AODC 2008
Gold Coast, Queensland
14th - 16th May 2008
One of best AODCs ever, the eleventh annual Australasian Online Documentation and Content Conference, AODC 2008,
was held at the Mantra Legends Hotel on Queensland's Gold Coast from Wednesday
14th to Friday 16th May. An enthusiastic and friendly group of professionals
involved in corporate documentation, online Help, Web authoring and technical
writing gathered for three days of thought-provoking sessions, interesting
discussions and networking. Even the weather was perfect!
AODC 2008 featured almost 20 focussed sessions covering techniques,
technologies, tools and case studies, presented by international and local expert
speakers. Session topics include DITA, structured authoring, CSS,
writing, usability, grammar, Web technology, estimating documentation
projects, guided Help and case studies. For all the details, see the
agenda.
Two optional pre-conference workshops
were held on Tuesday 13th May; "Introduction to DITA" and "Getting the very best
from Adobe Captivate 3". There was also complimentary "Welcome to Online Documentation" primer
session held in the evening, presented by Joe Welinske.
The Swinburne University Welcome Reception was a lively affair after the
first day's session on Wednesday. There was conversation, networking and
socialising aplenty as well as lots of drinks and trays of delicious snacks.
Afterwards, many went out to enjoy dinner together at an Irish Bar.
The infamous Trivia Night was held at the Gold Coast Commerce Club, and did
not disappoint. Our host "Uncle" Dave had a set of amusing and perplexing
questions on topics as diverse as the Beatles, history and even AODC delegates.
Luckily for eventual winners "Penny and the Jets", knowledge helped, but it all
came down to an all or nothing gamble on the last question.
Sponsors
HyperWrite greatly appreciates our sponsors and exhibitors, who contribute
greatly to the success of this event. We would like to thank our 2008 sponsors
Swinburne University, MadCap Software, Author-it Software and CSOFT.
About AODC
Since the
very first Australasian Online Documentation Conference in Melbourne in 1998,
the conference has developed a reputation as the premier event for technical
writers, help developers, Web authors and documentation developers from
Australia and New Zealand. Our speaker list reads like a Who's Who of
documentation, as we strive to ensure that experts in techniques and
technologies are available to share their knowledge and expertise. The conference
is also a great place to network with other documentation professionals.
AODC is jointly hosted by HyperWrite
and WritersUA, organisers of the famous Online Help Conference in the US. HyperWrite is an Australian hypertext and Internet
company that has been a local pioneer and continuing leader in online documentation
development.