Ellis Pratt's speaker profile
Ranked the most influential blogger on technical communication in Europe, Ellis Pratt is a specialist in software Help strategies, creating knowledge users will love.
About Ellis
Ellis' research into the ROI and value of User Assistance and onine Help has resulted in him identifying key new trends in technical communication: powerful and faster ways to support users when they get stuck.
When it's well known that over 50% of new IT projects begin to fail within their first few months and user expectations continue to increase, it's more important than ever to avoid creating user manuals that no-one reads.
He is an accomplished speaker on topics concerning a strategic approach to assisting users, emerging trends in technical communication and sharing knowledge.
Ellis has spoken at conferences in Austria, Denmark, England, Germany, Lithuania, Scotland and Wales, including:
- TICAD-Technical Information Creation And Distribution
- Tekom
- Society for Technical Communication conferences (for both the UK and TransAlpine chapters)
- TCUK (hosted by The Institute of Scientific and Technical Communicators)
- User Assistance Europe (UAEurope)
- Various ISTC regional groups
- Institute for Sales and Marketing Management
He has been invited to speak at the Society for Technical Communication (STC) 2012 Summit in Chicago, IL.
He is an author and editor of two books: "How to Write Instructions" and "Trends in Technical Communication".
Ellis has also had articles published on technology trends in documentation in journals such as Intercom (USA), Communicator (UK), The Southern Communicator (Australia and New Zealand) and Tech Talk (Victoria, Australia). He's also been quoted in various journals, including The Independent newspaper.
He has over fifteen years experience working in the field of documentation, a BA in Business Studies. He is also an Associate of the Institution of Engineering and Technology, and an Affiliate of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. He has been a remote judge for the Puget Sound STC's (Society for Technical Communication) technical communication competition.
He is also a black belt aikido instructor in his spare time.
His regular articles on technical communication have resulted him in being ranked by Mindtouch as the most the influential blogger on technical communication in Europe.
As a speaker at conferences and business meetings, Ellis brings humour, real life stories and practical applications to his keynote talks and seminars.
Presentations
The changing role of technical communicators -presented at Technical Communication UK 2011. This presentation was the result of a 5.30pm Friday night phone call from the conference organisers. As their original speaker had fallen sick, they asked if Ellis could prepare a presentation and speak on this subject at the conference in four days time.
Applying gamification to User Assistance. Here is an edited version of our presentation at UAEurope 2011, "You win - applying games theories to User Assistance". It covers how Technical Authors can use gamification theories in user documentation. The original 45 minute presentation has been edited down to 13 minutes.
Here is an edited version of Ellis' presentation at TCUK 2010 on the emotion factor in User Assistance:
Presentations include:
- What should Technical Communicators do when products ‘just work'?
- Why don't people RTFM?
- What should you do when users get stuck?
- Trends in technical communication
- You win! Applying games theories to software user assistance
- Documentation as an emotional experience for the user
- Recruiting the right Technical Author
- If everyone is writing, why can't everyone write?
Testimonials
"Ellis Pratt stole the show with his presentation on applying game theory to software UA, using plenty of colorful, relevant examples ..., and striking just the right balance between theory and practice." Ultan O'Broin, Director, Applications User Experience team, Oracle Corporation.
"On behalf of the TransAlpine Chapter, I want to thank you for taking your time to come to Vienna and be a part of our conference. We all had a wonderful time and our conference was a success. " Janette Lynch, STC TransAlpine
"From consultants Cherryleaf, Ellis Pratt also brings wisdom - indeed, he has lessons on metrics that go beyond their use in technical publishing. First, he rightly issues what he calls '18 minutes of health and safety warnings' on how to measure - and mainly how not to measure - productivity. The point, he says, is that you don't want to be having conversations with management about page count, cost per word, or number of pages put out per writer." Professor James Woudhuysen, published in ITWeek 
"I've never been to one of Ellis' presentations and not left with buckets of stuff to think about." Roger Hart
"Your presentation was fantastic - you really addressed what our members were asking to learn. And you made it great fun!" CJ Walker
"Cherryleaf also made a great contribution to the conference, with a comprehensive three-hour career development workshop" Stuart Culshaw
"Thanks for giving such an awesome presentation." Tom Johnson
How to contact us
To contact, please telephone 0208 13 31 301 or send us an email.
