Agenda for Content Conference (ConCon)

Overview

8:30 a.m. - Registration

9 a.m. - Keynote, Dana Chisnell

9:45 a.m. - Morning Sessions I

10:45 a.m. - Morning Breakouts

11:30 a.m. - Morning Sessions II

12:30 p.m. - Lunch

1:15 p.m. - Afternoon Sessions 

2:15 p.m. - Afternoon Breakouts 

3 p.m. - Tips for content authors

3:30 p.m. - Closing remarks

8:30 a.m. - Registration

Stop by the registration desk to check in and network with fellow Mass.gov authors and editors over coffee before the day kicks off.

9 a.m. - Keynote, Dana Chisnell

Dana Chisnell is a user researcher and co-director at the Center for Civic Design. She'll be speaking about designing content and services with users' journeys in mind.

9:45 a.m. - Morning Sessions I

Strategies for maintaining quality content

Learn what strategies and best practices other content creators use to maintain their Mass.gov content. Special focus on curating huge amounts of content and seasonal content.

Watching constituents use Mass.gov

Have you wondered how constituents actually use Mass.gov, or how they navigate to and use your pages? Christine Bath, User Experience Designer at Digital Services will show you how we observe constituent behavior on Mass.gov to learn about what we need to improve and share videos and findings from our recent usability studies.  You will also learn more about how you can run your own usability tests with your users.

10:45 a.m. - Morning Breakouts

Maintaining and improving your content

Discuss and share best practices for maintaining and improving your content. Tools, resources, and methods will be shared in this breakout session that can help you organize, schedule, and streamline your content maintenance to maximize performance.

Simplifying technical content and using constituent-friendly language

Does your agency rely on or require a lot of legal, regulatory, or specific jargon that makes it difficult to communicate effectively to constituents? This breakout session will focus on strategies you can use to break down complex terms to make them more understandable.

Using Mayflower: Creating a consistent experience outside of Mass.gov

Mayflower (not the boat) is the design system we’re creating so that all Commonwealth web properties have a consistent look and feel. In this breakout session, we want to learn more about your specific projects and needs so we can continue making Mayflower useful and relevant to your web projects outside of Mass.gov. We’ll then offer some suggestions for how different types of projects can leverage Mayflower effectively.  

11:30 a.m. - Morning Sessions II

Creating awesome services

The new Mass.gov is centered around services. But what does this mean, and how do you create a good one? Well-crafted web content about your services can engage constituents, help them find information, and ensure they reach their goals. There are lots of ways organizations can increase the performance of their service content and decrease the confusion constituents experience. In this most-requested session, learn from content strategist Adam Cogbill about how to make your service content wicked awesome for users.

Creating interconnected content for users

Your Mass.gov content does not exist in a vacuum. It's important to consider your content as a whole: how the pieces connect to one another, how users interact with it, and more. Managing editor Fiona Molloy will explain how all content is connected on Mass.gov. Once you see the big picture, you'll be able to craft the best content and user experience possible.

12:15 p.m. - Lunch

A variety of sandwiches will be provided. This is also a great opportunity to socialize and network with other attendees. 

1:15 p.m. - Afternoon Sessions

Improving content using Mass.gov authoring tools

Digital Services provides tools for Mass.gov authors and editors to improve their content based on constituents’ feedback and usage data. In this session you will learn how EEA, DPH, and the Office of the State Auditor effectively use these tools to improve content. Specifically, they will be talking about how they leverage Analytics Dashboards (Beta), Feedback Manager, Pages Linking Here, Siteimprove, and Google Analytics.

Using documents on Mass.gov

Mass.gov still has more uploaded documents than HTML webpages. This session will explain when uploaded documents should be considered artifacts of a bygone era and a content manager’s last-resort, and when they are still a critical, value-added contribution to Mass.gov content.  In this session, you’ll learn how to use documents on Mass.gov, including how to create, delete, and maintain them so that they’re as accessible as possible for constituents.

2:15 p.m. - Afternoon Breakouts

Writing for your audience

It’s important to keep your content targeted to a specific audience. For example, your organization may offer one service to both employers and employees. Maybe your users are a combination of people looking for first-time licenses and professionals that simply want to renew existing licenses. What should you do if your content is addressing both of these audiences? In this breakout session, we’ll talk about framing content to address the needs of specific audiences. Who’s the intended audience of your content? Are your titles clear it’s for Person X and not Person Y?     

Writing/managing newsletters, bulletins, blogs

There are a lot of ways organizations can communicate with their audiences through Mass.gov. In this breakout session, discuss how you use newsletters, bulletins, and blogs as an effective way to get your messages out to targeted readers.

Using Mass.gov authoring tools

Digital Services provides tools for Mass.gov authors and editors to improve their content based on constituents’ feedback and usage data. In this breakout session, discuss how you are using these tools to improve your content. If you haven’t tried them yet, this is a great place to learn how your peers are using them.

3 p.m. - Tips for content authors

Want to increase traffic? Learn how to use headings? Create a directory? Schedule your content? Add an image to your page that doesn't look weird? Learn 30 tips in 30 minutes, including how zombies can help you improve your writing.  

3:30 p.m. - Closing remarks

Closing remarks to be made by Bryan Hirsch, Deputy Chief Digital Officer.