2023 – Why two days?

There are pros and cons to any decision you make. Ultimately, you have to go with what is the most logical, what fits, what’s right.

MEGAComm is our national conference, a serious endeavor representing our community. Last year, dozens of international tech writers joined and were amazed at the quality of the presenters AND the quality of the comments. MEGAComm deserves to be 2 days, like almost every other technical writing conference in the world AND we, as technical writers/communicators deserve to be treated as other professionals in the world – given the time to meet others, learn, keep up with what’s happening.

Why? Logical question, so here are some logical answers:

  • When you ask international guests to fly 5 hours, 15, hours to join in a conference, they expect it to be at least 2 days. To fly for a 1 hour presentation is ridiculous.
  • To give one speaker two sessions in a one day conference limits how many others could speak and yet, speakers are professional and have so much information to share.
  • This year, we are having Rahel Bailie, Andrea Ames, Fabrice Lacroix, Kirk St. Amant, Joseph Kubovsky, Selvaraaju Murugesan, Maiken Blok, and Leah Guren speak. That’s 8 sessions right there. Actually, Rahel, Andrea, Leah and Fabrice are offering TWO sessions each – so 12 sessions. These alone would fill the entire first day of the conference – but what about our local experts? What about letting our own tech writers share their expertise?
  • This year, we also have local speakers such as:
    • Reuven Lerner, who was very popular in previous conferences and regularly delivers brilliant presentations.
    • Helen Gottstein is also popular and a fantastic speaker.
    • Wait, Alex Fiedler is offering a very interesting and little discussed topic.
    • Aliza Solomon from WIX will speak about API Usability.
    • Josh Levine will demo a great (and free) screen capturing application.
    • And the duo of Tamar and Carmi Wisemon discovered at last year’s conference comes back for a planed session on something very important to all of us – Adapting with your company to changes in the industry.
    • MEGAComm is a learning experience, an opportunity to meet and discuss how your team works and what you can do to increase performance and productivity.

Where are there 2-day conferences?

  • India
  • Germany (3 days)
  • Italy
  • Austria
  • Serbia
  • Netherlands (3 days)
  • Bulgaria
  • Denmark
  • Sweden
  • Ireland
  • England
  • STC Illinois (4 days)
  • ContentTECH Summit (3 days)
  • Write the Docs Portland (3 days)
  • Poland (3 days)
  • LavaCon – New Orleans (4 days)
  • API THE DOCS (3 days)
  • ConVEx Arizona (3 days)

Where are there 1-day conferences?

  • Israel

Our community in Israel includes hundreds (perhaps thousands) of technical writers working in both Hebrew and English (and sometimes in other languages). We have been working to build a professional organization – tekom Israel, have regular meetups, have an active email list – Techshoret, an active Facebook group, active LinkedIn groups and more.

This year, for the first time, we will join dozens of other countries in having a professional, two-day conference. Because MEGAComm 2023 will be a truly-hybrid experience, everyone is welcome to come to one day of the conference in-person and one day online if you are concerned that 2 days in-person is too much.

And a final word. Lavacon costs about $500 per day (MEGAComm costs less for both days). The STC Summit is 4 days and costs over 5,000 NIS ($1,495). MEGAComm is a fraction of most conferences and offers not only a comparable experience in terms of content but one that is unique to our community.