Contents
- ISTC News
- ISTC Community
- A bit of AI … poking and prodding
- Upcoming events
- Training courses
- About InfoPlus
- Back Page
ISTC News
TCUK25 – News Update!
TCUK25 will be live, and in-person, at Radisson Blu, East Midlands Airport on 24th and 25th November.
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.
See options and book on our TCUK25 Sponsor Packs page.
If you have any questions about our sponsor packs, or if you have alternative suggestions for collaboration, contact us at tcuk@istc.org.uk.
Weʼre also keen to hear from you if youʼre a delegate, and if thereʼs a company youʼd like to see represented at TCUK25.
GET READY FOR A GREAT PROGRAMME
Our reviewers are impressed with the quality of the proposals received, and we’re looking forward to announcing the first speakers soon! The review team have revealed that the programme will cover a range of different themes, including use of AIs and LLMs, training, workflow optimisation, standards, accessibility, cultural sensitivity, user engagement, and much more.
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.
Join The Team
There is still time to make your mark on TCUK25.
Examples of what you can get involved in are:
- Greet speakers and keep time as session host during the conference
- Write website content and collaborate with the website team
- Help our programme lead finalise the schedule
- Update our designs for roll-ups, badges, and digital assets
- Coordinate networking activities and fringe events
- Interact with speakers and sponsors leading up to the conference
- Decide what we’re going to eat at the celebration dinner
- Create surveys
- Start planning for future events
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. All of us have lots of fun and look forward to welcome you to the team!
To sign up or hear more, please get in touch with us at tcuk@istc.org.uk
Website Volunteer Team update
Here’s an overview of what the Website Team have been working on during September.
- Weekly workshops for collaborative content design and WordPress activities.
- Working on improvements to the About Us pages including the restructing of all of the associated pages that are linked under it.
- Creating an ISTC Council page to provide insights into the people who help run the organisation.
- More work towards the TCUK25 pages, including the Sponsors page, which is now live. The team have been adding more information ready for our big event.
- Finishing off the renaming of back issues of Communicator magazine (to match the issue covers previously renamed) and continuing the general cleaning up of unwanted files from the ‘old days’.
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
There weren’t any articles published in September, however, we did meet up on September 18th at 9:00am (for the UK attendees), whilst it was 18:00 (in Australia) and 21:00 (in New Zealand) for our colleagues on the other side of the world.
We discussed what you will have already seen in the September newsletter which, unfortunately meant no articles, but lots of information about all three of our Institutes and what we will be offering our members in the coming months.
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 the 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.
ISTC Slack now available
The details of where to find our Slack channel can be found in the email sent to all ISTC members on September 17th, with the title ‘A problem shared is a problem halved’.
Before joining please remember:
This is a professional space, and all areas, including any private messages, may be reviewed by the ISTC and are subject to the ISTC’s Code of Conduct.
We look forward to seeing you in there.
Area Groups
If you wish to start your own Area Group, contact istc@istc.org.uk.
Note: The East England Area Group has now closed down.
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 22nd October. 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.
Details of what the October edition of ISTC Meets is about will be emailed to all members of the ISTC Meets mailing list after InfoPlus has been issued.
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.
- Olha Melnychuk’s article (late July 2025) which she posted on her Medium site, covers what her role is like as a technical writer with AI peering over her shoulder.
- A different view from the I’d Rather Be Writing podcast as Tom Johnson and Fabrizio Ferri Benedetti discuss the impact of AI on the technical writing profession.
- Technical Writing in the Age of AI: Challenges, New Skills, and Tools by Neal Travis covers the same kinds of impact as per Tom’s podcast, but as an article.
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.
If you find one before me, you can always message me via the ISTC Slack.
Upcoming Events
There are multiple in-person and/or online-only conferences coming up from October onwards. All of their details are below:
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, this is a three day event held at various locations in Brussels.
Clear Language@TEF (November 5th)
A morning programme at the Translating Europe Forum 2025 dedicated to clear language addressing topics such as consensus on using clear language across organisations and clear language in the media.
