Conferences

We will be presenting at the following conferences in the near future.

STC’s 55th Annual Conference

June 1-4, 2008, Philadelphia, PA
The Rockley Group will be presenting four sessions:

"Building Your Content Management Skills"

Content management is becoming more and more prevalent among STC members, yet members are unclear how they can:

• Help make the right content management decision
• Talk to vendors so they get the information they need
• Develop a business case, convince management of the need
• Determine how to develop an effective information architecture
• Help others in the organization adopt content management

This session will provide an understanding of the skills and knowledge they need and where to go to gain more understanding.

"Vendor Panel: Successful Content Management"

Many STC members are looking for an appropriate content management system. There are many vendors selling their product. Vendors have a great deal of information about how to implement content management effectively that is often not made available to members because members fear a purely sales discussion. This panel will identify key areas that can affect the success of your content management implementation. Questions will be posed to vendors that they must answer that will provide members with insights into content management.

"Using Content Management to Improve Content Quality"

We all know what content management can do for us after we created content. But how does content management apply to the content creation process and can it help us to improve the quality of our documentation. This session describes the principals of good content management practices, how they apply to the content creation, and how they can help reduce errors, improve consistency and quality, and ultimately improve usability.

"Real World Content Management"

Content Management isn't just for large companies. In this session a panel will discuss the issues and surprises in formulating a CM strategy for a small startup company as well as the challenges a large company faces.

For more information check out the conference website

Special Libraries Association 2008 Annual Conference

June 15-18, 2008 - Seattle, WA

"Content Management JumpStart: Steps to Implementing a Successful Content Management System"

This Content Management JumpStart course introduces the concepts, strategies, guidelines, processes, and technological options required for a successful content management implementation. This workshop will cover the value of content management, how to analyze your content lifecycle, and ROI development. We'll review content management information architecture and provide guidelines for selecting tools and technology. We'll also discuss the changing roles and processes that result when a content management solution is implemented and provide strategies for managing that change.

For more information check out the conference website

Web Content 2008

June 17-18, 2008 - Chicago, IL

"Not Just a Pretty Face"

Not all web sites are created equal. Some look great, but are hard to use and frustrate the visitor. Others are complex, but are easy to use, while most fall somewhere in the middle.

There's a lot at stake when designing a web site, after all, for many organizations, it's the public face of the company - and the first contact that a potential customer will have with them. Some companies throw all the bells and whistles at the site - and then find that it's just not doing the job. It may be 'pretty' but it's not serving either them or their customers needs.

If a site is hard or frustrating to use, then visual appeal just isn't enough.

Learn why it's so important to get the underlying structure of a site right - and how getting it right paves the way for building a web site that works. It's more than being 'Just a Pretty Face'.

For more information check out the conference website

X-Pubs 2008

June 22-24, 2008 - London, United Kingdom
The Rockley Group will be presenting one session and one workshop:

"How to Master Taxonomy and Information Architecture (Session)"

What's so important about Taxonomy and Information Architecture?

You wouldn't build a bridge or a house without a plan, why would you build your document set or website without one? The combination of a well thought out IA and a good Taxonomy structure forms the core of a plan that enables you to meet your users needs. It defines how your users will find the information they're looking for in the information you provide them and helps you to keep it up to date and accurate.

This session will show how to design information (looking at both print and online examples) to improve the usability of your information and make your customers happier.

Learn what to do when starting out (or starting over) to improve the customer experience by improving usability and 'information findability'.

How to Master Taxonomy and Information Architecture (Workshop)

Building on the information presented in the session How to Master Taxonomy and Information Architecture we will work through examples and exercises which will help you learn how to redefine your information set from a users point of view.

You will learn how to look at your information in order to:

• analyse its contents
• organise it to improve findability
• look for likely keywords in your information
• visually organise it so that it can be quickly understood

For more information check out the conference website

DocTrain Life Sciences Conference

June 23-26, 2008, Indianapolis, IN
The Rockley Group will be presenting two sessions:

"Structured Content Beyond the Label"

SPL and PIM has been mandated for Pharmaceutical labeling materials and XML standards are available for Clinical Study Reports. Medical Device companies have begun to use DITA, though often with specializations, to manage labeling content. However, there are a number of opportunities to structure content like submissions documents, and on the customer facing side, sales and marketing materials. Structured content beyond the label brings many benefits including faster time-to-market, greater compliance, increased consistency, reuse, and reduced cost of translation. This session identifies structured content opportunities beyond the label, provides an understanding of the benefits and savings, and introduces the steps in achieving structured content.

"Making Content Portable Across the Enterprise"

Content models provide the underlying structure for your content that enables you to effectively create, manage and deliver content. It provides the common structures for content creation that support the authoring lifecycle and ensures that content can be automatically reformatted for multichannel delivery. This session will take participants through content analysis, modeling, and the discussion of realistic strategies for structured content authoring, reuse, and delivery.

For more information check out the conference website

IPCC 2008 Conference

July 13-16, 2008, Montreal, QC

"Dealing with Content Structures and Standards in Professional Communication"

This presentation discusses the issues and opportunities of adopting existing content structures and standards, with a focus on the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA). DITA has been gaining popularity for technical documentation for several years now, to the point that it has become something of a de facto standard for that type of information. But it's also pushing into other types of content, with applications to training materials and even the last bastion of unstructured content: business information.

For more information check out the conference website