Blog - Posts tagged prague-2020

Conference highlights and thanks to the community!

2020-10-27T00:00:00Z

Hey everyone,

The Write the Docs team is now emerging from the post-conference recovery period, and we wanted to send out a quick message to thank everyone for helping to make our Prague online conference such a success. We’re happy to share some of the highlights with you.

Conference recap

At over 300 people, this year’s conference was our biggest yet! We had the usual mix of main stage and lightning talks, unconference sessions, writing sprints, and social events. We were very happy with how well all of our events transitioned to our new online format. We loved how the spirit of the community was so palpable even in an online event, which was even more special given the year we’ve all had.

Overall, we were excited with how our awesome community came together in our new virtual venue. Lots of knowledge was shared, and we had a great time.

Videos

Videos of the talks and lightning talks are now available on our YouTube playlist. We also included the Q&A recordings for the main talks.

Thanks again to Bart at Work for doing such a great job with these. You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel so you don’t miss any future content!

Shirts still on sale

If you want a souvenir from this year’s conference, our Write the Docs Prague 2020 Pop-Up Shop is still open! We have loose and fitted options from different fabrics, and you can choose exactly the size and cut you want.

The campaign will run in 3-day batches until November 30th. Shipping is available from the USA or Europe.

Code of Conduct transparency report

As with any Write the Docs event, this conference was covered by our community Code of Conduct. We aim to be as transparent with CoC incidents and enforcement as we can.

To ensure that our CoC was visible and accessible, we took a number of specific steps:

Every participant agreed to the Code of Conduct in advance during registration.
The CoC, or a summary, was included on the conference website and Hopin Reception
The CoC was repeatedly mentioned in our conference introduction and announcements.
We specifically stressed that the CoC applies to all conference spaces including the social event.
We encouraged all attendees to report any incident, even if they were not sure whether it was a violation.

None of our organizers were approached about any CoC concerns at this event. We know that this is, in part, a reflection of the thoughtful and inclusive community that we’re so lucky to have.

That being said, we’re also very conscious of the fact that just because nothing was reported doesn’t mean nothing happened. If there was any personal conduct or other aspect of the conference experience that did not meet the expectations of behavior set out in the CoC, please email us at conduct@writethedocs.org.

Ready for more?

Don’t forget our Australia + India conference in December. The talks are already posted on the website, and tickets are selling fast so grab yours now! This conference is also virtual this year, so you can attend or present from anywhere.

Our Slack network has expanded yet again this year. Our #general Slack channel has been extra busy in the days and weeks leading up to the conference, and we hope that you will continue the conversations throughout the year. If you haven’t joined, now’s the time! Check out the Write the Docs Slack.

We’re also looking for more sponsors to make our other events just as magical as this year’s Prague event. You can see all our sponsorship options on our website.

Thanks again

We’re so grateful to our sponsors, speakers, volunteers, and attendees for making this conference possible. Whether you were able to come out this time or not, we hope to see you again next year – or even sooner at one of our other events!

Tickets selling out and conference platform registration

2020-10-13T00:00:00Z

Hey everyone!

We’re just shy of a week away from the start of the conference, and we’re excited to invite you into our online venue for 3 days of content, collaboration, and conversation. Tickets are going to sell out in the next 24 hours, so if you’ve been on the fence now is the time to buy one!

We have done our internal testing of the platform and we’re getting everything ready for prime time. This update includes information about accessing the conference platform and other recommendations that will help you make the most of the conference.

Tickets will sell out tomorrow

We wanted to let you know that we expect tickets to sell out on Octover 14th at 20:00 CEST. We’ve increased the capacity for this years even from previous years, but we still want to make sure the event keeps its manageable size and feel. If you were hoping to come to this years event, we recommend that you get your tickets soon.

If you already purchased a ticket you should have gotten an email from us with your Hopin registration link. After we stop ticket sales, we will send another email to everyone with a reminder and a link to access the Hopin event.

The Hopin access links will be sent to all Ti.to ticket holders, so monitor your inbox this week for a message. If you don’t get an email from us by the end of the week, please check your spambox first, and then email us and we’ll help you out.

Once you’ve got your Hopin ticket, you will be ready to get started on Sunday morning with the Writing Day!

