Speakers and Program
As in past years, we are proud to welcome international speakers who will be flying to Israel specifically to present and share in the great MEGAComm experience. We are also proud to again highlight Israel’s local talent as they come to share their expertise and experience with you.
2017 Presentation Details
Panel: Reinventing Yourself – Expert Advice on Personal Rebranding and Transitioning
Many of the MEGAComm participants attend to network, job-hunt and explore the many opportunities which await them. MEGAComm has always helped with a resume table and other aides. This year, we’ve put together a panel to push and encourage you to be your best and fulfill your dream of the good life.
Nathalie Garson
Nathalie Garson is passionate about empowering businesses and entrepreneurs to be the best at what they do. With 18 years of experience in strategy, business development and marketing, she provides entrepreneurs the tools they need to find creative positioning and make the strategic decisions that will bring their business to the next level. Originally from France, Nathalie lived many years in the US and for the past 12 years has been based in Israel. She is also a professional lecturer and enjoys teaching Strategy & Marketing to MBA Students, and writes occasionally in the Times of Israel. Nathalie Garson holds a BA from the City College of NY and an Executive MBA from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is the CEO & Founder of Yazamut Israel Business Consulting & Coaching.
Dave Egyes
As a writer and business analyst in Israel’s technology industries for over twenty years, Dave Egyes has focused on spearheading knowledge-sharing efforts across organizations. Initially as a technical writer, Dave designed, wrote, and developed user manuals, release notes, specifications, and online documentation retrieval systems for Cisco, NDS, Mercury Interactive, and Orbotech. He later transitioned within NDS/Cisco as a business analyst learning a new field including compliance of financial regulations, and due diligence. Dave is currently consulting with a startup.
Charlie Kalech
Charlie Kalech comes to this panel as an Internet marketing, technology and business strategist. Charlie has over twenty years of experience helping scores of businesses, organizations and individuals in defining and achieving their goals to help them succeed. As an Internet pioneer who started in digital design in the 1980s and founded Jerusalem’s senior digital marketing agency with the launch of the commercial Web in 1994, Charlie has had to repeatedly reinvent and innovate J-Town Internet Services Ltd. with market and industry changes. Charlie studied at Betzalel, Israel’s National Art School, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and Columbia University. He is a regular lecturer and writer on design, marketing, business and life in Israel.
Sigal Abbatovi Shamir
Sigal Abbatovi Shamir is an organizational psychologist, career counselor, relationship & family therapist. Sigal works with professionals around the world, helping them to reinvent themselves in the job market. She grew up in Australia, studied in London and made Alyiah 9 years ago. Sigal is a serial lecturer and has been invited to speak at “Google Campus for Moms”, Google Campus Events, Tel Aviv University, Ben-Gurion University, The Technion, Tel-Aviv Municipality, StarTAU, University, Rupin College, MATI and more.
Moderator: Sara Halevi Kalech
Sara Halevi Kalech began her career as a clinical psychologist. While maintaining a small private practice as a cognitive behavioral therapist specializing in the treatment of fibromyalgia, she re-branded herself in mid-life as a writer, blogger and communications expert. She has recently combined her two careers in her new venture, Dramatic Change, a workshop and online based business providing tools for reducing conflict in the home and workplace.
Technical Communication Track:
Project Management Basics – Leah Guren
If you are like many TC managers, you may find yourself struggling to estimate a project workload or manage a documentation project. Or perhaps you feel intimidated by the complexity of PM (project management) courses, books, and certificates.
Never fear! The most common (and most significant) problems can be addressed with a few basic tips and simple guidelines. In this session, you will learn PM “hacks” to help you:
- estimate the scope of a documentation project more accurately
- set expectations and get early buy-in to the project
- plan the project resources and tasks
- stay on top of ever-changing priorities and deadlines
Who is this session for:
TC project managers, group leaders, team leaders, doc managers
(Note: this session is *not* appropriate for Marcom writers.)
Leah Guren is the owner/operator of Cow TC. She has been active in the field of technical communication since 1980 as a writer, manager, Help author, and consultant. She now devotes her time to usability consulting and TC training, primarily in Israel and Europe. Leah is a Fellow in STC (Society for Technical Communication) and is a popular speaker at TC-related conferences around the world. Her clients are some of the top hi-tech and medical companies internationally.
Thinking Inside the Box – Eli Itin
- Is “Creativity” a talent that only a few possess?
- Do innovative ideas require a creative “spark”?
- Or is it something that we can all learn and practice?
An introduction to creativity and innovation based on the “Think Inside the Box” techniques. The presentation is interactive and engaging; the audience experience the tools through short exercises presented during the lecture. Participants gain an introductory understanding and taste of leading creativity techniques and methodologies. They learn that creativity does not require genius, that it is a skill we are all born with and can relearn and master. By applying templates and methodologies “inside the box”, we arrive at practical ideas and solutions that are both inventive and creative.
Who is this session for:
This session is for anyone and everyone who deals with innovative ideas and how to present them. MARCOM and TECHCOMM writers, managers, service providers will benefit.
