- By Michele Marques, Lead Information Developer, ITSM

Wow, what a week for conferences! Yesterday I dropped by the BMC virtual conference, and earlier this week I attended Lavacon.

BMC Virtual Conference: Simplify & Automate IT

The BMC virtual conference was a really cool way to check out information on a variety of IT topics without leaving my desk. I watched the presentation on The Future of IT Management. Then I dropped by the Dell booth in the exhibit hall, to see what they had to say about their experiences with BMC Remedy IT Service Management.

I didn't get into any conversations, but I scrolled through the conversations in the networking lounge and in some of the exhibit booths. People were talking about BMC products and everyone was excited about the virtual conference.

Although the conference took place on October 29, you can still drop by. You can view any of the presentations on demand, pick up literature from the exhibit hall, and see what people were talking about

Lavacon

Lavacon is a professional development conference for senior, lead, and management technical communicators - and for the past few years has been paired with a regional Project Management Institute conference. It's a great conference that includes sessions and workshops that I wouldn't get at other technical communications conferences.

Sessions that I attended included:

• Introduction to Strategic Planning by Alexandra Piacenza - There's only so much that she could cover in this brief session. Planning for innovation was especially interesting.
• Creativity session and Leadership workshop by Lisa DiTullio - Interesting ideas about promoting creativity. Lots of discussion about the difference between Management and Leadership.
• Zen and the Art of Managing Up by Emma Hamer - How many times do you run around in a tizzy, because your boss has an urgent request for information, and you have to figure out how to get the information? Emma had some great suggestions for ways to be proactive that can prevent these sort of disruptions.
• Strategies for Coping with User-Generated Content by Sarah O'Keefe - Sarah opened with the video United Breaks Guitars as the ultimate in user-generated content that a company wouldn't want and then moved on to talk about strategies to involve users in a positive way in your community.
• Influencing without Authority by Andrea Ames - Andrea has achieved a high level of influence that extends beyond technical communication.
• Critical Thinking Skills for Conflict Resolution by Bonni Graham - We played a conflict role-playing game that helped show how personal biases and personal goals affect how people act in conflict. I'm not sure yet whether this knowledge will help me deal with conflict. I was really bad at picking up on people's hidden agendas.
• Management Challenges with DITA by Jim Smith and Vivian Aschwandan - Whether you're a manager or a writer, some of the biggest challenges with DITA are knowing "what is a topic" and dealing with what they called "stealth topics" (such as tasks hidden in concepts).
• DITA 1.2 and the DITA Open Toolkit by Robert Andersonand Leigh White - Although this workshop was fraught with hardware challenges, I'm now eagerly awaiting some of the new features of DITA 1.2, especially the conref extensions.