Welcome Wagon Guide

Each year we create a guide to help our attendees get the most out of the conference. This year, we’re all first-timers at an online event, so we’ve totally rewritten our Welcome Wagon guide to help you get the most out of our event this year.

We have a lot of information about how to use Hopin, and lots of tips and tricks for the best way to plan your days. We’ve taken all the transit and travel information out, but please do plan to spend a large part of your day with us from the comfort of your own home.

Shirts still on sale

The Write the Docs Prague 2020 Pop-Up Shop is still open! We have loose and fitted options from different fabrics, and you can choose exactly the size and cut you want.

The campaign will run in 3-day batches until November 30th. Shipping is available from the USA or Europe. However, due to the global shipping situation, we recommend you order your shirt at least 2-3 weeks in advance if you want to sport your new threads during the conference.

Thanks again to all our sponsors

We are so grateful to have our sponsors help in bringing these events to life every year. You’ll be able to chat with most of our sponsors at the Job Fair, and a few will have booths for conversations the entire conference.

Thanks so much to the following companies for supporting the Portland conference this year:

Google

Red Hat

Elasticsearch

KnowledgeOwl

We’re excited to see all of you soon, and can’t wait to share a wonderful few days with you in our online space.

The Write the Docs team

Announcing Full Schedule

2020-09-25T00:00:00Z

Hey everyone!

We’re less than a month away from the first online Prague conference and we’re working hard to make sure it’ll be as welcoming and as fun as the in-person event you’re probably familiar with.

Today we’re announcing the full presentation schedule and the platform we’ll be hosting the conference on. We are working on last-minute details for a few more activities during the conference, so look out for more information in our next mailing.

Conference platform

The conference will be held on https://hopin.to/, which not only provides a stage for our amazing speakers, but also has integrated chat, unconference rooms with breakout calls, expo booths, and even a virtual hallway. We’re updating our Welcome Wagon guide, to be released soon, so it’ll all feel familiar before you’ve even arrived.

IMPORTANT: Please monitor your inboxes during the next weeks for an email with a registration link to Hopin. We recommend that you register for the platform in advance, to avoid the “Monday morning rush”.

Full presentation schedule

The conference website is now updated with the talk schedule for the main stage presentations, so you can start planning your time (and getting excited!) for the conference. We’re excited to have live Q&A after most talks, which will come from your questions but be moderated by an MC.

Start thinking about Writing Day

Our pre-conference Writing Day will happen on Sunday, and it is much more fun when folks come with their own projects in mind!

If you have a project or are part of a community that you think would benefit from a writing sprint, start brainstorming now about what you might want to focus on. If you’d like us to include your project on the Writing Day page, drop us an email at prague@writethedocs.org. Or just show up on Sunday ready to introduce your project!

Shirts on sale

The Write the Docs Prague 2020 Pop-Up Shop is open! We have loose and fitted options from different fabrics, and you can choose exactly the size and cut you want.

The campaign will run in 3-day batches until November 30th. Shipping is available from the USA or Europe. However, due to the global shipping situation, we recommend you order your shirt at least 2-3 weeks in advance if you want to sport your new threads during the conference.

All our events and activities

Write the Docs is more than a conference. Every year we make sure to have a variety of activities that our attendees can enjoy, whether you want to learn something, meet new people, or share knowledge. And even though this years conference is held online, we’re holding to that plan.

Lightning Talks. We’ll have lightning talks each day after lunch. These are 5 minute presentations and a lot of fun. They can be about anything you want, this is your chance to share something you are passionate about with the audience. Slides are not required.
Unconference. We’ll be running the Unconference all day Monday and on Tuesday afternoon. Want to chat with like-minded folks about a specific thing? This is the place.
Job Fair. As with the previous few years, on Tuesday morning we’ll have a job fair where you can find your next documentarian friendly job.
Social event. On Monday night the conference platform will become the social event space. The main stage will be closed and the focus will be on attendee-created sessions. You’re welcome to create sessions for board games, trivia quizzes, karaoke, or any other social activity that you want to share with your fellow documentarians.
Conference Help Desk. If you have any questions about navigating the virtual event, we’ll be running the Write the Docs Helpdesk booth, where you can chat with one of the organizers and the Welcome Wagon team.

The Schedule page has the latest and most complete information about all our events. This is where we will also update any changes/cancellations if they should occur.