Eli Itin, Co-Founder and Senior Innovation Consultant at Northern Star Innovation
To Video, Or Not To Be – Eran Kolber
That is the question. Of course, other pertinent questions are How (to video), Who (to video for), Where & When (to capture videos), What (not to do), and a few others.
Technical Writers are finding more frequently, that clients (both internal and external) are requesting video segments to be incorporated into online documentation. This session will cover the fundamentals of video capture/recording and editing. The session will illustrate the discussion using TechSmith Camtasia 9, but the principles and best practices presented are applicable to any mid-range video capture and editing tool (Adobe Captivate, Power Director, VideoPad, Pinnacle, etc.).
Topics covered will include:
- Video capture, editing and production fundamentals for Tech Writers
- Planning & Preparation (audience issues, scripting/storyboarding, preparing your equipment)
- Recording best practices
- To narrate, or not? That is another question… (alternatively, Modality, Temporal, and other principles)
- To split, or not to split? (channels, tracks, and clips)
- Editing cheats (tool dependent)
- What NOT to do (well… maybe, sometimes)
Who this session is for:
- Join us in this session if the medium of Video is new to you, or if you are looking for hints and tips to improve your video production capabilities. Whether your customers are already asking for video, or you’d like to be able to provide additional value in your job, this session will help you:
- Understand the fundamental issues that make video different to other documentation media
- Get to grips with how to leverage video to enhance topic understanding
- Avoid some of the traps that are easy to fall into
- Learn additional skills that could enhance your career
Eran Kolber, Director of Training & Professional Services (OnTarget Communications) and Microsoft Regional Director/Platform Value Evangelist
Tech-Writing “365” – Eran Kolber
A very large number of organizations world-wide, of all sizes, are moving to Office 365 as a cloud platform. This session will cover the new features and capabilities added to Office 2016 components, that specifically relate to Tech Writing, and that are enabled by Microsoft’s cloud solution.
Topics covered will include:
- Microsoft Office 2016 vs. Office 365 – what’s the difference, and how to combine them successfully
- Tech Writing in the cloud era – what features/capabilities of Office are exposed and enhanced by “bolting” office 2016 to the Office 365 cloud services
- Word 2016/365
- PowerPoint 2016/365
- OneNote 2016/365
- Office 365 Delve
- Microsoft Teams
- OneDrive For Business
Who is this session for?
Join us in this session if your organization uses Microsoft Office, or your customers do. Word and PowerPoint are considered the “standard” for content creation across many roles within organizations, even in those organizations where Tech Writers use different tools. This session will help you:
- Understand the fundamental differences between Office 2016 and Office 365
- Get to grips with how Office 365 services provide new capabilities to Office 2016 applications
- Learn about additional Office 365 services that will enhance your documentation team’s effectiveness and efficiency
Eran Kolber, Director of Training & Professional Services (OnTarget Communications) and Microsoft Regional Director/Platform Value Evangelist
Intelligent Information for Smart Users – Dr. Michael Fritz, Tekom, Stuttgart
Smart users expect context sensitive, personalized, correct and quick information delivery – whenever they need help, with an excellent user experience, on the device of their choice. To make such use cases a reality metadata-rich contents, robust information systems and standardized delivery mechanisms are needed.
To meet these expectations a tekom working group has elaborated on the “Intelligent Information Request and Delivery Standard – iiRDS” which will be available by the end of March 2017 for testing and comments. The final version will be free Open Source.
Michael will present the standard and demonstrate some cool use cases which can become reality with it. The presentation will allow technical writers to decide whether the iiRDS could be useful for their projects. Michael would be glad to motivate Israeli companies to join the iiRDS community and try it out.
Instagram: How Visual and Technical Writing Go Together – Mordecai Holtz
Social media isn’t a respite from writing, it involves more writing.
What if there was another way to take a break and tap into another source of inspiration? What creative ways can writers source content and redefine the field of writing?
How can technical writers describe their content without saying a word? Can we stop telling users what to do but use visuals to guide. Writers expend a huge amount of time and energy coaxing and contorting words. But in focusing so obsessively on text, we tend to neglect other forms of creative expression.
What can a visual only platform do to ease the life of a technical writer? What visuals can do to limit the text only world?
What is the connection between technical writing and social media?
Social media contains user generated content and that’s the ticket to success in today’s user-focused world.
Mordecai is the CEO of Blue Thread Marketing, a boutique digital agency promoting brands through strategic content marketing and effective management of digital platforms. The agency’s global client list range from startups to the City of Jerusalem.
Mordecai is an avid blogger and an active contributor to the digital marketing space. His content has been featured on industry leading sites including Social Media Today, Business2Community, Social Media World and Post Planner, and coschedule. His writing has been featured on several tech blogs including Technologer and TechAcute.
Mordecai has also been featured on DukoscopyTV a leading forex trading television channel.
Mordecai is a key opinion leader for Huawei.
He’s also recently been invited to serve as the first international board member of the National Institute of Social Media.
