Why not boost your career aims and ambitions by booking one of the following content and digital comms conferences in 2020? They offer great opportunities to seek out professional development, networking contacts, and the latest trends and insight in your field.
Every year we scout around for the best learning and networking conferences for digital communications professionals across the breadth of our fast-changing field: in technical communication, content strategy, content marketing, plain language, copywriting, UX, metadata, AI, Info 4.0, augmented reality and more.
We aim for a mix of events taking place on our recruitment homeground of Europe and also some premier events in North America. Throughout the year, we also report on some of the events here on the Firehead blog, or you can subscribe to Firehead to catch up on our digital communications and recruitment trends by email.
FEBRUARY
XML Prague, Czech Republic, 13-15 February 2020
#xmlprague
A conference on markup languages and data on the web, and the state of the XML union.
World IA Day, global, 22 February 2020
A one-day annual celebration of all things IA, hosted by the Information Architecture Institute. Find one near you.
MARCH
GALA 2020, San Diego, US, 15-18 March 2020
The Globalization and Localization Association (GALA) Language of Business conferences brings together the translation and localisation community. This year’s theme is ‘Globalization 4.0: Shaping the Future of the Language Industry’.
AI & Big Data Expo, London, UK, 17-18 March 2020
The London event of this global showcase brings together more than 4,000 visitors over the two days and four dedicated AI/big data tracks: enterprise AI, data analytics for AI & IoT, big data solutions, and AI technology solutions.There is also an Amsterdam event in early July.
Documation, Paris, France, 17-19 March 2020
The exhibition of information management and document processes features a broad spectrum including social listening, structured writing, archive management, automation, data privacy, content management through AI, interoperability and more.
Nordic TechKomm, Stockholm, Sweden, 18-19 March 2020
A two-day event, in association with Tekom Europe, on techcomm industry trends, best practices and networking opportunities. It is aimed at technical writers, information and UX designers, technical communication managers and content architects. The theme is ‘Technical information knows no borders’.
Swedish Association of Technical Information (FTI) Conference, Stockholm, Sweden, TBC 2020
‘Information for Man and Machine’ was the theme of the 2019 conference, exploring artificial intelligence (AI) and multilingual content delivery.
APRIL
University of Strasbourg Symposium on Usability and Design, Strasbourg, France, 3-4 April 2020
Academic event presenting the latest research and theories in usability and design, technical communication and localisation. The theme for 2020 is ‘Re-thinking Usability and Design: Examining Connections to Technical Communication and Localization’.
An Event Apart, Washington DC, US, 13-15 April 2020
A three-day conference with a focus on digital design, content, code and UX. This is the first of six events that take place throughout the year across major cities in the US.
The IA Conference, New Orleans, US, 14-18 April 2020
#iac20
Formerly the IA Summit, this conference is for professionals in information architecture, UX design and content strategy. The theme for 2020 is ‘Sense and Sense-making’.
ContentTECH, San Diego, US, 20-22 April 2020
Formerly the Intelligent Content Conference (ICC), the ContentTECH Summit is focused on how technology can create, manage, deliver, and scale enterprise content and marketing to customers.
O’Reilly Strata Data & AI Conference, London, UK, 20-23 April 2020
Strata Data and the AI Conference have combined into one this year. “Whether you need to learn data science with Python, build foundational data infrastructure, prepare your training data, productionise ML pipelines, work with NLP, or learn how to iterate AI projects – you’ll get it all here.”
Semantics Conference, Austin, US, 21-23 April 2020
There has been a Semantics conference in Europe for 15 years. Now it is launching in the US for experts, practitioners, and researchers in knowledge graphs, ontologies and semantic AI to share experience and knowledge. The focus will be on delivering real world case studies and practical guidance for all levels of understanding. The European conference takes place in September in Amsterdam.
CHI, Hawaii, US, 25-30 April 2020
Glasgow last year, Oahu this year! As AI becomes embedded in how humans do things, interactive tech is becoming more of a focus for academics and practitioners alike. The ACM CHI conference on human factors in computing systems is all about human-computer interaction, and investigating new and creative ways for people to interact.
Beyond Tellerand, Dusseldorf, Germany, 27-29 April 2020
Now in its 10th year, this conference gathers speakers on creative web design and development. BTconf also runs in Berlin in August and Munich in November.
