The 6th edition of the soap! conference took place from May 23 to 25, 2018, in Krakow, Poland. The conference venue was exceptional, just in front of the Wawel Royal Castle—Manggha Museum of Japanese Art and Technology.
Before diving deep into the great conference atmosphere and unleashing the mystery of the sacred combination of " innovation vs. simplicity,” the main theme of the conference, allow me to decipher the actual name of the conference. Many of my colleagues wondered, “Why soap?” “Are they giving away soaps?” or “What is this all about?”
Well, the truth is that yes, you do receive a cool pink soap for asking a speaker any questions right after delivering a speech. Here is the photo proof if you don’t trust me. 😊
Strategy
Opportunity
Advancity
Professionalism
So, armed with the prehistory and keeping in mind that this conference is not about soaps, shampoos, or whatever, let’s dive deep into this year’s trending topics and areas for exploration, shall we?
Content Edu Summit
There were 10 workshops with over 60 participants. The innovative and disruptive ideas were generated at the Krakow Technology Park—a cutting-edge technology incubator that helps the IT sector grow in the Małopolska Region.
Participants were not only given in-depth information in their area of interest but also hands-on experience and practical implementation of the acquired knowledge.
I had a great opportunity to attend two workshops: “Innovate Easily with the Design Thinking Toolkit” by Gosia Pytel, a Design Thinking expert from Northern Ireland, and “UX Copy Tips for Product People” by Yuval Keshtcher, a founder of Microcopy & UX Writing from Israel.
Conference Days
Over 100 authors, information architects, project managers, designers, and content professionals from around 22 countries attended the two conference days, which were a blast, to put it mildly. Twenty-three talks related to the notion of “innovation and simplicity” were delivered.
The trendiest items to discuss were the concepts of Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, and Machine Learning, as well as the development of advanced chatbots to reduce the amount of written content, eliminate reliance on PDFs, and enhance strategies to better meet users' needs.
“We want product-related content that is simple to author, deliver, and manage. We also want product-related content that is easy for users to follow. How can we achieve this? Can innovation be the key? Can it help us gain simplicity, or does it lead to complexity? How can we balance both?” *soapconf.com
In the meantime, the recorded videos will be uploaded to the soap! Technical Communication YouTube channel, so check them out shortly. 😊
Next year’s Soap! conference will be held in Krakow, Poland, on June 5-7, 2019. Stay tuned; you will be informed about all the details shortly! It is definitely a place worth visiting or returning to once again. ;)