Thanks so much for all your support and enthusiasm so far – we’re so excited to see you all next month!

The Write the Docs team

Announcing speakers

2020-08-18T00:00:00Z

We’re writing today with an update on the first online Prague conference!

First off, we’re delighted to announce that we’ve finalized our speakers for the event! Every year talk selection gets more and more difficult as we get a larger, stronger batch of submissions. Thank you so much to everyone who took the time to send us a pitch – we literally wouldn’t have an event without you!

Full speaker line-up

Every year, we look to bring a wide range of voices to the Write the Docs stage. Because the role of “documentarian” looks so different to each of us, we aim for a line-up that spans a good mix of practical, philosophical, and technical topics – with the odd whimsical one thrown in for good measure. We’re really excited about the presentations we’ve got this year – we hope you are too!

Karissa Van Baulen – The Importance of Using Analytics and Feedback for your Documentation

Kruno Golubić – From Graffiti Writer to Technical Writer

Karen Sawrey – Remote Job On-boarding: Top 10 Things We Can Do (Better)

Diana Lakatos – Helping Your Community Contribute to Developer Documentation

Matt Reiner – Bake a Little Documentation Love into Your Product

Abigail Sutherland – Organizing a Confluence hoard, or, does this page spark joy?

Natali Vlatko – Documenting the (Ancient) History of Your Project

Myriam Jessier – Making documentation discoverable in search engines

Andrew Haynes – A Journey to Pattern Languages

Jen Weaver – Future-Proofing Your Support Visuals

Paul Brown – The Baseline – Or Technical Writing for Non-Technical Readers

Chris Noonan – The Rocky Road to DocOps

Jessica Valasek Estenssoro, Arthur D’Herbemont – How to be an Avante-Garde Guinea Pig: Building Better Content through Experimentation, Community-building, and Loud Squeaks

Joe Malin – Need Examples? Write Your Own!

Tanks Transfeld – Emulating the Teacher’s Approving Nod in Teaching Material

Ingrid K Towey – When Wishing Still Helped … What Folklore Can Teach Us about Technical Writing

Head over to the Speakers page to see the full abstracts. We hope there’s something there for everyone to enjoy, and also something that will broaden your horizons a bit.

Tickets are going fast!

If you don’t have your ticket yet, now’s a great time to snap one up. Conference tickets have sold out for the last several years, and they go faster along with the speaker announcement, so if you’re planning to come, don’t leave it to the last minute.

Buy your tickets here!

Our Opportunity Grant program is still open until September 1st. If buying a ticket is difficult for you, please don’t hesitate to apply to the grant program.

Meetup organizer discount: As a thanks to our meetup organizers, we’re happy to offer you a 50% discount on your tickets. Please email us at prague@writethedocs.org, tell us which meetup you organise, and we will send you receive registration instructions.

Thanks to our sponsors

We are so grateful to have our sponsors help in bringing these events to life every year. Thanks sincerely to the following companies for supporting the Write the Docs community:

Google

Red Hat

Elasticsearch

KnowledgeOwl

Head over to our sponsorship prospectus for details on how your company can get involved! We have several types of sponsorship available, including tables at the job fair that we’ll be hosting on Tuesday.

And that’s the latest on the Prague conference. We hope you’re all getting as excited as we are! Stay tuned for more details.

The Write the Docs Team

Announcing Prague Call for Proposals and Ticket Sales

2020-06-22T00:00:00Z

Today we are announcing our Call for Proposals and ticket sales.

Due to the global pandemic we’ve moved the Prague conference online, and changed the dates to 18-20 October 2020. This means that we’re only leaving our Call for Proposals open for one month. We know that it hasn’t been an easy year. Nevertheless we’d love to see you on our online stage in October, to share your ideas with our inspiring community of documentarians.

If there is something you’d really like to see a talk about this year, submit a proposal for it or refer someone else who would be good!

Call for Proposals

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Every year, Write the Docs invites people from all across our community to come up on stage to share their insights and experience. We’re looking for ideas and use-cases from all disciplines and roles, so whether you’re a technical writer, editor, developer, UX designer, community manager, or support professional who cares about content and communication, we want to hear from you!

We’re hoping that folks who would not be able to travel to Prague will be able to join us this time round, both as attendees and as speakers! If you’ve always wanted to talk about documentation but not been able to travel for whatever reason, now is the time.

