tcworld India 2012
After the resounding success of the tcworld India conference 2011, tekom and Technical Writers of India (TWIN) are organizing the second tcworld India conference in Bangalore on February 22-25, 2012. The conference features expert speakers from the United States, Australia, Germany, and India, who cover topics such as mobile documentation, cloud computing, documentation standards, localization, internationalization, DITA, and project management among others.
“India will be one of the tc hubs worldwide”
Interview with Dr. Michael Fritz, Managing Director at tekom, Germany.
What's tekom's motive for co-organizing a second tcworld India conference?
After last year’s great success it is a must for us to continue. We definitely believe that India will be one of the technical communication hubs worldwide and that tcworld can help to establish the business in India and contribute to the success story to come.
What surprised or inspired you about last year's conference?
What inspired me most was the openness of the audience to the presenters from all over the world, the intensity of the communication, which evolved immediately and the way in which I could interact with the attendees of my presentation.
What's special about the Indian market and how do you rate its potential?
From my perception the Indian market is both, highly developed and immature. There are some international companies, predominantly US-based, that have established very high standards, according to the way they organize technical communication “at home”. But what is lacking almost completely is a “domestic” infrastructure for the education and training of technical writers, especially for other verticals than software, and for other than English speaking markets.
We should take into account that India will not just remain the “extended workbench” for the software industry and that the Indian economy will continue to develop very dynamically into new international markets. As a result India provides a high potential for experts in international technical communication.
“Conference will meet the increased expectations of our participants”
Interview with Akash Dubey and Gururaj B.S., founders of Technical Writers of India (TWIN)
What are your expectations for this year's tcworld India?
We are expecting over 400 participants at our tcworld India conference this year. The conference program is looking even better than last year’s. We have come up with three new conference tracks: Technology, Management, and Best Practices. There are renowned experts from across the globe conducting tutorials, workshops and presentations. In terms of our global reach, we have managed to get on board experienced presenters from the United States, Germany, Belgium, Australia, New Zealand, and India.
The tcworld India conference this year is a four-day event. This is the first time India-based technical communication practitioners and service providers will participate in a wide spectrum of workshops, panel discussions, focus group sessions, networking events, and so on. The tcworld India conference offers first-of-its-kind post-conference workshops, which will be conducted by seasoned professionals and experts in their areas of specialization.
The key objective of our post-conference workshops is to enable conference participants to gain hands-on experience and to interact with the presenters in a small group setting. More importantly, the conference offers a variety of learning opportunities for managers, technical writers, authoring tool and infrastructure engineers, editors, translators and language specialists. These lectures will be delivered by well-known experts from the industry.
The number of exhibitors and corporate sponsors is a clear indicator of the business value that tcworld India offers. We are also expecting documentation and translation service providers to participate in large numbers and take advantage of what tcworld India has to offer. As usual, the international networking dinner on February 23rd promises to be an evening for entertainment as well as for professional and business networking.
As we received extremely positive feedback from the first tcworld India conference in March 2011, we have paid more attention to the conference program and topics, so that the conference meets the increased expectations of our participants.
How is the technical communication market developing in India?
The tc market in India is looking bright for competent professionals and entrepreneurs. The market is vast and has a plethora of opportunities. The number of multinational companies setting up shops in India is increasing by the day, and we are seeing several job opportunities for technical communicators. We have started interacting with technical communicators from non-IT industries, such as engineering disciplines, research and development organizations, and so on.
TWIN was the technical communication partner for the Indian Engineering Congress (IEC), India’s largest event for engineers. This event was organized by the Institution of Engineers in India, which has over 600,000 members in India. This association enabled technical communicators from the TWIN community to collaborate with eminent academicians, scientists, engineering professionals, and government officials. The engineering community evinced keen interest in technical communication, and they understood the value of good technical communication. This experience was quite encouraging. It gave us an impression that the technical communication market in India could grow beyond the Information Technology (IT) industry and expand to address the information and learning needs of academicians and engineers.
What are TWIN's objectives for 2012?
The previous year 2011 was pretty successful. In the year 2012, we hope to build on our current initiatives and programs to do more for the technical communication community in India. One of our ambitious projects is to produce a good book on technical communication. We are embarking on this project in 2012, and this huge task may take at least a year. This project provides opportunities for experienced technical communicators and managers in India to participate as authors and reviewers. Besides the book project, we are working toward establishing a stronger relationship with the engineering community in India, based on our successful partnership in 2011.
We will continue to make efforts to collaborate and partner with other professional associations and communities in the world. “Think global, act local” is what we plan to do in 2012 as the single largest community of technical communicators in India.
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