MadCap Roadshow (Boston)

On Monday, May 23, I attended the Boston edition of the MadCap Software roadshow (actually, it was held in Dedham). The event is a full day of high-level training and show-and-tell about MadCap’s Flare.

MadCap founder Mike Hamilton presented, along with MadCap support guy Neil Posner. Also on hand was a famous local Neil: Flare guru Neil Perlin (I remember when Neil was a RoboHelp guru!). The presentations covered a nice mix of the latest trends in technical communications, plus new and key features of Flare. The Flare stuff never got too salesy, which I appreciated.

One of the highlights of the day for me was Mike’s CSS presentation. He gave an excellent explanation of how they work, and his handouts have become a part of my reference library.

The latest version of Flare includes a QR code generator. While this feature is very cool, I do wonder if QR codes will stick around or if they are just another fad. I have used them in several documents for a client, but I haven’t heard how successful they are in the wild. However, Neil Posner’s demonstration was top notch.

I enjoyed the MadCap Roadshow and feel like I got my money’s worth. I’m not sure it’s an event I need to attend every year (especially on my own dime) but this year, with the release of Flare 7, was a good one to catch.