Speakers
Nathalie Kowalczyk
Product Designer, Slack, USA
I’m currently a product designer at Slack, in San Francisco, where I’m helping set up the company’s first Design System. I have been working in Silicon Valley for the past 3+ years at companies such as Twitter, and most recently Yahoo, where I have worked on developing the design language across all Yahoo products on desktop and mobile.
Originally from Poland, I graduated from Ringling College with a BFA in Graphic and Interactive Communication with a Minor in Business of Art and Design. I love to travel, cook and meet new people.
Originally from Poland, I graduated from Ringling College with a BFA in Graphic and Interactive Communication with a Minor in Business of Art and Design. I love to travel, cook and meet new people.
Tony Self
Consultant, Hyperwrite, Australia
Tony Self has worked as a technical communicator for almost 30 years, specialising in online help systems, computer-based training, and mark-up languages. In 1993 Tony founded HyperWrite, a consultancy company specialising in hypertext. Tony is a Fellow of the Institute of Scientific and Technical Communication, and holds a PhD in semantic mark-up languages, a Graduate Diploma in Technical Communication, and a Graduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. He is the author of “The DITA Style Guide”.
Gosia Pytel
Design Thinking whiz & eLearning professional, Northern Ireland
A teacher by education and an innovative optimist by choice. As a certified Instructional Designer, Gosia is professionally focused on designing and optimizing e-learning solutions (mostly for IT). As a Design Thinking coach, she leads problem-solving projects for educational and business organizations. She combines the above with her teaching experience and an open mind of a traveler to approach both eLearning and complex business challenges in a creative way. Currently located in Derry, Northern Ireland, she actively helps to expand the local design thinking community. Additionally, she’s rather bubbly when talking with like-minded people!
Paweł Kowaluk
Senior Technical Writer,Guidewire, Poland
I’ve been in tech comms since 2008 as a technical writer, product owner and consultant. I contribute to techwriter.pl and sit on the ITCQF board.
Natalia Woszczek
Content Marketer, Untitled Kingdom, Poland
Passionate about Plain Language and clear, user-focused communication. Master of Social Science at Jagiellonian University, a graduate of Plain Language Course by Federal Aviation Administration, author of the Plain Content blog. In her Soap! talk, she wants to stress the importance of clear, straightforward writing and present benefits that plain communication brings to businesses and product users.
Stefan Gentz
Worldwide TechComm Evangelist, Adobe Systems GmbH, Germany
As the Worldwide Evangelist for Technical Communication at Adobe, Stefan’s mission is to inspire enterprises and technical writers around the world and show how to create compelling technical communication content with the Adobe TCS tools. Stefan is also a certified Quality Management Professional (TÜV), ISO 9001 / EN 15038 auditor, ISO 31000 Risk Management expert and Six Sigma Champion. Stefan is a popular keynote speaker and moderator at conferences around the world. He is also a member of the Conference Advisory Board of the world’s biggest TechComm event, the tekom / tcworld Conferences, member of the iiRDS working group for Intelligent Information and the OASIS DITA Adoption
Yuval Keshtcher
Founder, Microcopy & UX writing, Israel
I’ve spent years of my life intrigued by the power of communication and the impact that language has on our cognitive behavior. A large part of my audience comes from the Talking Microcopy: Writing UX group I founded on Facebook, which boasts over 1,700 members to date. I started this group as a way for professionals to inspire one another and discuss and share ideas.
I have my own product design consulting firm working with companies such as SodaStream, eDreams ODIGEO, the Israeli government and more. In addition you can add that I am currently writing a product writing microcopy book.
I have my own product design consulting firm working with companies such as SodaStream, eDreams ODIGEO, the Israeli government and more. In addition you can add that I am currently writing a product writing microcopy book.
Erin Vang
Principal Pragmatist, Global Pragmatica LLC®, USA
Owner and Principal Pragmatist of Global Pragmatica, providing statistical, management, and content strategy consulting to Fortune 500 companies since 2008. Previously held senior management positions at Dolby Labs, SAS, and SYSTAT in software tech comms, QA, program management, and localization.
Unlike in Europe where tech comms is a recognized profession with a rigorous program of study, in the USA a lot of tech comms people studied literature and then reinvented themselves to make money. For me, degrees in music performance and mathematics led to writing books on statistical software, and it all devolved from there.
Justyna Tofilska
Training Development Specialist, Transition Technologies Managed Services, Poland
After many years spent in front of people and teaching in the classic way, I decided to move forward and start delivering e-learning courses instead of classroom ones …and I don’t regret this decision! I deliver technical courses for finance and business areas that require presenting not only the theory but mostly instructing the audience how to use applications and leading them through different functionalities. It’s challenging especially when you want to make people understand and follow the process.
