InfoPlus September 2025

ISTC News

TCUK25 – News Update!

TCUK25 will be live, and in-person, at Radisson Blu, East Midlands Airport on 24th and 25th November.

Last chance! Get your TCUK25 early bird ticket today!

We’re extending early bird ticket sales until the end of today!
See ticket options and get your early bird ticket now!

Sponsor bookings are open

Based on input from both sponsors and delegates, we’re continuing to offer the more interactive sponsor packs that we introduced in 2023.

For details about our sponsor packs, contact us at tcuk@istc.org.uk.

We’re also keen to hear from you if you’re a delegate, and there’s a company you’d like to see represented at TCUK25.

Proposal reviews are in progress

We’re excited about the many interesting and inspiring proposals we’ve received. The reviewers are hard at work, tasked with the difficult job of choosing which ones will be included in the TCUK25 programme.

If you’re curious about what we do to give all proposals a fair assessment, see our behind the scenes article Making proposal selection fair.

Embrace the future with Rahel Anne Bailie

Don’t miss Rahel Anne Bailie’s opening keynote Surviving the savanna: adapting to an evolving career landscape.

The future of technical communication is calling! See Rahel’s recent LinkedIn post.

Have a look behind the scenes of TCUK25

If you’re curious about how we’re planning TCUK25, or why we’re doing things the way we are, follow our new series of short articles behind the scenes of TCUK25.

Volunteers wanted – help us make TCUK25 the best it can be!

We are a great, but small team of volunteers, and your contribution could make the difference between a good conference and the conference we dream of! Some of us volunteer to learn from more experienced people, others to give back to the community.

To sign up or hear more, please get in touch with us at tcuk@istc.org.uk

UK Technical Communication Awards

The closing date for the entries to the awards has now passed and the results will be announced at TCUK25. Thank you to all who submitted entries.

Website Volunteer Team update

Here’s an overview of what the Website Team have been working on during August.

Communicator Autumn Issue has been prepared and is in production for distribution.
Indexes and Glossary: Backups to Google Sheets of all indexes, the glossary and the resources pages were made so that their content can be examined and upgraded where appropriate. The Glossary page has been hidden whilst work is done to it, as a few of the links no longer existed.
Updates to the live TCUK content, promoting the keynote speaker, Rahel Ann Bailie.
Members of the team analysed the content structure of the TCUK landing page. They drew on their earlier work on user-centred content design to develop usable, clear, and helpful content. The goal is to design an evergreen information architecture for the TCUK web pages, with seasonal patterns for content updates bedded in to the site.
A member of the team created an Excel site map with very useful headers. The site map is already proving to be a vital tool for the team as they undertake the audit of the site inventory over the coming weeks.
The full team attended a live inventory audit on the ISTC website. They completed the audit of the structure for the home page, and during the task they recorded notes on our content strategy for public information and for member information.

If you’d like to help the ISTC improve its website and collaborate with other ISTC members in the process, send an email to istc@istc.org.uk. We’re a friendly team and there’s no pressure to volunteer a particular number of hours – you can help out as and when your availability allows.

IJTC Update

We have upgraded to the latest version of Ghost! There are a multitude of updates and bug fixes which, if you’re interested in using Ghost for your own website, you can check out here. We will be investigating what these new features will enable us to do with IJTC in the coming months.

The August Newsletter was sent out last week and there were a further 9 articles available from CJ Walker at Firehead.

We want your articles!

There aren’t many rules for sending in your articles:

it doesn’t have to be of an epic length.
There’s nothing stopping you from sending in multiple small articles for a series, along the lines of our series from Jean Rollinson and CJ Walker.
it has to be relevant to the technical communicators who are part of ISTC – as well as our Australian and New Zealand colleagues.
it must not be generated using AI. You can, however, write about AI tools used within the tech comms field.

Take a look at the other articles that are already on the website and see if your subject would fit in and send it via the editor@ijtc.net address.

Advertise in InfoPlus

Get your company or products noticed in the TechComms community! We are offering new opportunities for advertising in our monthly InfoPlus newsletter.

These adverts are banners to be positioned as you choose. Placement examples are included in this PDF, which also contains all the necessary steps and costs involved to place an advert in future editions of InfoPlus.

If you would like to advertise with us please contact Chantel Sankey – istc@istc.org.uk.

ISTC Community

Become more involved in the professional community through the ISTC Area Groups, join us online at one of our monthly ISTC Meets events, and find us on social media (links below). Members (once logged in) also have access to the ISTC Discussion Forums.

