Stilo is pleased to announce that the following presentation with Extreme Network’s Christina Mayr has been accepted onto the conference program for CMS/DITA North America 2016, April 4-6 in Reston, Virginia.

The presentation will take place on Wednesday, April 6 at 10.35am as part of the Management Issues Track. You can find out more about CMS/DITA North America on the conference website.

“Extreme” DITA conversion: Lessons learned from doing it the hard way

Converting to DITA can be a difficult and time-consuming process—if you do it the hard way. Extreme Networks converted content 3 years ago, but quickly learned there is an easier, faster, and less expensive way. Through practical tips, cautionary tales and some real-world examples, Christina Mayr, Technical Editor, InfoDev RDU Team at Extreme Networks, will help you set up a plan for a successful DITA conversion project.

Christina will be joined by Helen St. Denis, Conversion Services Manager at Stilo, who will provide some practical insight into some of the biggest conversion mistakes people make when moving to DITA and how to avoid them, based on her experience of helping Stilo customers convert many tens of thousands of pages of content to DITA. Helen will guide you in what you need to do to make sure your DITA conversion project will be successful and also how to ensure that your content will be the high-quality DITA that you need.

What can the audience expect to learn?

This session is designed to be interactive. It will benefit those looking to convert to DITA for the first time, who are not sure where to start or how to develop a plan for a successful DITA conversion project–as well as those who have been burnt by a bad conversion before and want to learn about best practices. We encourage participants to come armed with their questions!

Meet the presenters

Christina Mayr | Extreme Networks

Christina Mayr is the Technical Editor & Content Manager for Extreme Networks. Christina oversees the conversion of legacy content into DITA; manages the tools, templates, and internal workflows; and edits all external technical documentation before publication. A graduate of the East Carolina University Technical & Professional Communication Program, she has worked in central North Carolina in various sectors, including IT, health & safety, and manufacturing.

Helen St. Denis | Stilo

Helen originally joined Stilo as a technical editor in the documentation team and now works closely with Migrate customers, helping to analyze their legacy content, configure appropriate mapping rules, and provide training and support on an ongoing basis. Over several years, she has helped people convert many tens of thousands of pages of content to DITA and other XML formats.

Helen holds a BA in English from St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, and has pursued graduate studies at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.

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