Besides working, I’m a really active person: I like swimming, snowboarding and cooking 🙂 I’m also in love with French culture as I graduated from a bilingual high school in Łódź, so try to guess what my favorite holidays direction is! Apart from all above, my two daughters effectively fill in my free time 😉
Besides working, I’m a really active person: I like swimming, snowboarding and cooking 🙂 I’m also in love with French culture as I graduated from a bilingual high school in Łódź, so try to guess what my favorite holidays direction is! Apart from all above, my two daughters effectively fill in my free time 😉
Mike Hamilton
VP of Product Evangelism, MadCap Software, USA
Mike Hamilton is the VP of Product Evangelism and one of the founding members of the MadCap Software team. With over twenty years of experience in training, technical communication, multimedia development, and software development, he has worked with organizations such as Cymer, National Steel & Shipbuilding, and the US Navy. He is a frequent speaker at industry events such as STC Summit, LavaCon and more, and is commonly quoted in technology articles in various trade publications.
Ray Gallon
President and Co-Founder, The Transformation Society, France
Ray has been a communicator ever since his first squeal. He has worked as a radio journalist, producer, and manager before turning to technical content. He’s a frequent speaker worldwide as president/cofounder of The Transformation Society, a company dedicated to helping organisations solve complex problems. Ray is also president of the Information 4.0 Consortium, working to design information into AI and similar technologies to keep them human.
Basia Kujawska
Technical Writer, 3di Information Solutions, Poland
Technical writer and UX designer with marketing communications and training experience. I’ve spent the last few years designing user experience or creating technical content for Ringier Axel Springer, Miquido, Cyclad, and – most recently – 3di Informaton Solutions. What makes my heart beat a bit faster is type design, free-hand drawing, cycling, motorcycling, and hiking.
Kevin Duncan
Founder and owner, Expert Advice, UK
Kevin is a business adviser, marketing expert, motivational speaker and best-selling author.
He has written over 20 books, which have sold over 150,000 copies, and been translated into over a dozen languages. He has been voted Best Speaker at a number of conferences, including soap! in 2014. He is glad to be back.
He has written over 20 books, which have sold over 150,000 copies, and been translated into over a dozen languages. He has been voted Best Speaker at a number of conferences, including soap! in 2014. He is glad to be back.
Daniel Barrio Fierro
Manager, Technical Communications, Dolby Laboratories, Poland
Information architect by trade, linguist by education, Daniel is proud to lead an amazing team of technical writers at Dolby Laboratories. His eyes twinkle when hearing the words “systems thinking”.
Tomasz Prus
Documentation Manager, Unit4, Poland
I am a Documentation Manager at Unit4 in Wroclaw. I have been working as a technical communication professional for over 8 years, holding various positions. My passion for content is coupled with a curiosity and interest in new technologies. I also coordinate MeetContentWRO.
Priscill Orue
Documentation Developer, UNIT4, Spain
I design the Approval Assistant’s conversations and write the implementation guide of Unit4 Wanda Digital Assistant. I work with product documentation for different purposes and audiences. Additionally, I contribute with documentation processes to ensure quality across product areas.
Wojciech Aleksander
Product Content Strategist, GetResponse, Poland
Communication is my work and passion. My professional compass always points ethical, responsible, and clear solutions. No matter if I support enterprises, SMBs, or startups, I advocate for inclusive and human-centered solutions. I currently manage the content design team in GetResponse, where we sweat to deliver value to 350 000 customers worldwide. I’m also the organizer of the uContentowani meetup for content geeks. If I’m not taming the chaos, I’m reading historical and crime novels, or doing homework with my children.
Małgorzata Świeca
Technical Writer, SAP Hybris, Poland
I am a Technical Writer and a brand-new Mum. Not so long ago I started moving from writing to technical writing. Since that time, I’ve been more and more into the ‘technical’ part. In my job I immerse myself into creating content. Having vocation for teaching, I love sharing my experiences and passion. With my colleagues, I engage in various Community of Practice and knowledge transfer meetings. I also spread the word about technical writing among Silesian students by organizing lectures. I hope I can inspire soapers as well!
Łukasz Górnicki
User Assistance Developer & Product Owner, SAP Hybris, Poland
In short, 7 years ago I started working as a Technical Writer, then after short period on doing Documentation Architecture I discovered I understand technicalities more and more and started playing with programming. 2 years ago I prepared a prove of concept of a different approach to build documentation portals, basing on static site generators. My managers liked it, let me set up a team and implement approach. Now I’m a Product Owner of this team, and we are doing more than just documentation portal.
Chris Ward
Freelance technical writer & blogger, Germany
I was a professional musician, ran a charity, used to be a coder, but then realised I loved explaining technology to people more than coding. I spend my time blogging, documentation, creating videos and meeting awesome people around Europe.