Why Technical Writers Should be on Social Media – Paula R. Stern
It’s a new world out there – one in which our users are reaching out for answers, seeking to learn about how to use our products. But are they reading our manuals? Or are they searching YouTube? Tweeting? Joining Forums? Are they sharing their opinions of our product and technical support (and will we have a job when they are done? How are companies using social media to reach their customers and who is writing the content that these users are finding? Join this session to hear the results of a social media survey of Israel’s hi-tech companies and learn about how your company can benefit from enhanced communications with users.
Paula R. Stern is the CEO of WritePoint Ltd. and a senior technical writer with more than 20 years of experience.
Understanding and Documenting Web APIs – Anne Tarnoruder
With each year, we are witnessing further expansion of the Web API economy. Since good professional documentation is crucial for the success and adoption of APIs, we are also witnessing the growing demand for writers who can document APIs. The goal of this session is to help you consolidate your understanding of Web APIs and orientation in the world of API documentation solutions and tools. In this session, Anne will take you through the history of code reuse from the early days of the software industry, explain the general principles and internal makings of object-oriented and Web (REST and OData) APIs, demonstrate how to call APIs over the Web, provide an overview of the latest documentation solutions and tools, and show how to write OpenAPI (f.k.a.Swagger) specifications.
Anne Tarnoruder is a senior information developer at SAP Labs Israel
PERL Scripts for Technical Communicators (AKA TCSAK) – Eliezer Basner
- Advantages for a technical communicator knowing a programming language
- Advantages of Perl for technical communicators; Brief background of Perl
- With even a limited, basic knowledge of Perl, you can accomplish wonders
- Regular Expression fundamentals; Extending the capabilities of your authoring tool with Perl scripts
Actual examples including:
- Text manipulation
- File processing
- Processing authoring tool source files
- Processing authoring tool output files
Eliezer Basner is a Technical Communicator, BMC
Pssst … You will be the first to see! – Stefan Gentz, Adobe Worldwide TechComm Evangelist
In this session Stefan Gentz will share exciting news directly from the Adobe TechComm code labs – for the first time in public and live and exclusively at MEGAComm! Be prepared to see something exciting and beautiful …
The Best of Both Worlds: A Holistic Approach to DITA Authoring, Publishing, and Content Management – Stefan Gentz, Adobe Worldwide TechComm Evangelist
Content is king, and organizations are creating content in amounts that were unheard of just a few years ago. Marketing and Technical Publications teams often develop content in different tools and store content in separate content management systems, which makes it extremely difficult to share content and deliver a unified and consistent customer experience. Gone are the days when you had the luxury of getting phone calls from confused customers. Today, consumers would much rather tap or swipe their way to your competitor.
To address this problem, Adobe has created an end-to-end solution for DITA authoring, publishing, and component content management based on Adobe Experience Manager. This integrated solution speeds up the delivery of technical content on the market-leading platform that has helped marketers deliver compelling digital experiences. Join Stefan Gentz, Adobe Worldwide TechComm Evangelist, as he explains Adobe’s DITA CCMS and discusses how to integrate technical and marketing content.
Marketing Track:
The Art and Science of Pricing – Sagy Gulianka
- Pricing power & Warren Buffett
- Value based pricing
- SaaS pricing models – do’s and don’ts
- Price presentation – consumer biases that can increase conversion
Sagy Gulianka is the founder of TMsight, a pricing consultancy firm and a leading pricing expert with over 20 years experience. He is serving as a mentor at Microsoft accelerator, Junction and assisted hundreds of companies with their pricing challenges. Customers include Check Point, Eden Springs, Orange Int., Cloudinary and others.
Getting the Most Out of Email Marketing Platforms – Hadassah Levy
Email marketing platforms are a treasure trove of marketing tools and data which can be utilized for better interactions with your audience. This presentation explores automation, A/B testing, segments and groups, data on individual subscribers and the dreaded Promotions tab.
Hadassah Levy has been a digital marketer since 2004, before the title even existed! She specializes in content writing, social media marketing and content management, with a little bit of WordPress development, PPC and SEO thrown in for good measure. She works with clients around the world and focuses primarily on websites with Jewish content. She’s never said no to a chance to speak and has presented at Temech, Megacomm, PICO and more.
Facebook Business Manager – Charlie Kalech
Whether you manage one page on Facebook or dozens, you should be managing pages with the Facebook Business Manager. In this how-to session, veteran social media marketer, Charlie Kalech, will take you through the ins and outs of Facebook’s Business Manager including:
- Keeping Your Business and Personal Facebook Profiles Separate – The trick to focusing on business when you’re at work and on Facebook!
- Managing People, Access and Permissions – The right way to give access to employees, agencies and co-workers.
- How to Organize Clients, Pages, Projects, Campaigns and Ads – Use one interface to manage everything.
- The Ad Manager – Don’t just click “Create Ad,” use the Ad Manager for much more robust management and reporting.
- Managing Money – How to set up different payment methods for different ad campaigns and keep payment methods secure while allowing access of others to your campaigns.
Charlie Kalech directs Jerusalem’s senior digital marketing agency, J-Town Internet Services Ltd. A veteran in digital design and marketing dating to before the beginning of the graphic web, Charlie’s in-depth skills and breadth of experience always benefit his audiences, generating practical take-aways you can use every day.