LavaCon New Orleans: Conference Participants Lend A Helping Hand

Scott Abel will present his wildly popular presentation, Web 2.0 and Its Impact on Technical Communication at LavaCon, New Orleans, October 27–30, 2007. This is the first year Abel has presented at LavaCon, a technical communication event that targets documentation managers. The event promises to help managers better understand best practices in the fields of technical communication and technical communication management, including strategies for choosing technology platforms, migrating to XML and content management, reducing training and translation costs, and more.

The Big Easy is not just home to LavaCon 2007, it’s also where hurricane Katrina, a natural disaster of monumental proportions unleashed much of her fury.

“I have really mixed feelings about how the city is doing after hurricane Katrina—and how the media continues to show the city in the worst possible way,” Molisani said in an email to conference participants. “Eight weeks after the hurricane I went to see the city for myself, and have been back almost a dozen times since. The areas that visitors see most (Uptown, the French Quarter, the Garden District, etc.) are back to normal—despite the gloom and doom reported in the national media.”

“However, drive twenty minutes out of New Orleans and you’ll see some of the devastation so widely covered on CNN,” said Molisani. “It is mainly in the poorer, low-lying areas between New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast (such as the now-infamous Lower Ninth Ward), but it is there.”

That’s why Molisani has developed a Community Service Day program designed to give LavaCon participants a chance to help out.

“Granted, not everyone can allocate a half a day or more to help build a barn with Habitat for Humanity,” said Molisani. “So, we are also organizing a less intense project replanting trees at New Orleans City Park, which should be fun as there is a music festival scheduled for that weekend in another part of the park.”

Come to New Orleans. See the city for yourself. Then lend a hand and make a difference.

Download the conference program. Then, Register for LavaCon 2007. We’ll see you in New Orleans.