Area Groups

If you wish to start your own Area Group, contact istc@istc.org.uk.

Eastern England Group

The Eastern England Group was created as a virtual group to cover the area from East Anglia to Northumberland. Since its inception the group has turned into a general group for authors from any location who cannot make it to other events or just want to meet other authors. Members and non-members of the ISTC are welcome.

The Eastern England group meets on Zoom. The regular day and time for each monthly meeting is the second Tuesday of each month and starts at 19:30.

The Eastern England Group is run by Andy Smith. Email him (easternengland@istc.org.uk) for a meeting link.

Thames Valley Area Group

The Thames Valley local group meeting is at the Bird-in-Hand pub in Knowle Hill, RG10 9UP on the first Tuesday of each month from 7.30pm. All are welcome.

They rarely have a set subject but the conversation always has a strong tech comms flavour. Maybe something from recent news, something that has happened at work, or some new technology to discuss.

London Area Group

The next London Area Group meetup is Wednesday 24th September. This meeting is in-person and further details will be posted in the WhatsApp chat for the group nearer the time.

ISTC Meets

ISTC Meets is our monthly series of live online presentations and discussions from industry experts across the Technical Communication spectrum.

ISTC Meets returns for September. The first talk will be led by Carol Leahy and she will be discussing the ISTC Mentoring Programme. It will be held on September 19th at 13:00.

Zoom link to register – https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/AT86HK7bSTOnB9SVEYq-2w

If you contact ISTC directly, istc@istc.org.uk, you can be added to the ISTC Meets mailing list.

For full details of all of our previous speakers, and for all future ISTC Meets, please visit our website.

Talking Heads wanted!

If there are people out there willing to give a 30 minute or so talk on their aspects of tech comms (via Zoom), please get in touch with ISTC Meets.

Social Media

We recently pared back our social media areas to make them easier to manage and post to. Our FB pages for ISTC and TCUK will remain for the time being whilst they are archived, then they will be removed permanently.

Community Forums

The forums are available to all members once you have logged into the ISTC website.

A Request for Back Issues

In ISTC Towers we’ve recently been looking at all of our back issues of our magazine, Communicator – or The Communicator, as it was originally called. Currently we are missing a few scans of our older issues and we’d like to find these gap fillers.

To save repeating this list in every issue of InfoPlus going forward, we’ve added the list of missing issues to the Communicator Archive page.

A bit of AI … poking and prodding.

A few articles I’ve found covering opposite sides of the AI is good/bad fence for this month’s selection.

Microsoft has announced two of its homegrown AI models, called MAI-Voice-1 and MAI-1-Preview. It previously relied on OpenAI to power the AI behind CoPilot, Edge and Bing.
The TUC (Trades Union Congress) are reporting that half of UK adults are fearing for their job due to AI replacing them.
The Wired Magazine that found a regular creator of their content, turned out to be an AI bot.
An overview of the other outlets being stung by AI-generated articles listed in an article on The Media Leader website.
Axel Springer, the German parent company of Politico and the largest publisher in Europe, is trying to force some horrendous AI slop onto the political news publication. And its writers aren’t happy and are taking the parent company to abritration!

I am sure there are similar articles out there, I just don’t have the time to read them all and then pass them onto the members. And remember, don’t panic! Text generated by AI bots can be quite easy to spot and, in most cases, a real (human) technical communicator will be required to ‘clean up the mess’ for some time to come.

The future of technical communications

aka “Old writing vs New writing”

We spotted this piece by Technical Writer HQ (on LinkedIn) and it really hit home and made us think about just how long ISTC has existed and all the years that we’ve watched the job change.

“TW HQ looked back at how technical writing has evolved over the past two decades.

And the field has changed dramatically…

Here’s what you need to know:

The old playbook is no longer enough.

While technical writing in the 2000s was all about static, feature-heavy manuals, today’s writers face new challenges and opportunities:

Users expect dynamic, interactive documentation.
Collaboration is now a critical part of the process.
Content must focus on user needs, not just product features.

