What was on the menu at tekom tcworld conference 2024? As is tradition by now, Yves and Pieterjan went to find out. They soaked up all the knowledge and came back fully inspired. Their two main impressions? AI can be a great support tool if you have well-structured content and unified content models are the way of the future.
Tekom’s tcworld conference
Each year, tcworld offers a varied wealth of topics, covering everything from content creation and management, to AI innovations and visual communication. It is a prime opportunity for people of the technical communication world to share the insights and innovations they’ve developed over the years.
Calling Doctor AI
Unsurprisingly, AI was a hot topic at the conference. Where last year the hype was new and the buzzing potential was endless, this year everyone’s focus was on the practical uses of AI and how it can supplement our work.
AI applications have been continuously evolving as we experiment with what works in our field. Oxygen’s AI Positron assistant, for example, shows us how AI is expertly placed to support tech writers. With built-in prompt engineering, the assistant can reliably restructure texts, verify and apply DITA rules, or change tone of voice to match a particular audience.
During the conference, it became clear that when tech writers and AI put their heads together our talents complement each other. As authors, we craft well-structured and consistent documentation which is key to training an LLM. We chunk large swathes of texts down into bite-sized topics that answer exactly one question. This is what readers have always needed, but it also helps AI navigate content for solutions.
“When tech writers and AI put their heads together our talents complement each other.”
The next level is for us to enrich our content with standardized metadata. In their presentation, dr. Martin Kreutzer and dr. Achim Steinacker explained how DITA-structured content tagged with iiRDS’ standardized metadata can be fed to GenAI. This gives AI the signposts it needs to more accurately find the answers to user prompts.
Achieving the impossible dream
Another subject that resonated with our team was Sarah O’Keefe’s presentation on integrated enterprise content. By nature of how companies work, departments often work in isolation, using their own tools to create their own type of content: technical documentation, e-learning courses, support articles etc. Frequently, they’re unaware that they’re each reinventing the wheel and actually share a lot of overlap.
We share O’Keefe’s dream of integrating all that knowledge into one unified authoring strategy. In a single system, content is freely shared, and reuse and structure can be consistently applied. Whether you’re from marketing, sales, tech support, or R&D, you’d find, create, and manage information in one central repository.
Is this dream truly utopian? We might be waiting a while for a system that has it all and caters to everyone’s needs, but we can already pave the way. The first step, of course, is uncovering the shared knowledge between teams. By implementing a solid content strategy, we not only bring structure across departments which improves collaboration and consistency, but we also lay the groundwork for future unified systems.
Disconnect and decompress
After all that learning, networking, and travelling, it’s time for Pieterjan and Yves to follow Leah Guren’s advice from her presentation on Coping in Chaos and Crisis: Disconnect and decompress.
The world is fast-paced and can be chaotic. Technology keeps evolving and we all work hard to keep up. We’ll get there faster if we take time for ourselves and each other. And we’ll be happier for it, long-term.