesday 23 October
Time: 18:00–20:00
Place: Associations World, Foyer 1st floor

Thanks to @JoEgenolf and everyone involved in organising this tweetup. Another little bird tells me that  these tweeps will be there:  @techwriterkai @sarahokeefe @scottabel @redakteuse @umpff  @JoEgenolf @rahelab @kwiens @arockley @joegollner… any more?

C u there. For those who want to start tweeting right away, here’s the hash tag: #tcworld12

Atlassian User Group (AUG) Wiesbaden

The Atlassian User Group Wiesbaden meets on Thursday 25 October. The organiser is Sorin Stefan Nicolin, and he has invited me to present a session there too. I’m honoured, and I’m looking forward to meeting all the Atlassian customers and experts at the meeting.

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