Here’s how technical writing has shifted:

Content Style
❌ Long, dense manuals
✅ Modular, user-focused content
Delivery
❌ Static PDFs and printed docs
✅ Interactive, searchable platforms
Collaboration
❌ Minimal communication with teams
✅ Embedded in agile teams
Audience Focus
❌ Feature-focused content
✅ User-centric, task-oriented content
Adaptability
❌ Generic, one-size-fits-all docs
✅ Tailored for different audiences
Feedback
❌ No way to gather user input
✅ Feedback loops and analytics
Learning Styles
❌ Text-only manuals
✅ Multimedia integration like videos and tutorials
Updates
❌ Reactive, delayed updates
✅ Proactive, real-time changes aligned with agile workflows

The most important takeaway? Successful documentation is now a dynamic, user-centered process.”

The original post also had a video attached to it, so I’ll let you discover that yourselves. And remember to follow Technical Writer HQ on LinkedIn too.

Upcoming Events

There are multiple in-person and/or online-only conferences coming up from September onwards. All of their details are below:

Title: Technical Writing Course from Google
Date: September 4th, 2025
Online/In-Person: Online
Website: https://developers.google.com/tech-writing/announcements

Every software engineer is also a writer. Improve your technical writing skills by taking one of Google’s free technical writing courses. We’ve aimed these courses at people in the following roles:

professional software engineers
computer science students
engineering-adjacent roles, such as product managers

The courses are free, fun, and valuable to your career. Thousands of Google software engineers have taken and loved these courses. Note that these courses focus on technical writing, not on general English writing or business writing.

Title: Presenting Work with Confidence!
Date: September 11th-12th, 2025
Online/In-Person: Online
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/presenting-work-with-confidence-tickets-1623475511959

This is a two session workshop. Each session lasts 3 hours. You must commit to attend both sessions.

Of course you have good ideas. But it takes more than a good idea to command attention. You need to package your message and project confidence. Mike Monteiro will show you how.

The ability to turn a list of recommendations into a compelling story is the most critical skill that rarely gets taught—and never across disciplines. Designers learn to speak to designers, engineers to engineers, business leaders to each other, etc.

During this workshop, we’ll cover effective presentation techniques including:

Confronting the terror of standing up in front of people
Taking charge of any room
Turning information and recommendations of any type into a good story for any audience
Mapping your work to shared goals and objectives
Asking for the right kind of feedback, and avoiding opening yourself up to stuff you don’t need
In two 180 minute online sessions, Mike Monteiro will turn you into the most confident and prepared version of yourself you can imagine.

Title: NORDIC TechKomm
Date: September 24th-25th, 2025
Online/In-Person: Copenhagen, Denmark
Website: https://dk.nordic-techkomm.com/

Like their event in March, the NORDIC TechKomm Denmark conference is a must-go for technical communication professionals. There, expect to see conferences on the latest industry trends by well-known leaders from around the world. Don’t miss their workshop sessions where attendees share concrete tools and practices for daily work.

Title: Management Summit
Date: September 23rd-24th, 2025
Online/In-Person: Lisbon, Portugal
Website: https://www.managementsummit.org/

How To Create Value Faster is the event’s tagline. It is a new kind of conference about a new way to create value in a fast-changing world. Over the two days, there will be 15 fast-paced modules.  Each 30-minute module delivers:

One powerful idea.
Two real-world stories.
One focused discussion.

The full list of what is covered in each module is available under their Agenda menu.

Title: MadWorld
Date: September 29th-October 1st, 2025
Online/In-Person: Denver, Colorado
Website: https://www.madcapsoftware.com/madworld-conferences/madworld-2025/

MadWorld brands itself as THE leading event for content innovators, so don’t miss this opportunity to learn and connect with industry leaders in technical communication and learning & development. This event brings together users of Flare, Central, IXIA CCMS, and Xyleme, as well as other content creation professionals. Attendees will participate in hands-on workshops, breakout sessions, networking, and one-on-one meet-ups with MadCap’s product and support teams.

Title: LavaCon 2025
Date: October 5th-8th, 2025
Online/In-Person: Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Website: https://lavacon.org/

LavaCon 2025 focuses on bridging content strategy and operations to reduce costs, drive revenue, and improve customer experiences. It’s a key event for content professionals to share best practices, network, and build lasting relationships.

Title: CyberSecurity Summit 2025
Date: October 9th, 2025
Online/In-Person: Reston, VA 20190, USA
Website: https://web.cvent.com/event/ed5a537d-63bf-409c-b88f-b9ea301bb52d/summary

As missions grow more digital and threats more complex, this event spotlights how governments can adapt and thrive – bringing together voices from federal, state, and local agencies alongside private-sector disruptors.