You can read our full Call for Proposals on the website. The Call for Proposals will be open until Midnight CEST on July 22, 2020.

Tickets

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Tickets are now on sale! Take a look at the new prices for the online conference on our Tickets page.

If you previously purchased a ticket to our Portland conference and chose to convert your ticket to a virtual conference pass, you’ll receive an email from us in the next weeks to confirm your registration to the Prague virtual conference.

Opportunity Grants

Our grant program offers tickets to people who would otherwise not be able to attend. We’re excited to be able to offer free tickets to a larger number of people this year, since there are now minimal other costs to attend the event.

You can apply until September 1, 2020, Midnight CEST on our website.

Stay updated

Want to find out what’s happening with the conference, or enjoy our monthly global community newsletter? Sign up to one or more of our mailing lists. Your information will never be shared with any third-parties, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Want to connect with other documentarians in real-time? Join our Slack.

We hope you will join us for a new online Write the Docs conference.

Announcing virtual conference dates

2020-06-12T00:00:00Z

As we announced, Write the Docs Prague 2020 will be a virtual conference.

We decided to move the conference to October, to allow for enough time after the new Portland conference dates in August. The writing day will be on Sunday, October 18, 10:00-17:00 CEST, and the main conference days will be on Monday/Tuesday, October 19-20, 10:00-18:00 CEST.

Ticket sales will re-open in the summer. Check out the tickets page for prices. Your virtual ticket includes:

Live streaming of all talks
Q&A with speakers after each talk (may not be available for all speakers)
Access to the conference chat with all other attendees, speakers and sponsors
Access to the writing day
The virtual job fair

If you have chosen to convert your previously bought Portland 2020 ticket to a virtual pass, you will receive further details by e-mail when we open ticket sales.

Support our community by sponsoring

Every year we are fortunate to have the support of like-minded organizations and communities, who believe in the collaborative and welcoming community spirit and help us make our events great.

We have drafted a new sponsorship prospectus for the conference, and are open for new sponsorship inquiries.

We will still run the job fair, helping documentarians and organizations connect with each other. Check out the sponsorship prospectus for more details and to reserve your spot today.

The Write the Docs Team

Write the Docs 2020 conferences going virtual

2020-04-29T00:00:00Z

Hello everyone,

We hope that you’re holding up during these trying times. We are all stuck at home, but still thinking about our docs community :)

Due to the global events and travel restrictions, which are not expected to relax in the near future, we concluded that we must cancel our on-site Portland and Prague conferences this year. Even if the official travel and event restrictions will be relaxed by the scheduled dates, the safety of the community and everyone else comes first, so we are converting the conferences to online-only virtual events with an adjusted format.

The Portland virtual conference will be held in August, exact dates will be announced soon. The Prague virtual conference will be held in the Autumn, exact dates and Call for Proposals announcement will be announced in early summer.

Your Portland conference ticket

If you currently have a ticket to Write the Docs Portland, your options are:

Pre-order a ticket to the online event for 25% and get a refund for the remaining 75% of your original ticket amount.
Convert your existing ticket into a virtual ticket pass, valid for all of our online events until the end of 2021. We plan to move Portland & Prague online this year at least, and offer similar online events next year. Support the Write the Docs organization by helping us cover operating expenses for the next year and a half.
Get a full refund of your original ticket amount on May 15th, 2020. This option will happen automatically if you don’t select either of the previous options.

Please fill in the ticket processing form to let us know which option you prefer.

We’ll be reaching out to all of our sponsors to talk about moving their sponsorship to our online event, and we are excited about offering new sponsorship benefits available thanks to the new format.

What format will the online event have?

We’re looking at ways to keep the spirit of our events in a virtual format, so that the event will act as a gathering place for the community.

Writing Day, where the community works on projects and learns from each other. These will work well remotely.
Unconference, where our community has discussions and shares ideas. We think our Slack network already approximates this pretty well, but we’ll be adding a little extra structure and moderation during the event to help keep the discussions productive and friendly.
Presentations, where we share ideas, insights, and best practices. We’re investigating live and pre-recorded options, with curated and real-time Q&A with speakers and other experts.
Job Fair, matching attendees to sponsors and jobs. We’ll be building on our Job Board, offering our sponsors the ability to showcase the work they’re doing and the roles they’re hiring for.
Unfortunately, our Hike or Boat Ride can’t be done online, but we’d love it if you go out and enjoy a small bit of your local woods or water, at socially responsible distances, on our behalf, and share your pictures or videos with the community.

