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From previous conference participants

“It’s a serendipitous experience whenever I attend a Best Practices conference. Whatever stage my company is at in our structured authoring journey, Best Practices brings together the best minds to explore and innovate to resolve the pain points we’re experiencing as our doc sets and our department matures.”

“Great conference! Well-organized! Fabulous people—presenters & attendees all very friendly, open & helpful.”

“An excellent, useful conference. Lots of good ideas. This will influence our development/roll-out plans.”

“Great conference! Always the highlight of my year. It was informative as it was fun!”

“This conference has become one of my most important “tools” for continuing to move my team into the 21st century.”

“Well done, as always. The time spent at the best practices conference is always well worth it.”

“Thank you. Great first conference of this nature for me. Definitely will attend/send folks in the future.”

“Sessions great, networking opportunities great—still the best conference and most valuable investment I’ve experienced!”

“The collegial nature of this group is phenomenal! The opportunity to learn due to the ongoing membership & contact and the quality of what people are doing is an exceptional culmination of knowledge & practice.”

“It’s been an excellent conference (as always), but I think you out did yourselves on this one! Bravo!”

“The was a great networking opportunity, many takeaways.”

“This is a very good platform for me to learn what I want know. Thank you very much.”

“Once again, this was an excellent conference. It helped re-energize me and I have many new concepts to apply at my office.”

“This page isn’t big enough to contain the praise I have for this conference. Every one of the hundreds of details was executed to absolute perfection. All the content was relevant, high quality, engaging. The learning and value of this conference is astronomical.”

“This was my first time. Thoroughly enjoyed the conference.”

“Good selection of topics. Great discussions.”

"Well organized. Good number of breaks. Good number of networking opportunities."

"Very informative, and fun."

"Good mix of presentations."

"I have zero criticism and only sky-high praise for everything about this conference."

"Thank you all for organizing yet another hugely-valuable, relevant, inspiring, and fun event! Can’t wait for next year."

Come to the Conference for Free!

CIDM Member benefits include a variety of complimentary conference registrations and discounts! These benefits can be applied to our annual conferences, including Best Practices. You will also receive a year’s worth of valuable services provided by CIDM.

Please visit the CIDM Membership page for details.

2018 Conference Theme:
Necessary Evil or Valued Partner?

Is your department viewed as an important contributor to your corporate success and reputation? Over 40% of CIDM members in 2017 indicated that they were not. With information development teams perceived as important but not impactful or, in some cases, even as unnecessary or a detractor from success, technical communication managers are looking for definitive ways to establish and prove their team’s value to the company.

Join us in Seattle as we focus on developing your elevator pitch, assessing your importance to end users, creating a plan for corporate buy-in, marketing your capabilities, and increasing your value and also the value of your team.

We will be led by keynote speaker, Kurian Mathew Tharakan who is the Founder and Managing Director of strategic marketing firm StrategyPeak Sales and Marketing Advisors, and is responsible for the creation of marketing strategy and execution for a wide array of clients and situations. He will be presenting:

Raising Your Brand

Strategies and Tactics for creating recognized importance, meaning, and purpose for technical communications within your company.

What to expect

In its 20th year, the CIDM Best Practices conference remains the premier annual conference for managers of information development. No other conference in the industry offers you the chance to meet so many managers with the same challenges and the best solutions.

By popular request, we’re offering a hybrid conference approach, combining a single and multi-track system to bring you together for overarching theme sessions, followed by simultaneous sessions for you to choose from based on the needs of your team. Other sessions give you the opportunity for one-on-one interaction with your peers to gather advice and best practices about the issues specifically on your mind, as well as some time to see short demonstrations of current projects and tools.

Once again, you’ll be judge for the Inspire award. Listen to “elevator-pitch” summaries of best practices in play at other companies and vote on the most inspiring for the year.


Do you have a best practice or helpful tip that you believe will inspire and motivate others in the information development community? CIDM invites you to share your success story and be recognized by your peers in our new best practices competition. Click here for additional information and to submit your 2018 Inspiration!

The Center for Information–Development Management (CIDM) brings together the most highly skilled and talented managers in the field of information development from across the US and internationally to facilitate the sharing of information about current trends, best practices, and developments within the industry, from information development to training and support.

Not a CIDM Member?
Become a member today!

What’s included?

The conference fee of $1395 includes:

  • 2 ½ days of presentations and networking
  • Opening reception on Sunday night
  • Breakfast Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday
  • Lunch Monday and Tuesday
  • Dinner Cruise on Tuesday evening