Uniting for a brighter future (November 5th)
The afternoon will kick off with vibrant plenary, keynote and poster sessions, followed by a networking dinner and awards gala.
Where linguistic expertise meets democratic access (November 6th)
Hosted by the European Parliament, this full-day conference includes a mix of plenary sessions, breakouts, and updates from the world of plain language.
Celebrating success in plain language (November 7th)
The Belgian Government is hosting PLAIN and Clarity for a full day of sessions, celebrating the success of plain language around the world and sharing best practices.
Title: tcworld conference 2025, Stuttgart
Date: November 11th-13th, 2025
In-Person: Stuttgart, Germany
Website: tcworld conference 2025
The tcworld conference, the world’s largest event for technical communication, takes place in Stuttgart, Germany. This in-person conference brings together experts, practitioners, and industry leaders from around the world.
Attendees can look forward to three days packed with talks, workshops, and networking opportunities covering the latest trends, tools, and best practices in technical communication. Topics range from AI and Terminology to Law and Standardization and UX.
Remember: As an ISTC member, you can register at the discounted member rate for this event.
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 is run over 5 days. You can attend in-person at our dedicated training facilities at Bristol, Bromsgrove, Manchester or Reading, or participate live online.
The next course dates are:
- Reading: Classroom-based & Online – 8th December – 12th December 2025
- Bristol: Classroom-based – 22nd September – 26th September 2025
- Manchester: Classroom-based – 9th March – 13th March 2026
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:
- November 24th 2025
- January 26th, 2026
TCTrain Expert course for experienced technical writers:
- October 20th 2025
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.
- DITA Concepts
- Make Search Better: An Introduction to Keywording
- Structuring Prompts for Technical Communicators and Content Developers
- Presenting in English with Equal Impact
- Content Strategy Overview
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.
About InfoPlus
InfoPlus is your go-to source for staying informed about our profession, featuring news not only from the ISTC but also from across the technical communication community.
This complimentary newsletter is emailed to approximately 1500 individuals.
Subscribe to InfoPlus here, you can unsubscribe at any time from within the email sent out each month.
For advertising enquiries, contact istc@istc.org.uk.
Submitting content
If you have noteworthy information to share with your peers, please send it my way at newsletter.editor@istc.org.uk. We want to ensure that your news reaches as many people as possible.
Published and distributed on the first working day of each month, InfoPlus occasionally experiences slight delays until the first week of the month. Keep this in mind when submitting time-sensitive information.
Please get the information for the November 2025 edition to newsletter.editor@istc.org.uk by Monday 13th October 2025.
About our publishers
InfoPlus, the Monthly Newsletter from the Institute of Scientific and Technical Communicators (ISTC), is a valuable resource for the largest UK body representing scientific and technical communicators. Whether you are involved in technical writing, technical illustration, or other forms of communicating technical information, ISTC is the professional association dedicated to supporting your career.
Explore the benefits of ISTC membership and find out how to join.
Back Page
To prevent another empty Back Page section, I’m going to propose a new section.
I would like you to submit examples of the worst text or UI design that you’ve ever had to fix – obviously disguised enough so that no-one else who works (or worked) for that company can spot where the text has come from. We don’t want any of you to get into trouble with your ex-or current employer(s).
In my own career, I’ve fixed many a howler – sometimes I’ve been lucky enough to get it fixed before the article/helptext went online – but usually it was done afterwards to save my employer a red face.
From “funny” edits by (former) members of an insurance company’s staff, such as “Cerised number plates” (pretty in pink!) or the literal spelling of ‘Altzeimers’ (without an apostrophe), through to another company I worked for thatreferenced that well known British comedy TV series, ‘Monty Phyton’ in one of their onboarding sessions.
How many have you had to fix over your career? Send me your best examples via email or via the ISTC Slack and I’ll do my best to hide their origins in order to save any red faces 🙂
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 13th October 2025.