Write the Docs Prague 2021: Virtual conference summary – By Catherine, Marybeth, and Deborah

Deborah Barnard | October 13, 2021

Write the Docs Prague is the European timezone edition of the Write the Docs conferences. It was held virtually again this year. Catherine, Marybeth, and myself (Deborah) all attended. This post shares our impressions and highlights. 

You may also want to check out our Survival tips for virtual events – by Deborah Barnard and our review of the Write the Docs virtual conference experience.

We also have individual articles summarizing each talk at WTD Prague 2021:

• Lukas Reußner - Hitchhiker's Guide to Documentation Tools and Processes

• Lana Brindley - More than words: Reviewing and updating your information architecture

• Ryan Macklin - So you need to give bad news to users…

• Fabrizio Ferri-Benedetti - When documenting is designing: How to assist API design as a technical writer

• Victor Sluiter - Adventures in setting up a knowledge system for a research group

• Anna Korinna Németh-Szabó - Alchemy in Adversity (How to become better and more resilient tech writers in a turbulent work environment)

• Kevin Hwang - Customer Feedback is the Fuel in our Engine

• Felicity Brand - How to write a book for (and with) an open source community

• Karen Sawrey - Hustling for Fun and Profit as a Technical Writer: A Freelancing Starter Kit

• Anita Diamond - Cognitive Ergonomics in Technical Writing - Lessons from the Field

• Kat Stoica Ostenfeld - How I use applied linguistics to be a better technical writer

• Kate Santo - From travel content to technical content: my journey

• Jenn Leaver - Docs leadership: How to become a stronger leader for your team

Marybeth - KnowledgeOwl CEO

How was the overall experience?

Great! I feel spoiled by virtual conferences. Being able to hop in and join from bed, especially when it's super early in the United States, feels like a guilty pleasure. And Write the Docs is always a pleasure. I love the consistency of the format, seeing familiar faces and names, and just how well run the entire event always is.

Any favorite talks? Highlights? Key takeaways?

Lightning talks are always my favorite. I make sure I don't miss them and recommend them to all the first-timers I meet. 

The biggest highlight for me was Kat Stoica Ostenfeld and her talk on "How I use applied linguistics to be a better technical writer". I hope to see future talks from her!

Catherine - KnowledgeOwl Community Builder

How was the overall experience?

It was lovely to attend Write the Docs conference and hear from all the different speakers. They did a good job of selecting a wide variety of talks. 

The conference platform Hopin is very user-friendly and simulates an in-person conference very well. 

Any favorite talks? Highlights? Key takeaways?

It was good to attend Writing Day and have the chance to contribute to MDN Web Docs. The lightning talks were a particular favorite - hearing from Abi Sutherland about the Volkswagen maintenance manual was a particular favorite. 

In terms of talks, Ryan Macklin's "So you need to give bad news to users..." was a highlight. We learned how to have more empathy for the anxious, stressed and upset users and he related it to dysregulated brain states and how this prevents us from processing information. 

Another good talk was Kevin Hwang's "Customer feedback is the fuel in our engine", talking about how docs are basically useless until you get feedback from customers. Feedback helps technical writers feel closer to the customers who are actually using the documentation. 

Deborah - KnowledgeOwl Tech Writer

How was the overall experience?

Good! Write the Docs conferences never fail to teach me something.

Any favorite talks? Highlights? Key takeaways?

It's interesting to see the emphasis on psychology in some of the talks this year, and in people's academic backgrounds. This also popped up last year: Tina's lightning talk on making content more brain-friendly, which she wrote up as a blog post for KnowledgeOwl, is a good example. It's nice to see this focus on the human, and on information experience (as Anita Diamond called it).

I was also pleased to see the focus on wellbeing, and the acknowledgement at multiple points that we're living in strange and stressful times. The openness itself felt healthy.

Anita Diamond's talk on cognitive ergonomics in technical writing was brilliant: a huge amount of information, packed into one talk. I thought Lukas Reußner's talk on documentation tooling was a fantastic choice for an opening talk, introducing the massive range of tools and requirements. It also introduced me to the QFD method, which was fascinating - I love the process-geekery involved in taking an engineering technique and applying it to a docs context. Fabrizio Ferri-Benedetti's talk on tech writer involvement with API design was also a personal favourite: "The core assumption of this talk is that writers can improve anything made of words" ❤

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