Let’s make the most out of the “new normal”

We are sad not to be able to have our upcoming events in person, but there are some great benefits to converting the events to an online format. The biggest benefit is accessibility to the event itself, since people who haven’t been able to travel to our events will be able to speak and attend the virtual events, making the events more accessible to everyone. The lower ticket price will also help more people from all walks of life attend the event.

We’re working hard on putting something in your calendar to get excited about, and we’re doing the same thing we always do, facilitating knowledge sharing and social connections within our community.

Stay tuned and take care of yourselves and your loved ones,

The Write the Docs Team

Prague Conference - COVID-19 Update 02

2020-04-01T00:00:00Z

The most recent COVID-19 update is:

Write the Docs 2020 conferences going virtual - Wednesday, April 29, 2020

Hello everyone,

Since our first announcement two weeks ago, we’ve been following the COVID-19 updates from the relevant authorities. At the time of writing this update, Czech Republic is still under lockdown and the government predicts that this situation will continue for at least a month.

Given the uncertainty of the long-term impact of this situation, we have decided to postpone the Call for Proposals and ticket sales until at least 1st May, 2020. We hope that by then we will have more information to determine whether to proceed with the conference on the original dates, postpone the conference, or cancel the conference altogether.

The true power of community comes in the most trying of times. It’s been amazing watching folks come together on Slack, and we’re trying to plan more ways for folks to feel connected and supported. We are grateful to have such a supportive and flexible community, and we’re sending positive thoughts to all our documentarians, as well as other communities that have been forced to cancel or postpone their events.

You can check the following resources for up-to-date information about Czech Republic and Europe:

We are watching the situation closely and will send another update as more information becomes available. You can find all our COVID-19 updates in our tagged archives.

If you have any questions about this, please reach out to prague@writethedocs.org.

Take care,

The Write the Docs Team

Last Updated: April 1, 2020

Prague Conference - COVID-19 Update 01

2020-03-17T00:00:00Z

Dear documentarians in Europe and beyond,

By now you should have gotten an announcement from us about ticket sales and Call for Proposals for the Prague conference. However, as you’re all aware, the COVID-19 virus has been causing tremendous shifts and upheavals globally, and we are following developments as they might impact our community.

Last week we announced with a heavy heart that we must postpone our Portland conference from May to August (exact dates to be announced soon). Since the Prague conference is scheduled for September, we’d like to maintain our cautious optimism that we can hold it as planned.

As of today, March 16, Write the Docs Prague 2020 is scheduled to go ahead.

Despite the severe measures taken by the Czech authorities during the past week, these are short-term efforts to prevent the exponential spreading of the virus, and the restrictions are due to be lifted by mid-April.

You can check the following resources for up-to-date information about Czech Republic and Europe:

In the meantime, we understand that some of you are hesitant to make travel plans, so we are postponing our ticket sales and Call for Proposals until mid-April.

We are watching the situation closely and will send another update as more information becomes available. You can find all our COVID-19 updates in our tagged archives.

If you have any questions about this, please reach out to prague@writethedocs.org.

Take care,

The Write the Docs Team

Last Updated: March 16, 2020

Announcing dates for Write the Docs Prague 2020

2019-12-13T00:00:00Z

Happy holidays, documentarians!

We are excited to announce the dates for Write the Docs Prague 2020. This year’s Prague conference will be held October 18-20, 2020, online.

We’re also excited to announce that we are moving to a bigger venue at Hotel Olšanka, located at Táboritská 23, Prague 3 (Žižkov district). Although we are sad to say goodbye to Autoklub, we want to be able to welcome even more of you to our conference.

The new venue has more space and the location is still close to the center with convenient transport options. We look forward to our new and promising collaboration with Olšanka, and we believe that you’ll be happy with the venue!

Interested in supporting the community and helping our events be even more awesome for our attendees? We are already accepting sponsorship applications, so check out the sponsorship prospectus and email sponsorship@writethedocs.org for more details.

Ticket sales and the Call for Proposals will open in March 2020. In the meantime, mark your calendars and start getting excited!