Soap! Just Wants to Have Fun

To make the soap! story complete, we're giving you translation of our general summary of the soap! conference prepared by the soap! team. Enjoy! What do soap, pink color, an old cable factory, a white terrier, a scooter, coffee, and a selfie in a bathroom all have in common?

At first glance, it might be hard to see any connection whatsoever. Yet, the participants of this year’s soap! conference know all too well what connects these dots. For those who do not know, further reading should shed some light on this mysterious compilation, so do continue.

soap! 2014 took place at hub:raum, a venue located on 12 Przemysłowa Street in Kraków. What used to be a cable factory is now adapted as an office space. It has a certain post-industrial vibe, which only adds to its unique atmosphere. Particularly interesting was the fact that hub:raum while providing space for a conference was also an active co-working space filled with all kinds of individuals. One of them commutes to work by means of a scooter (one of those child-toy resembling, leg propelled vehicles) and another one shares his daily-work toils with a white terrier, who loves chasing after a rubber ball. Curiously enough, none of these oddities disrupted the conference flow.

Here We Come

This year we were honoured to be an official media partner of soap!, so we didn’t try to be late like the last time (for all those who don’t remember, let’s just say, it didn’t work out ). We climbed the stairs up to the last floor and were greeted by receptionists with a warm smile and a participant package. It contained a notepad, stickers, and an ID badge, so pretty much everything you need to get going. Combining an ID badge with the fold out conference schedule was a brilliant idea. We grabbed some pens, which were distributed in abundance in all colors and shapes and made a beeline for the catering corner to replenish our caffeine levels. There was nothing to fuss about - the coffee was good, warm, and in appropriate amounts. We took our places and waited for the opening talk. During our wait we took in our surroundings. The floor, switches, curtains, and raw concrete surfaces which brought to mind a DIY store, were adorned with modern elements. Such stylistic approach was pleasing to the eye and it corresponded well with the overall vibe of the conference.

Let’s Start!

One of the soap!’s co-founders, Paweł Kowaluk took the floor, as it fell to him to deliver the opening talk for soap! 2014. This year edition’s tagline was “a clean start”. Paweł illustrated this idea to the conference participants along with a quick summary of contemporary trends in the technical communication area. The tech-comm scene in Poland is still in its infancy and it’s up to us what shape and form it will take in the near future. This is not an easy task, as there is barely anything to build on. However, as Paweł tried to convince his audience, this is actually a good thing, because without all the unnecessary baggage of the past, we can shape the Polish technical communication in any way we want. After that, Paweł moved on to discuss various directions the technical documentation is heading to. According to him, it’s main focus should be on the client instead of the product. The users expect information, that will allow them to quickly start using the product, that will display only when needed, and is easily searchable. Paweł even risked a thesis, that sometimes products could do without any documentation whatsoever. As an example, he provided the developers of the Omnipaste application. They have set themselves a goal to create a user interface so clear and intuitive to use, that it didn’t require any conventional documentation. Instead, they have embedded short multimedia presentations into the product website itself, that concisely illustrate the capabilities of their product. Surely it is an interesting approach and although it cannot be applied in complicated business products, one should not forget that voluminous user manuals aren’t always the best solution.

Meanwhile in the Bathroom

I must admit, that bathroom doesn’t rank high among the topics that permeate the reports from technical communication conferences, but this time we had to make an exception. Although, we by no means intend to praise the bathroom fixtures, it looks like the organizers of soap! wanted to make every available space serve it’s (soapy) purpose to the best of its abilities. Therefore, they designated toilets as a space for making selfies (we suspect that groufies were also allowed). The bathroom mirror fashioned a small post-it note encouraging everyone to overcome their inner shyness and snap a pic. For the especially creative and adventurous ones, various props were provided, including but not limited to swimming goggles and a climbing helmet. As it turned out, quite a few brave daredevils took up the challenge and the effects could be seen on the @SoapConf Twitter profile or using the #soapkrk hashtag.

Networking Opportunities

soap! wasn’t just about the talks and presentations. The conference organisers didn’t forget about the less formal part which is the networking. After the first day, the participants could exchange ideas and share experiences over a glass of wine at a nearby wine-bar and the second day was topped with a farewell party in one of the clubs. As we all know, nothing binds technical writers together better than toasting to good content.

A Handful of Facts

And now for a bunch of solid facts. We have obtained this data from the conference organizers, so it’s not a figment of our merry creativity as is the case with all that we have written above. 142 people participated in the first (free of charge) day of the conference, 98 in the second (paid). The participants consumed: 400 cups of coffee and tea, and 700 glasses of water and juice. During those 2 days, there were in total 18 talks and 3 workshops, led by 25 speakers and trainers from Poland, Germany, France, UK, Spain, Austria, Canada, US, and India. The participants represented companies such as Dassault Systems, IBM, VSoft, Electrolux, Ericpol, Avast Software, Interlingua Language Services GmbH, Autodesk, Roche, Motorola Solutions, and Google, among others. The talks covered various topics like documentation for API, gamification, UX, DITA, storytelling, silos, content management strategies, and Agile.

Let’s Sum Up

Considering organisational aspects (the talks were covered in separate articles), the conference left us with a pleasant impression. Clearly, it is created by people who do it with lots of passion and commitment, yet without having a stick up their... (which is perfectly illustrated by the photo below).

There were a couple of minor shortcomings but nothing serious enough to make it worth mentioning. Besides, such trivial technical flaws are a part of every conference. To cut a long story short, there was good coffee, tasty food, great people, a relaxed and friendly atmosphere.

Cindy Lauper once sang that ‘Girls Just Want To Have Fun’, well, now we know that soap! wants it too! We will definitely come back next year.

Translated: Piotr Milewski Proofread: Paweł Kowaluk