Community Blogs: Thom Parker: First Conference of 2009

Posted: 2009-01-25

First Conference of 2009

Normally I only attend and speak and speak at just Acrobat and PDF conferences. That's not because I'm a conference snob. It's just a matter of practicality. In the past there were just too many conferences deal with and I figured it was better to go where people would already know what I was talking about. But this year I'm branching out. You might not have noticed, but there are two very strong forces acting on the industry. First, there are fewer conferences. I'm assuming this has something to do with the economy. Second, interest in PDF and scripting seems to be on the rise. At WindJack Solutions we're seeing a big bump in people seeking info on electronic forms, and we're seeing it from new industries. Since implementing electronic data systems is one way to increase efficiency and cut costs, I have to assume that this also has something to do with the economy.

But to the main point. This year, my first conference is "The Conference for Software User Assistance" in Seattle, Washington, March 29th to April 1st.

The Conference is all about communicating technical information, an area that's been growing by leaps and bounds for quite a while (you know, because of the Internet). More people need more information about technical stuff, like Acrobat and PDF. You may have noticed that I do a bit of this. Not that I consider myself technical;) Ok, I'm a serious nerd. But the point is that I'll be there, learning all about how to communicate better with you, my loyal audience. There's tons of incredible topics, from sessions on how to be a better technical writer, to how to use the latest tools, to what's going to happen in the future. Amazing stuff. And your humble JavaScript guy (me) will be giving everyone the scoop on how to make your life easier by automating Acrobat with JavaScript.

Actually, since this is a new crowd and I'm not so sure how much they know about this stuff, I'll be doing a little primer on what's JavaScript as well. But anyway, you don't want to miss this. Sign up now, and I mean now, because they're giving a special discount before Feb 9th (the economy again).

BTW: Adobe is going to be there as well. They just released a new suite of tools aimed right at this market, The Technical Communication Suite 2, which includes Acrobat 9 Pro Extended. I'm pretty excited about this because it validates my assertion that this is an important and growing field.

Hope to see you all there. We'll have a booth for pdfscripting.com set up next to the escalator. Come by and ask me a hard question.

• Acrobat 9
• Forms: Acrobat
• JavaScript