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LavaCon

"Bernard's speaker evaluations consistently land in the 90th percentile"
Jack Molisani, Conference Producer

CM Pros/Doctrain

“Bernard is often ranked as one of the best speakers at our industry conferences. His wonderful sense of humor combined with his sparkling personality, make him a popular presenter and a welcome addition to any technical publications, XML, or content management event. Bernard is also an accomplished consultant, author of technical books and papers, and much more.”
Scott Abel, The Content Wrangler

"I run the annual Documentation & Training conference, now in its 7th year. Bernard is consistently our top-rated speaker, and if you have the opportunity to schedule him as a speaker I'd highly recommend him to you.
Mike Doyle, Conference Manager

FrameMaker Chautauqua

Our featured speaker (Bernard Aschwanden) brought rave reviews. He is very knowledgeable on technical publications issues, and in general has a sense of humor and presentation style that is very engaging. We were glad to have had him as our featured speaker.
Kay Ethier, Conference Manager

Reviews

Maxwell Hoffman:
"I have been a speaker at numerous conferences with Bernard and have always found his presentations to be highly original, devoid of "fluff", and genuinely useful."

Brett Freeman:
"Bernard is always the highlight of any conference or event he participates in, and is as entertaining as he is informative! Whether addressing business users or an entire IT department, his strong interpersonal skills give him the ability to work in any environment and be credible in that environment."

Michael Priestly:
"Bernard is an excellent and entertaining presenter and trainer with a firm focus on pragmatics. He focuses in on the details that are needed by a particular audience and makes the information stick."

 

Conferences

Bernard Aschwanden, President and founder of Publishing Smarter, presents and keynotes at conferences across Canada, the United States, and Europe on a wide range of topics.

• Upcoming conferences
• Past conferences (listed by date)

Upcoming conferences

Several conferences are scheduled in the next year at which we expect to present. The following conferences are included in this list.

• WritersUA (www.writersua.com)
• STC Conference (www.stc.org)

Past conferences

A partial list of conferences we have presented at in the past few years follows. Topics are arranged by date (newest at the top).

2008

LavaCon, Honolulu, Hawaii (Nov 6-8)

• Migrating to DITA: Real World Successes, Failures and Lessons Learned
• Choosing a Content Management System that's Right for You Workshop
• Choosing a Translation Vendor that's Right for You

2007

LavaCon, New Orleans, LA (Oct 27-30)

• How to Save Big Bucks on Your CMS Implementation

2006

Society for Technical Communication: Toronto, Canada, (Feb 16)

• XML For Techwriters: XML Basics: Bernard Aschwanden of Publishing Smarter will give an introduction to XML (extensible mark-up language). XML is W3C standard and authoring tool independent language. The XML standard allows an enterprise to define its own mark-up languages with emphasis on specific tasks such as data management and publishing. The properties of XML mark-up make it suitable for representing information in an open, platform-, vendor-, and language-neutral manner. XML provides a greater opportunity to reuse this data outside of the sources from which it was derived. XML also helps guide writers in the creation of content.

DITA Conference, NC (Mar 23-25)

• From 0 to DITA in 30 Days, A Case Study: During this presentation you'll hear the story of one company and its quest to develop DITA compliant content from Adobe FrameMaker. Upon the realization that 'out of the box' is not what they need, the team turned to Bernard Aschwanden to help build a custom DITA publishing application in under 30 billable days.

TriXML, Raleigh, NC (July 27-29)

• XML Authoring and Tool Selection: Making the decision on what software to use for XML authoring is not one that should be based on a developers demo or the price of the tool alone. During this session we examine several leading tools and examine how they handle XML and what is required to support importing and exporting of content. By performing a far more detailed examination of the tools a deeper understanding of what can (and can not) be done is gained. This assists managers in making the decision on what software to recommend for structured authoring.
• CMS and XML: Ever get the feeling that every XML Consultant is out to fleece you and every CMS Vendor wants to buy you a few tequila's and then show you *his* implementation?
  This informative and fun lunch presentation helps you get a good idea of what NOT to ask of others. It also provides a great insight into the mindset of the consultant, the vendor and the client. Real answers (and those you only wish you could hear) are presented to the most common questions about the software and the strategies that need to be in place for a successful implementation.