MAY
UA Reloaded, St Leon-Rot, Germany, 12-13 May 2020
Tekom and SAP software’s conference invites user assistance architects, technical communicators and video producers to see the latest options in UA: from video documentation to machine learning to virtual reality. It promises to go beyond the classic portfolio of technical communication, to deal with what user assistance could disruptively change in the future.
Adobe Digital Marketing Summit EMEA, London, UK, 13-14 May 2020
#AdobeSummit
A chance to connect with other digital marketing professionals and brush up on tools and trends in customer experience management. There are 120+ sessions across 12 tracks and a few star names lined up.
STC Technical Communication Summit, Bellevue, Washington, US, 15-18 May 2020
#STC20
The STC Summit attracts more than 600 attendees and 40 exhibitors during a three-day period to discuss all things tech comm. The conference track offers talks on content design and delivery, tools and technologies, training development and delivery, project management, leadership, and career development. This year’s theme is ‘Career Vision 20/20 – Do you have 20/20 vision on your technical communication career?’
Confab Central, Minneapolis, US, 17-20 May 2020
#confabMN
Content strategy conference for strategists, UX designers, digital marketers and techcomm professionals with two workshop days and two main conference days. It covers topics, trends and best practices in content strategy, from UX to storytelling, accessibility to structure.
UXLx: User Experience Lisbon, Portugal, 19-22 May 2020
#uxlx
A popular user experience conference offering four days of talks and workshops on trends and the practical applications of UX.
Evolution of TC, Sofia, Bulgaria, 27-28 May 2020
Check out the latest innovations in software documentation at this annual gathering of technical communicators information developers, technical editors and translators with a software background. It is apparently the only techcomm conference in south-eastern Europe and is organized by tcworld GmbH in cooperation with tekom Bulgaria.
Augmented Reality World Expo (AWE), Santa Clara, US, 27-29 May 2020
#awe2020
The 11thannual AWE is the largest XR (augmented, virtual and mixed reality) event in the world bringing 7,000 attendees, 300 speakers and 250 exhibitors together to ‘make the world more interactive’.
COMtecnica, Rimini, Italy, TBC 2020
Making information intelligent is one of the key aspects in the time of Industry 4.0 and the Internet of Things (IoT). This conference, organised in collaboration with Tekom Europe, looks at the processes and technologies in techcomm and intelligent information with a particular focus on latest trends and needs – and how companies can start to adapt to these new requirements.
JUNE
Soap!, Krakow, Poland, 3-5 June 2020
A European content conference catering for techcomm professionals, content strategists and digital marketers. This year the theme is ‘Content 2077 – the future is now’.
LOCWorld42, Berlin, Germany, 3-5 June 2020
LocWorld offers several conferences for international business, translation, localisation and global website management, and this is the European option. If you’re responsible for communicating across the boundaries of language and culture in your business, check it out.
TOTh 2020, Chambéry, France, 4-5 June 2020
TOTh stands for Terminology & Ontology: Theories and applications, and this event brings together researchers, professionals and anyone interested in language and knowledge engineering. The conference is preceded by two days of training session on the linguistic dimension of terminology.
Omnichannel X, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 8-10 June 2020
An event focusing on the omnichannel nature of communication and how to align content, design, governance and systems around the customer journey.
The AI Summit, London, UK, 10-11 June 2020
This massive expo and conference, aimed at the business world and featuring 500 speakers and 20,000 attendees, is the flagship event for London Tech Week.
SEPTEMBER
Semantics Conference, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 7-10 Sept 2020
The 16th European conference on semantic technologies and AI brings together researchers, industry experts and business leaders to discuss trends and applications in machine learning, data science, linked data and natural language processing.
MadWorld, Austin, US, 20-23 September 2020
#MadWorld2020
Technical communication and content strategy conference offering 40 sessions, eight advanced workshops, a technical support lounge, and networking events for attending technical writers, documentation managers and content strategists.
Big Data LDN, London, UK, 23-24 September 2020
A free-to-attend conference and exhibition, hosting leading data and analytics experts and featuring real-world use-cases and panel debates on data-driven strategies.
