Don't ask me how, but a couple of years ago I ended up on the mailing list for the annual Australian Online Documentation and Content Conference, AODC for short. Interesting reading, but of very little practical benefit to a tech author living and working in Reading, Berkshire . Needless to say, I never made it past the stage of viewing the conference agenda on the web site.
Until this year, that is. The date of the conference fitted perfectly with a planned trip to New Zealand , the agenda looked interesting and the conference fees – thanks to a very favourable exchange rate – were very reasonable. And what's more, the 2006 conference was being held in Cairns . Great Barrier Reef here I come!
So off I went in early May and joined a sizeable crowd of mainly Australian and New Zealand tech communicators for the ninth annual conference at a beachfront hotel in Cairns. Three days of learning about the latest trends in online documentation in an air-conditioned conference room in tropical Queensland might not be everyone's dream holiday, but it was well worth it. It was a fantastic conference with around 20 sessions covering tools, technologies and techniques. Topics ranged from DITA, structured authoring, XML, usability to latest updates on Microsoft Vista and Madcap Flare. Add to this sessions on good old basics such as editing, indexing and working with flowcharts, and you end up with three information packed days.
I very much enjoyed the relatively small size of the event; there was only one stream of technical sessions. While some might find this limiting, I was glad I didn't have to make a choice. I invariably find that the two or three sessions I really want to listen to on any particular day are on at the same time! All the conference sessions were stimulating and on-topic, breaks filled with lively discussions by the pool or on the terrace overlooking Trinity Bay (which also provided the somewhat unusual setting for the Trade Exhibition). Many of the discussions started during the breaks continued long after the day was over in one of the restaurants in the centre of Cairns, only a couple of minutes from the conference hotel.
Wednesday started off with Dave Gash's presentation on “Creating Self-Aware Navigation Devices” for online content and covered Browse Sequences, Related Topics and Breadcrumbs. Dave showed us his method for creating interpage navigation devices that are easy to maintain as your user assistance system or web site grows in size and complexity. As he summed it up: Pages that know who they are, what they are, and where they can go – sentient navigation!
This was followed by Tony Self's “Structured Authoring – Taking the Plunge”. I have only recently ventured into the world of DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture) and this session was an ideal introduction to DITA, DocBook and writing in XML format. Sessions on “Interaction Design” by Gerry Gaffney and “Collaborative Authoring through Web Services” by Tom James kept us busy through the afternoon. An informative first day was rounded off by a welcome reception by the pool and a visit to one of the many hostelries in Cairns .
Thursday's first session “What employers say they are looking for” was delivered by Elizabeth Abbott of TechWriter Placements in Syndey. Although it is unlikely that I will ever work as a technical author in Australia , it was strangely reassuring to learn that employers in Melbourne or Brisbane wanted the same things as those in London or Manchester . Thursday was probably the most intensive day. We learned how to conduct our own usability activities on a shoestring budget, a concept Gerry Gaffney calls “DIY Usability”. Another excellent XML-related session by Tony Self provided answers to the question whether to use DITA or DocBook (with a few other contenders thrown into the mix).
The highlight of the day for many delegates was Frank “Choco” Munday's presentation on Word Abuse, although I am not sure whether the word presentation accurately describes the experience. Choco, who works for the Australian Federal Police has very strong views on words he considers “un-words” and an equally strong delivery! He needs to be seen to be believed. My personal favourite was a quieter, but extremely informative presentation by Kylie Weaver, who reminded us what a useful tool flowcharts can be. The title of her presentation was “Flowcharts Rule” and she certainly demonstrated why this is and should be so. The official part of the day came to a conclusion with a presentation by Alison Reynolds (Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology) who talked about the Graduate Diploma of Information Design at CPIT, a programme that has been delivered online for the past ten years to students all around the world.
And then it was time for ‘Uncle' Dave Gash's Trivia Night. Years of reading AODC conference mailings had given me the impression that this formed an integral part of the conference, but nothing could have prepared me for the real thing! I can't remember when I last had so much fun with a bunch of strangers, answering quiz questions about HTML code, the numbering of American highways and other similarly obscure subjects. The evening was held in the Old Court House in Cairns (now a pub) and the old dock was put to good use “locking up” unruly contestants.
To help delegates relax and enjoy the laid back atmosphere of the location (not that anybody seemed to be struggling with that), Friday was declared ‘Tropical Friday' and delegates were invited to dress up (or should that be down?). On Thursday, several delegates were spotted at Cairns Night Market haggling over sarongs and Hawaiian shirts, and if the scene in the conference room on Friday was anything to go by, most of them had been successful.
The dress code might have been casual, but the sessions were most definitely professional. In her session on “Reviewing Screen-based Content” Rhonda Bracey shared practical tips and tricks for editing different types of screen-based content and suggested various tools that can help automate the task. In Dave Gash's “Practical XML” class we learned how we can use XML data islands to simplify routine page maintenance, create automated data display and store and process all sorts of information. In short, how to use current XML technology to make our jobs easier.
In the afternoon, another session by Tom James explained how we can achieve “Better Authoring through CSS and Micro-structures” while Tony Self's “Wikis, Blogs and Collaborative Authoring” investigates the potential use of new and emerging technologies, such as wikis, RSS and blogging in the technical communications field. The final session of the conference by Carol Barnum looked at the subject of Indexing versus Full Text Search. As a fervent believer in the power of good indexing, I was not surprised to learn that the results of a study undertaken by graduates in the Information Design and Communication programme at Southern Polytechnic State University revealed that users who were given an index found it much easier to find the information they required. And neither was I surprised to learn that Microsoft is planning to remove the index from the next generation of help!
Overall, I am very glad I rearranged my travel plans to attend this conference.
Was it different to any of the conferences I have attended in Europe , I hear you ask? Yes and no. The technical sessions were of the same topicality and high quality you might find at a US or UK conference - in many instances the speakers were the same - but the general atmosphere was very relaxed, “very Australian”.
And yes, I did get to see the Great Barrier Reef . Cairns itself might not be the most beautiful place in the world (a kind of “tropical Mallorca ”) but the location couldn't be any better. After the conference I took a couple of days off to visit the rainforest and go out on the Reef. Spectacular!