September 18 - 20 in Prague, Czech Republic

Call for Proposals

Good day, documentarians! We’re excited to announce that we’re officially accepting talk proposals for our 2016 conference, coming up on September 18-20, 2016 in Prague, Czech Republic.

Every year, Write the Docs invites people from all across our community to come up on stage to share their insights and experience. Whether you’ve been writing documentation for decades or you’ve just started this year, we want to hear from you! Read on to learn more about the goals of the conference and what we look for in talk proposals.

In the meantime, mark your calendars: The deadline for submitting proposals is Midnight UTC on June 10th, 2016.

Conference Goals

The purpose of Write the Docs is to bring together people who are passionate about documentation and give them an opportunity to interact with and learn from their peers. One of the defining characteristics of our community is the broad range of professional backgrounds we hail from—and our conference seeks to celebrate that. Whether you are a tech writer, programmer, designer, support technician, or something else entirely, we want to hear from you. Bring us your tips, tricks, experiences, ideas, frustrations, hopes, or anything else that your passion for documentation inspires you to share.

What We’re Looking For

Although the focus of Write the Docs is on documentation, particularly within the software industry, we aim for a wide range of talks that will stretch people in new directions. We’re after talks that deliver a fresh perspective on or a demonstrate creative approach to writing the docs.

We encourage people all levels to submit talks. First-time speakers are great. Experienced speakers are great. Hearing the perspective of a novice documentarian can be just as valuable as a deep-dive into a specific topic.

Some of our favorite talks are ones that make people see the world in a new way. Bringing in ideas from totally different disciplines can be magical, and we are always delighted with the breadth of knowledge that our community brings together.

We also love talks that deliver hard-earned knowledge based on real-world experience and research. Whether it’s a story about spreading the documentarian gospel in your company, or a compilation of tips and tricks for better technical writing, we want you to come and share it with people who can put it to good use.

We believe that tech writing and documentation don’t always get the respect and consideration they deserve. Come discuss the documentation challenges your company has overcome, or the strategies you use to make sure documentation is an organizational priority.

Below are some talks from past events that we feel really captured the spirit of Write the Docs:

  • Riona MacNamara — IMPOSTER NO MORE: How Tech Writers Can Shed Self-Doubt, Embrace Uncertainty, and Surf the Upcoming Swerve in Technical Documentation (abstract)
  • Emilie Boillat — Whatchamacallit: Controlled Vocabularies for Technical Writers (abstract)
  • Jamie Hannaford — Generating docs from APIs (abstract)
  • Beth Aitman Before the docs: writing for user interfaces (abstract)
  • Diana Potter — Screencasting 101 (abstract)

Presentation Format

Presentations will be 30 minutes long. If you have specific length needs for your presentation, let us know and we can work with it.

There will be no questions at the end of talks. We ask that speakers be available at the front of the stage for a few minutes after their talk to answer questions.

Speaker Benefits & Logistics

If you are selected to speak at Write the Docs, we will waive your attendance fee. We regret that we are not able to cover the cost of travel or lodging for all speakers at this time. By not covering travel costs for our speakers, we are able to keep ticket prices low and to make the conference accessible to the largest number of participants possible. If your proposal is accepted but you are unable to attend due to travel costs, please let us know and we will make sure you can make it.

Speaking at Write the Docs is a fantastic way to participate in the conference. Additionally, all those who submit a proposal but are not selected to speak will be able to register at the early bird registration price.

Finally, you’ll hear from us with our proposal decisions by July 1st

Questions?

If you have any questions, please email us at prague@writethedocs.org and let us know.

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