I got to attend LavaCon for the first time this year - it was great! I got to chat with a lot of buddies whom I rarely see, and I got to meet a few new people as well. This year, Lavacon was co-sponsored by the New Orleans chapter of the Project Management Institute, so many of the sessions talked about management of one kind or another. One of the keynotes was a U.S. Army Colonel who works with the New Orleans Hurricane Protection Office - that’s one big project! He was an extraordinary speaker, and had lots of real hands-on experiences.

On the more strictly tech comm side, I got to sit in on an advanced DITA workshop by Robert Anderson that really made me concentrate - the stuff he’s doing is right at the very edge of my understanding. It’s very cool to learn new things, and I felt lucky that he was there to share his knowledge.

Andrea Ames gave a luncheon speech - she is ALWAYS dynamic and fun to watch - and I attended several other presentations that were absolutely top-notch.

On a more personal note, now that I’m going to be chair of the IEEE/PCS Hawaii conference, I found that I’m looking at things differently now - like the way the registration ran, and how the exhibition area was set up, and program guide layout, etc. For example, I really like that the program booklet had the program-at-a-glance on the back cover. I might just “borrow” that idea.

I only wish I could have stayed longer.

The next IEEE/PCS conference will be held in Montreal from July 13- 16. There’s still time if you want to submit a proposal - deadline is December 15.

The annual conference for IEEE/PCS is over, and it was great! As I’ve mentioned before, they put me in charge of the 50th anniversary celebration, and so my job was essentially to plan a party. We had contests and prizes and a display of technical communication-related books from 50 years ago. We also had music from the 1950s, lots of dancing, and yes, we even had cake.

Next year, this event will be in Montreal.

The year after that, it will be in Hawaii, and the organization has just appointed a new conference manager for 2009–me! I’ve worked on lots of conferences before, but this will be my first as general chair.

All-in-all, it was a great week!