The year 2024 marks a special milestone for the tcworld China (Technical Communication Conference) — we’re turning 10! 🎂🎉 This year, we celebrated the 10th anniversary of tcworld China.
Filled with laughter and an air of eager anticipation, the venue was buzzing with activity in the morning, as participants arrived one after another before 9 a.m.
At 9 a.m., the participants took their seats, and the conference officially kicked off with opening speeches by tekom CEO Michael Fritz and tcworld China Business Development Manager Yuting Tang.
In the era of rapid AIGC development, many conference topics this year are closely tied to AI. The keynote speech at this conference also focused on AI!
Ralf Robers, tekom’s Vice President, delivered a keynote speech titled “AI and iiRDS – a Perfect Match!”, highlighting the synergy between AI and iiRDS (Intelligent Information Request and Delivery Standard). By comparing the integration concepts of orchestras and the machine industry, he emphasized the importance of applying AI and knowledge graphs in the mechanical engineering industry and proposed the idea of using chatbots as a natural interface between humans and AI.
Empowered by AI, we can serve more industries and groups of people. This speech showcased the immense potential of AI in the field of technical communication and beyond.
Xiangjun Liu from IBM brought a unique topic to the conference: the role of content designers in IBM’s China Design Studios, particularly their significance in product-led growth (PLG) and sales-led growth (SLG) business models. She explained how content designers improve sales and user experience as well as drive business growth by creating high-quality sales tools and product documentation, and by leveraging the Double Diamond framework to build sales enablement ecosystems.
On the day of the event, we interviewed several participants who expressed great admiration for Ying Zhang from OceanBase Database, Ant Group. They noted that technical writers nowadays are not only skilled in documentation but also excel in coding. This time, Zhang shared her latest insights, focusing on the transformation of technical communication of database products from the perspective of large models. She specifically highlighted the application of large language models (LLMs) in database technology, discussing their use cases, data security, and real-time data processing challenges.
Jingjun Long, CEO of Manualsware, delivered an engaging speech. Known not only as a CEO but also as a popular influencer, Long’s speech focused on “How to Convert Word/PDF to High-Quality Structured Content to Improve AI Service Quality”. He discussed the impact of content on AI services in detail, highlighting the value of structured content in improving AI performance. He also shared specific steps for converting Word documents into high-quality structured content.
When discussing how AI can empower our work, we should also consider the accuracy of the information it provides. Therefore, while leveraging AI for efficiency, ensuring text quality remains our top priority. As Shaowen Huyan, Chief Consultant of RWS Language and Content Technology Division in China, stated, AI may enhance writing efficiency, but human authors still play a central role. With future developments in technical content delivery, combining small purposeful DITA chunks with RAG technology can improve the search experience. Additionally, large language models (LLMs) are critical for generating semantically relevant text fragments, ensuring both credibility and traceability of content.
Eric Kuhnen’s speech focused on calculating CCMS ROI. He provided a detailed overview of the steps involved, including evaluating the costs of a new system, the capacity and costs of the existing system, the labor costs of product content, the benefits of the new system, and the value of future cash flows. Through real-world case studies, his speech helped participants understand how to perform a quantitative analysis of CCMS investment benefits and emphasized the importance of identifying and understanding both costs and benefits.
The workshops of the conference were incredibly popular, with the room packed. On the first morning, the workshop featured Yongtao Ren and Yuying Xian from Inovance, who shared insights on the application of user experience design (UED) in the industrial automation sector, covering both methodology and practices.
The speech addressed various aspects, including copyright, business, industry positioning, sales revenue, product definition, technical understanding, user research, and usability testing. They also showcased their workflows and outcomes through practical case studies. This approach benefited participants a lot, allowing them to gain not only theoretical knowledge but also firsthand insights into its real-world application.
The workshop in the afternoon was led by Shuyang Li from HESAI, a familiar face to us. This time, she shared practical methods for documentation automation. Using PDF export as an example, she demonstrated how to improve document processing efficiency through scripts and shortcuts, presenting a complete workflow for documentation automation.
This year, a brand new marketplace was held, where leading companies in the industry showcased their cutting-edge technologies and products through Techtalks, attracting many participants eager to learn about the latest innovations.
At 5:00 PM, the 10th anniversary celebration was held in a lively atmosphere. The event began with an elegant Chinese dance performance by Ximan Yang, also a technical writer, dressed in a Tang suit, offering the audience a visual and auditory feast.
Amid cheerful music and warm applause, the tcworld China organizing committee members — Dan Wen, Monica Xie, Michael Fritz, Yuting Tang, and Rebecca Lai — together cut the anniversary cake that symbolized the remarkable 10 years of tcworld China.
The entire audience gathered for a group photo to capture this precious moment.
Let’s come together to celebrate the remarkable 10-year journey of tcworld China! As we look to the future, let’s continue to join forces and create a new chapter in the field of technical communication!
Due to space limitations, we can’t present all the amazing speeches here and thank you for understanding that. Please stay tuned for the next article covering Day 2 of the conference!
