Content strategy enthusiasts gathered at LavaCon to share best practices and hard-won lessons learned (both what worked and what didn’t).

Originally, Jack Molisani started LavaCon in Hawaii (hence the name) to give senior content professionals an opportunity to stay ahead of rapidly changing publishing technology and customer demographics. LavaCon’s mission is to connect people and organizations that are experiencing content challenges with speakers and vendors who can help.

Over 450 content strategists, content engineers, documentation managers and other content professionals from companies including Adobe, Facebook, MasterCard and more, were in New Orleans for the latest LavaCon, October 21-24, 2018.

The conference opened with a teambuilding exercise: who could build the tallest freestanding structure from a box of spaghetti and a roll of tape. Next, Karen McGrane, author of Content Strategy for Mobile, presented a talk on “Content in the Zombie Apocalypse.”

In addition to scheduled talks, there were several networking events — from a networking reception sponsored by Adobe Systems, to a Second Line parade led by a skeleton drum krewe leading us to sing Halloween carols in New Orleans’s Jackson Square, to LavaCon’s annual karaoke night sponsored by WebWorks.