Category Archives: Travel

Content Marketing, Content Strategy, Social Media, Technical Writing, Travel

Top 10 questions from Content Marketing World

1 Comment

I’m not a marketer, but I played one for two days at Content Marketing World in Cleveland, Ohio in September, 2016. I was surprised to find that content marketers have similar problems to we in the technical communication world –  proving value, understanding users, correctly using and re-using content, and most surprisingly, dealing with budgets – or lack thereof.

Content Marketing World 2016. Cleveland, OH
Cleveland is the center of the Content Marketing World in September, 2016

However, there are ways that content marketing is very different than technical communication. First, the conferences are much larger than ours, and ours don’t feature Cheap Trick or Mark Hamill.

Even with all I learned at the conference, I still have some questions. I admit that I ask these with tongue-in-cheek, but as someone from outside the marketing world, I’m also genuinely curious. Hopefully some content marketers and/or #CMWorld attendees can chime in and answer.

Continue reading Top 10 questions from Content Marketing World →

Podcast, Presentation, Social Media, Technical Writing, Travel

Presentation evolution: TCCamp East in Virginia

Leave a comment

I’m very excited to present a workshop on jumpstarting your career at the new East Coast TC Camp next weekend, July 30th, at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA. My talk focuses on what social media and podcasting can do for you and your career. Some great folks are going to be attending – and hopefully presenting – as well.

Un… conference?

Continue reading Presentation evolution: TCCamp East in Virginia →

Podcast, Presentation, Social Media, Technical Writing, Travel

Upcoming conferences and podcasts

Leave a comment

It’s been a hectic and busy September, but my updated business cards came in time for me to attend two conferences this month.

I’m excited to be able to attend the Content Camp Philadelphia this weekend on Sept. 19. Philly is a great beer town, so let’s get a beer afterwards!

I’ll also be at Information Development World in San Jose from Sept. 30-Oct. 2. Somehow I managed to win admission by tweeting. Big thanks to Danielle Villegas of Dair Communications for the opportunity!

Unfortunately I haven’t been able to record a new Content Content podcast this month. But, I’m especially excited to meet a lot of people at these conferences, especially outside of my usual TechComm comfort zone. I’m hoping to line up some guests for future podcasts. For now, you can listen to the latest podcast with Marcia Riefer Johnston, which has been popular not only in the technical communication realm, but also the world of content marketing.

If you’re attending either of these conferences, please say hi!

Humor, Technical Writing, Travel

Important and Irreverent Tweets from #Lavacon 2013

2 Comments

Lavacon is an annual conference held in Portland, Oregon that caters to technical communication and content strategy professionals. Not surprisingly, this group generated a flood of tweets on Twitter using the hashtag #lavacon. Below are some of the most helpful and hilarious tweets I saw over the week; you can see the full fire hose by searching on Twitter for #lavacon.

As a frequent and fervent tweeter, I found Twitter to be invaluable in a conference setting. Not only did I gain insight on sessions I didn’t attend, I found new friends and colleagues simply by sharing an experience on Twitter. I also finally met people in person that I only knew through tweets.

Did you attend Lavacon? Were there other tweets you found noteworthy? Share them with us in the comments. If you missed out on the fun and overall fantastic presentations, Lavacon will be back at the Portland Hilton and Executive Tower in 2014. Continue reading Important and Irreverent Tweets from #Lavacon 2013 →

Champ Car Racing, Indycar, Photos, Photoshop, Racing, Travel

How to win a Photoshop contest and influence people

1 Comment

“Win tickets to the Honda Grand Prix of St. Pete”, the tweet said. Take a screen shot of the TrueCar Web site and “be creative”. IndyCar driver and British hottie Katherine Legge will choose a winner.

Before
The TrueCar web site - source of inspiration and potential free tickets

Right up my alley, I thought. I love IndyCar, I love being creative, I love Photoshop, and I’d sure like to meet IndyCar driver and British hottie Katherine Legge (note: both Katherine and I are engaged, presumably to other people). The last time I saw her race in person was 2007 at Road America, the year after she had a horrifying crash at the same track. After that, she raced in German touring cars for three years, then spent most of last year trying to get an IndyCar ride.

Thankfully, TrueCar’s site design is incredibly simple – Big main picture, tagline, and testimonials – leaving lots of room to… be creative. My first thought before I even saw the site was to base my concept around IndyCar, and the idea gained traction with the testimonial on the bottom from “Michael C. “.

So I opened up Photoshop, pasted in the screen shot (a technical term. No, really.), and off I went.

Continue reading How to win a Photoshop contest and influence people →