You’ll explore:

Data Sharing & Connectivity – secure, trusted interagency and public-private exchange
Fraud Prevention & Cybercrime – stopping digital fraud in benefits, procurement, and tax systems
Innovation from the Unconventional – breakthrough tech from startups, defense, and emerging disruptors
Biometrics & Seamless Identity – next-gen identity management for secure access to services

Title: Write The Docs, Berlin 2025
Date: October 27th-28th, 2025
Online/In-Person: Berlin, Germany
Website: https://www.writethedocs.org/conf/berlin/2025/news/welcome/

We’re excited to announce a new conference: Write the Docs Berlin! This is a hybrid conference, with an in-person event in Berlin, Germany, and a virtual platform.

This will be our first in-person event in Europe since Prague 2019, and we’re excited to add this to our conference lineup once again. The conference will be held at bUm Berlin. More information about the venue will be available closer to the event.

Our in-person event will have two days of talks, a social event, and an unconference. On the virtual platform, you can follow all talks, participate in the Q&A after, and chat with your fellow attendees.

Title: Plain Language Conference
Date: November 5th-7th, 2025
Online/In-Person: Brussels, Belgium
Website: https://www.iiid.net/plain-language-conference/

Organised by Clarity and PLAIN, but there’s not much else known about this event yet, because it’s still in a “call for papers” phase. As soon as more information is available, this entry will be updated.

Title: Google DevFest 2025
Date: November 22nd, 2025
Online/In-Person: LSE Centre Building (CBG) – Houghton Street Greater London, WC2A 2AE
Website: https://gdg.community.dev/events/details/google-gdg-london-presents-devfest-london-2025-1/

DevFest, the massive, community-driven tech conference hosted by Google Developer Groups (GDGs) worldwide, returns to London in 2025.

Your local GDG London and GDG Cloud London are curating a DevFest experience designed to empower London’s tech scene. Whether you’re a seasoned pro or just starting your journey, DevFest 2025 has something for everyone.

Title: TCUK25
Date: November 24th-25th, 2025
Online/In-Person: In-Person at Radisson Blu, East Midlands Airport
Website: https://istc.org.uk/tcuk/

Our very own event and we hope to see you there!

Training Courses

Accredited courses have been reviewed by a professional panel of experienced ISTC members. A course listed as “ISTC Accredited” means that the panel believes the course meets its stated objectives and is suitable for its intended audience.

Course providers have to apply for renewal of accreditation every 2 years, which helps to ensure the courses reflect current best practice.

Armada

The Armada course (run over 5 days) is available either online or via an in-person classroom-based course. The next dates are:

Reading: Classroom-based & Online – 8th December – 12th December 2025
Bristol: Classroom-based – 22nd September – 26th September 2025

There are also classes available at their Birmingham / Bromsgrove, Cardiff, Manchester, Milton Keynes, Nottingham and Sheffield Training Centres. These would need to be arranged upon request.

For further details, see www.armada.co.uk/course/tatp.

Cherryleaf

The Cherryleaf courses are available online and can be booked for single tech comms people or as a group.

Technical Writer – Induction Course: https://cherryleaf.teachable.com/p/technical-writer-induction-course

Using Generative AI in Technical Writing: https://cherryleaf.teachable.com/p/using-generative-ai

ESTON Technical/Commercial Authorship

This course run by ESTON is online-only and is available any time.

Technical/Commercial Authorship Diploma Course ‐ Parts 1 & 2 (EDL2D)

ESTON Simplified English Part 3 (EDL8T)

A discount is offered to ISTC members.

TCTrainNet – tekom Certificate training in Technical Communication

There are two accredited courses available from TCTrain and the dates in 2025 when they are run are:

TCTrain Professional course for beginners and career changers:

September 29th 2025
November 24th 2025

TCTrainNet Professional

TCTrain Expert course for experienced technical writers:

October 20th 2025

TCTrainNet Expert

For ISTC members, TCTrainNet offer a discount of 200 Euros too.

Firehead

Firehead offer a number of accredited courses. They are supplied in a format of videos, PDFs, eBooks and assessments.

Please note that attending an ISTC Accredited course from the trainers above does not automatically make you an ISTC Member. You will still need to apply for ISTC membership afterwards. If the training course has whet your whistle, then come and join us.

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Please get the information for the October 2025 edition to newsletter.editor@istc.org.uk by Monday 15th September 2025.

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The answers to last month’s Wordsearch are here.

Although, if you have anything else, be it funny or a puzzle, or even if it’s more puns, you can send them to newsletter.editor@istc.org.uk by Monday 15th September 2025.

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