Rafał Pawlicki
Senior Developer, DreamLab, Poland
Hi, I’m Rafał. I’m a software developer and I’ve worked for DreamLab for the past 6 years. I develop an internal platform for managing ads for one of the biggest media group in CEE. My work is used by Onet, Fakt, Newsweek, Business Insider, and many other brands. And most importantly, I’m one of the few developers that love writing documentation.
Wojciech Baranowski
QA Engineer, Dolby Labs, Poland
At work => Software Tester/Tech Writer/Information Architect mixture, who floats between worlds of scripting and writing, where he tries to make others’ life easier by automating their tasks
After work => Just a regular guy who enjoys traveling, sports, and eating cucumbers (explanation later;)
After work => Just a regular guy who enjoys traveling, sports, and eating cucumbers (explanation later;)
Patrick Bosek
Co-founder & Director of Customer Success, easyDITA, US
Patrick is a co-founder of Jorsek LLC, a company primarily focused on its flagship product easyDITA. Since beginning with Jorsek LLC in 2005 Patrick, has worked on a wide range of projects all focused on improving authoring, production, and distribution of content. Most recently, his primary focus has been perfecting easyDITA and generally advancing the product documentation industry.
Patrick is a software industry professional specializing in developing, productizing, and solving problems with product content software. He is a highly skilled developer, thoughtful manager, passionate customer advocate.
Patrick is a software industry professional specializing in developing, productizing, and solving problems with product content software. He is a highly skilled developer, thoughtful manager, passionate customer advocate.
Nuno Grazina & Jorge Leal
Technical Knowledge Manager & Technical Writer, Feedzai, Portugal
Nuno Grazina is a Software Engineer by education but was never a great programmer so he started developing an actual career in Technical Communication in 2011. We can guess he has a natural taste for explaining things in simple terms, so why not merge that and engineering and make a living out of it?
Jorge Leal is a literature student that always liked technology and thought that it would be cool to be able to spend his life writing about it and explaining it to people. He found out Technical Writing is a thing and never left it once he got into it. He sometimes likes to give documentation that literature-student-cliché touch.
At Feedzai, their mission is to enable anyone to write the docs (yes, engineers can write!), help scale the company via great content, and make apparent the often overlooked value of software documentation.
Rahel Anne Bailie
Chief Knowledge Officer, Scroll, UK
Content strategy geek. Works with brands to manage content as business assets. Supporter of standards, schemas, and semantic content. Member of OASIS (LW-DITA SC). CKO at Scroll LLP, organiser of the Content, Seriously meetup, Fellow of the Society for Technical Communication. Lecturer in the Content Strategy Master’s Program at FH-Joanneum. Working on third industry book.
Piotr Peszko
Global Security Awareness Manager, ABB, Poland
Anton Bollen
Customer & Market Strategist, TechSmith, Germany
German native Anton Bollen joined TechSmith in 2003 as an Instructional Specialist where he focused on the creation of training videos. In 2010, he moved home to Germany to lead TechSmith’s growth in the European markets where he works closely with the local user base. He thrives on technical content that is engaging, visually appealing and most importantly- effective. In his free time, Anton enjoys the outdoors, Rubik’s cubes, and being a father.
Jang Graat
CEO, Smart Information Design, Netherlands
I am the ‘geek philosopher’ – always striving to break the chains on the audiences’ imagination. Showing how really smart (rocket science type) technology is only really smart (goodlooking) when all that technology is hidden under the hood.
Paweł Krentowski
Technical Lead, 3di, Poland
Cells. Cells. Have you ever read a user guide and felt appreciation for the writer? Within cells, interlinked.
I have worked different jobs in different industries, but they all had one thing in common: I worked with people, and I loved it!
A geek at heart, and a literature specialist by education, I used my love for the human experience to power my journey into the world of technology; after all, technology is driven by people, for people.
When I worked as a technical writer I started exploring the DocOps aspects of content creation, and I became a strong advocate of innovation and automation in the world of content creation and delivery.
In my job, I strive to make the work of the technical writer as easy as possible, creating tools and solutions so you don’t have to.
I have worked different jobs in different industries, but they all had one thing in common: I worked with people, and I loved it!
A geek at heart, and a literature specialist by education, I used my love for the human experience to power my journey into the world of technology; after all, technology is driven by people, for people.
When I worked as a technical writer I started exploring the DocOps aspects of content creation, and I became a strong advocate of innovation and automation in the world of content creation and delivery.
In my job, I strive to make the work of the technical writer as easy as possible, creating tools and solutions so you don’t have to.
Marta Bartnicka & Wojciech Froelich
Chief of translation department for CEE, IBM, Poland | CTO, Argos Multilingual, Poland
MB: I deploy Machine Translation for a number of languages, constantly measuring its quality and evaluating whether it helps translators – and also, how can it be applied to a given type of content.
WF: For almost two decades I work in translation industry, bridging the gaps between content owners and translators, building workflows and integrations that help in providing end users with the content in their native language.