Nordic TechKomm, Copenhagen, Denmark, 23-24 September 2020
A two-day event, in association with Tekom Europe, on techcomm industry trends, best practices and networking opportunities. It is aimed at technical writers, information and UX designers, technical communication managers and content architects.
EuroIA, Berlin, Germany, 24-26 September 2020
#euroIA
Europe’s 16th annual information architecture/user experience event features presentations, panels and plenty of networking opportunities for IAs and UX designers.
Write the Docs, Prague, Czech Republic, TBC 2020
Write the Docs events brings everyone who writes the docs together in the same room – programmers, tech writers, support, designers, developer advocates – to talk software, tech writing and information delivery. Around 300 techcomm professionals attend this three-day event exploring the art and science of documentation.
PLAIN, Oslo, Norway, TBC 2021
#PLAIN2021
PLAIN’s international plain language conference only takes place every two years so bookmark this for next year. It is not just for plain language professionals but also those from fields such as information design, marketing, corporate communications, technical writing and usability.
OCTOBER
Copywriting Conference, London, UK, 9 October 2020
ProCopywriters annual gathering is dedicated to commercial copywriting. Expect a mix of talks, breakout sessions and networking to help you supercharge your copy. There’s a pre-conference training day on 8 October if you want to update your skills.
Content Marketing World, Cleveland, US, 13-16 October 2020
#cmworld
Huge content marketing conference (4000+ attendees, star name speakers), organised by the Content Marketing Institute. There are 125 sessions and workshops covering strategy, storytelling, ROI, demand generation, AI and more.
LavaCon, New Orleans, US, 25-28 October 2020
#lavacon
Founded in 2002, LavaCon has grown from its technical communication roots to include sessions on project management, content strategy, UX, social media, mobile devices and more. The 18th annual conference focuses on how to unify content from silos across the enterprise, leverage new immersive technologies, and create stellar content experiences. Maybe go a day early this year for a Mardi Gras Halloween Parade which runs past the conference hotel.
Connected Data London, London, UK, TBC 2020
#CDL20
Billed as a ‘conference for those who use the relationships, meaning and context in data to achieve great things’. Speakers have ranged from across business and academia, including Yoast, Uber, Microsoft AI, GSK, Mozilla and more, covering topics such as knowledge graphs and graph databases, AI and machine learning, linked data and semantic technology.
Taxonomy Boot Camp London, London, UK, TBC 2020
#TBCL20
London-based version of the long-running US taxonomy conference which is held in November. For beginners to taxonomy pros.
NOVEMBER
Boye Aarhus 20, Aarhus, Denmark, 2-5 November 2020
Now in its 16th year, this three-day digital leadership conference offers keynotes, talks, sprints and networking around topics such as content strategy, UX, intranet, the digital workplace and tech trends. Exciting news for 2020 – Firehead’s own CJ Walker is on the speakers list.
Web Summit, Lisbon, Portugal, 2-5 November 2020
Web Summit offers 23 conference tracks in one big event, each with their own stage, schedule, exhibition area, workshops and networking events. For example, more than 10,000 digital marketers attended PandaConf, a marketing conference within Web Summit, while Content Makers serves content creators.
TC World and Tekom, Stuttgart, Germany, 3-5 November 2020
#tekom #tcworld
The TCWorld conference and the Tekom fair is the largest global event and marketplace for technical communication, and also runs a number of other events throughout the year. Topics include: content strategies, content design and standardisation, user-friendly information products, translation and localisation, quality assurance and information logistics.
Taxonomy Boot Camp, Washington DC, US, 16-17 November 2020
A leading conference dedicated to insight on taxonomies, ontologies, folksonomies, tagging mechanisms and other techniques for organising information. Expect case studies, practical sessions on taxonomy tools and methods, and cutting-edge developments in the field at this event.
KM World, Washington DC, US, 16-19 November 2020
KMWorld is a leading knowledge and information management event. Hear from experts in knowledge management and connect with peers who have launched knowledge management projects at their own companies and organisations.
Velocity, Europe, TBC 2020
O’Reilly’s European Velocity conference is where systems engineers, developers, sys admins, security, operations, site reliability engineers and managers come to explore topics from cloud infrastructure to dev ops to emerging tech (machine learning, AI, blockchain).
Image (CC): Gerd Altmann / Pixabay
