ONLINE NETWORKING WITH TEKOM DANMARK

First, a huge thank you to everyone who made time to meet with us for this online networking event. We were 10 participants throughout the session, and we managed to discuss a lot of different topics. 

tekom Danmark's own Maiken Blok moderated the session and took us safely through the agenda:

1. Welcome and short presentation of tekom Danmark
2. Short introduction round - What is your background, how did you enter technical communication?
3. Open discussion

What is tekom Danmark?

Our spokesperson Holger Thater opened the event with a short introduction to tekom Danmark and an explanation of the work we do. You can read more in the attached slides.

Introduction round

We soon found out that we had participants from many different areas; Machinery, translation, visual content, consulting, software documentation to mention some of them. We had different experience levels, starting with one who had day 2 in the field and some who had +30 years of experience. That all contributed to some where nice and fruitful discussions.

Open discussion

We had several topics throughout the open discussion, which we summarise here:

1. Ideas for the Nordic TechKomm conference in September 2021: You can see a summary of the suggestions in the attached file
2. People to talk to about different topics: 
   • Kai Weber, structured and topic based authoring authoring and almost any question you have related to technical communication 
   • Kirk St. Amant, expert in usability and personas
3. Standards in Technical Communication
   • IEC/IEEE 82079-1
4. Tips for new professionals
   • Find your allies in other departments and strengthen your network within the field
   • Think about the end users in the documentation you create. Ask them for advice as well, can they actually use it?
   • Remember: Your documentation may also be used as part of the marketing communication
5. Links to find more information
   • Career start in technical communication 
   • What is a technical writer/communicator? 
   • Education and training 
6. PR and branding of technical writers - is there anything we can do to spread word about our profession and association? There might be a need for a work group, which we will consider in the Initiative Committee
7. Missing education offers locally in Denmark. No universities offer specialised education within Technical Communication. 

Thank you to everyone for contributing to a lively discussion and great knowledge sharing across industries and areas of interest.

It was a great success, and we look forward to see you at the next meet-up.