Attending the Write The Docs Conference, Portland 2022 (Virtual)

Are you going to any of the Write The Docs conferences this year? Like last year’s conferences, these will be held in virtual format.

Write The Docs conferences are focused on documentation, technical writing, and related software topics. There is the Write The Docs Portland Conference for attendees based in the U.S. There are also conferences in Prague and Australia slated for later this year.

Although ticket sales have already closed for Portland, you can find more information to decide if you’d want to attend next year or perhaps the other locations if that is more convenient for you.

Here is how the Portland conference is generally structured:

Sunday, May 22:

Sunday is Writing Day, which is dedicated to documentation sprints. It’s an opportunity to bring a project or work on a team towards a writing project. Learn more here.

Monday, May 23:

Monday starts the first day of active talks. There will be several topics presented related to technology and documentation, and opportunities for “Lightning Talks.” Lightning Talks are short talks of around 5-minutes where speakers could present a topic of interest. Speakers would have to submit their topics on the day that they would like to present. More info.

Write The Docs also has an “Unconference” that runs in parallel to the conference. It is an opportunity to have deeper discussions of any specific approved topic in a small group setting. It is not mandatory to attend the Unconference, but it helps enrich your experience with the conference. If you need to leave the discussion, or are otherwise not interested in the topic, you can exit at any time that you would like.

Tuesday, May 24:

Tuesday is the last day of the conference. In addition to the Conference panels and the Unconference small groups, the Job Fair will also run in parallel with the events. It is an excellent opportunity for people interested to chat with attendees of their company of interest. Sponsors and moderators would have to submit their information to be included in the Job Fair.

Each day will have Welcome Wagon introductions to the virtual conference, to help conference-goers learn about the day’s activities.

More information on the Schedule.

Who Can Go?

Anyone involved or interested in documentation somehow is encouraged to go. Experience level does not matter!

Although technical writers may be a major audience for this conference, it is still an opportunity for others who are in the periphery of documenting, people who are interested in or would like to be technical writers, or people otherwise interested in the discussion, pain points, tools, and processes around documentation.

Personally, this is the first time that I’ve been able to make it to Write The Docs. With the virtual option, I have the opportunity to slowly acclimate myself to social networking events as they slowly open up.

Why You Should Go

It’s an opportunity to learn! I’m looking forward to listening and learning to what seasoned documentarians are dealing with and how they’ve dealt with it. I’m also interested in the tools and process they’re using, so I’d know how they solved certain issues.

It’s virtual. Because it’s virtual, you have more control over the type of content you want to discuss and learn from. Of course, you can do that in an in-person conference, but virtual conferences have the flexibility of learning from the comfort of your environment of choice.

Networking opportunities. The Writing Day, Unconference, and the Job Fair are excellent opportunities to network with potential employees or mentors.

The Write The Docs conference is an excellent opportunity for learning, networking, and understanding different aspects of documentation.