To see more highlights from the event, click here to view the cloud photos!
The previous article highlighted the exciting events of Day 1 and the 10th anniversary celebration. Day 2 was just as unmissable.
The conference featured several topics related to the manufacturing industry, including the much-discussed regulatory issues. Gabriela Fleischer delivered an insightful speech on the European Machinery Regulation (EU 2023/1230). She thoroughly explained the regulation’s effective date, implementation requirements, and obligations of manufacturers. The discussion also delved into key terms like “non-professional users” and “safety information that is essential”, and emphasized the importance of providing instructions in digital formats. This speech was not only informative but also highly practical!
Those from the internet industry could also find speeches of their interest! Yu Liu, an experienced operations expert, left a lasting impression with her speech on “the secret to great developer experience” last year, so the author arrived early this year to catch her talk! Liu is not only familiar with technological trends but also excels at combining technology with marketing to create unique and effective strategies. Her innovative content marketing strategy not only accurately targets the audience, builds a specialized content library, and leverages multiple channels for communication, but also makes full use of social media, blogs, online forums, and other platforms to widely spread content and boost brand visibility.
On May 23rd, outside the workshop room the author happened to meet Anton Kolesnyk, who enthusiastically introduced his topic, piqueing the author’s interest. In his speech, Anton delved into the role of AI in the documentation development lifecycle, covering areas like content crawling, search and navigation optimization, etc. He emphasized that while AI can quickly generate draft documents, it doesn’t replace human editing. Instead, he advocated using AI-generated content as a starting point and establishing mechanisms to evaluate document quality to meet evolving user needs. It was an insightful and inspiring speech!
When it comes to Tingting Xie, the author has a personal connection with her as she was my mentor when I first entered the industry. In her speech, Xie shared her practical experience with development tools and process optimization. She discussed the need for consistency between SDK API comments and the official website, as well as her experiences with code comment conversion, version management, sequence diagrams generation for code, and the upload of Markdown-formatted content to a CMS in team collaboration. She also highlighted the role of AI plugins in writing and translation, and shared her experience using the powerful editor VSCode.
You must be familiar with Yong Liu, who made a big announcement at the TC Night last year — May 30th officially became Technical Communicator’s Day (TC Day)! From that day on, we have our own special day! This time, Liu focused on how to build a digital technical information system to empower technical documentation development and after-sales services. He not only introduced the critical role of information systems but also delved into optimizing the documentation development process, improving after-sales strategies, and system functionality. His insightful speech not only showcased the value and benefits of information systems but also pointed us toward a path of digital transformation.
Last year, YiCAT showcased its large language model capabilities at the conference. This year, Jian Chen shared YiCAT’s new features — fine-tuning based on small domain-specific datasets — for enhancing translation performance in specific domains, which could reduce the demand for computational resources without affecting the model’s other capabilities. YiCAT not only integrates more than 20 machine translation engines but also further incorporates generative AI features, such as large language model-based translations (e.g., GPT-3.5 turbo, GPT-4 turbo). Let’s look forward to more exciting developments from it in the future!
Due to space limitations, we can’t present all the amazing speeches here and thank you for understanding that. Apart from the speeches, other parts of the conference are also impressive!
The marketplace this year introduces many new elements. In addition to the traditional exhibitor area, we could also see the TechTalk area, Career Recharge Station, and TCers Camp. Let’s take a look together!
The sponsor area is larger and impressive this year, with the background panels showcasing the unique identity of each exhibitor. A big thank you to our sponsors — your support has made all of this possible!
The Career Recharge Station features a job board and a display of technical communication books and materials, attracting many participants.
TCer Camp is a quiet place for TCers to unwind with comfortable sofas and witty slogans… It’s designed exactly for relaxation, as rest is essential for a fresh start!
The Stamp Collection Event is a major highlight this year. Participants could collect stamps at the exhibitor booths, eligible to participate in a scratch card lottery after gathering six different stamps.
The success of the conference would not have been possible without the hard work and dedication of everyone involved.
Thanks to all the speakers for carefully preparing your speeches and generously sharing your valuable knowledge and experiences. Thank you for your contributions!
Thanks to the organizing committee and the board for your organization and careful evaluations!
Thanks to the staff and volunteers at the venue, especially volunteers from universities. It’s your responsibility, energy, and dedication that injected endless vitality into the conference!
Thanks to the interpreters for your support behind the scenes, which ensures the smooth running of the event.
Once again, thanks to everyone for coming.
And thanks to our sponsors for your support.
The two days full of highlights flew by. We moved between different speech rooms, enjoyed tea breaks, and had great conversations with both old and new friends, exchanging insights and experiences. It was a memorable time, leaving us eager for more!
AI is an inevitable trend and a powerful tool we need to make the most of. As technology rapidly evolves, let’s embrace change and work together to build a better future. Looking forward to meeting you again next year to explore more exciting topics!
To see more highlights from the event, click here to access the cloud photos!
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