LavaCon, Hawaii (Oct 1-4)

• Selecting a CMS Vendor: Instead of reviewing and comparing features of CMS marketing content, wouldn't it be useful to know what you specifically need? We explore the exact features that people should ask for, rather than the features offered. During this session learn about the key questions to ask a CMS vendor.
• Structured Authoring and Tool Selection: Making the decision on what software to use for XML authoring is not one that should be based on a developers demo or the price of the tool alone. During this session we examine several leading tools and examine how they handle XML and what is required to support importing and exporting of content. By performing a far more detailed examination of the tools a deeper understanding of what can (and can not) be done is gained. This assists managers in making the decision on what software to recommend for structured authoring.

FrameMaker Chautauqua: Austin, TX (Nov 7-9)

• FrameDITA-lite: It's a free application that can be used to get going with structured FrameMaker and DITA. Output is fully compliant with the DITA specification and can be opened in a variety of tools. This presentation shows you how FrameDITA-lite works.

2005

Society for Technical Communication: Toronto, Canada, (Sept 17)

• DITA/DocBook and XML: Bernard Aschwanden demonstrates DocBook and DITA input and output using XML and FrameMaker. This is a complete workflow showing XML source files being imported, remapped, modified and exported.

Society for Technical Communication: Milwaukee, WI (Oct)

• XML Tools and Technology: An overview of the process and various people and tools required to work with FrameMaker 7.2 and XML. Attendees will gain an understanding of the benefits of structuring AND hurdles that need to be overcome.

DocTrain: Boston, MA (Oct 17-18)

• Getting Started with XML and FrameMaker: This seminar is geared towards users of FrameMaker who have a general level of comfort with the software and are familiar with using the various Designers, page types, cross-references, variables, tables, graphics and so on. Anyone who is looking for a detailed introduction to working with XML and FrameMaker is encouraged to attend and to bring questions. We address everything related to FM and XML from importing XML documents to the development of templates, read/write rules, EDD files and XML Applications to automate conversion of files.
• XML Publishing with WebWorks ePublisher Pro: This seminar is your chance to see the new WebWorks ePublisher Pro. ePublisher Pro is the next generation of online content delivery, leveraging the power of XML to make quick work of every common online format and Help system. It is a completely re-engineered, XML-based revision of Quadralay Corporation's powerful single-source online publishing solution. Dozens of improvements start with a superior, user-friendly interface, which includes an online content preview window for visual style development, GUI-based advanced customizations, robust code editor, and much more.

FrameMaker Chautauqua: Raleigh, NC (Nov 7-9)

• FrameMaker and Beyond: Featured speaker are Bernard Aschwanden, explores the most recent release of FrameMaker and offers insights on what is ripe for change, hyped as great but found to be lacking, and what is out of sight and exceeds what he expected from the development team.

STC Single Sourcing SIG: Toronto, ON (Nov 17)

• This hands-on seminar walks you through the development of a working EDD and the associated template. If you are one of those people who have not yet been exposed to the EDD, Read/Write rules, the associated template and all the other bits and pieces that make up a structured application then this is for you.

2004

Doctrain: Boston, MA, Oct 6-7

• Automating FrameMaker with FrameScript: FrameMaker is an incredibly powerful publishing tool that can be hampered by its interface and a lack of macro tools to facilitate automation. The solution to these problems lie in FrameScript, an automation tool that allows FrameMaker books and documents to be configured by automating many of the manual tasks normally consuming hours every day. The return on investment is immediate.
• FrameMaker Template Development: So you know FrameMaker and need to build a template. Now that the training is completed what do you really need to know to create documentation that can be reused for years to come? Attend this seminar to see the tips and tricks that make good templates great. Everything from creating and managing the infamous "Note, Caution or Warning" through to best practices for naming paragraph, character and table tags, development of reference page content and more.

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