Mary Conquest on LinkedIn: You won't find a better content conference with smarter, kinder people… (2024)

It's not always easy to market myself, especially since I'm somewhat niche-resistant, so thank you, Alison Burke. And by the by, folks, she's not looking for work, but I wouldn't hesitate for a second to work with Ali in any content capacity. Neither should you, if you ever get the chance.

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Alisa Bonsignore first introduced me to the idea of sustainable content at Confab 2022. In a nutshell: all digital data transfer comes at a cost. The amount of energy required to run server farms means they produce massive amounts of carbon emissions.I wondered, as AI became a household name, whether the problem would get worse (narrator: it did).I don't hear much about this in content circles. A little, but not much. Today I discovered the Small Media File Festival—a film fest for videos that are small enough to fit on a floppy disk. It's great to see designers turn their creativity towards great big impact with itty bitty file size.I'm sharing here for any designers, art lovers, or sustainable content folks I know (link in the comments). The fest is coming up in October.#DigitalSustainability #ContentStrategy #SustainableContent

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Here is one of many areas where occupational health and safety overlaps with content design: the need to account for neurodiversity.Both are fundamentally design challenges.To anyone tempted to think that this means skewing environmental or communication design towards a special interest group, here’s a spoiler alert. Designing for neurodiversity benefits everyone because it results in more clarity for everyone. In other words, neurodiverse-aware design is just good design.#OHS #ContentDesign #Neurodiversity

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Under the guise of “return to office”, Walmart has informed a number of remote workers, such as their entire design team, they the must return to the office—in Arkansas. This is a previously distributed team, so this is in fact a requirement to relocate. The have until July 1 to say yes or receive a severance package.It’s one thing to choose to relocate in order to take a job, but being forced to relocate to keep your job is another beast entirely.I’m posting to boost the signal regarding job opportunities and to encourage the (already generous) content community to share remote posts or consider hiring some of these talented people. #CorporateShenanigans

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Not a good look, Okta. There’s a huge opportunity cost to alienating entire groups of people who could otherwise deliver talent, drive, and yes, profit.

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Companies hoping that AI tools will design, write, and build your web experiences, please pay attention.

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I’ve been silent here for months and I’m ready to share why. My current full-time job is the one nobody wants, but far too many of us will have at one time or another. I’m a full-time patient undergoing treatment for breast cancer. The pay is terrible and the career consequences can be scary. The physical and psychological burden is heavy.One of the many surprises of these past months is that I’ve met a lot of fellow patients who are afraid to tell their employers about their illness. They worry that projects will be taken away, that they’ll be considered ineffective employees, that they’ll be asked intimate questions by people who are colleagues but not friends.I was advised more than once not to disclose my illness because I’d lose clients and professional clout. It’s taken me awhile to decide whether to be open about my health, but these women working in silence make me think there’s got to be more openness around this kind of situation. Treatment often takes a full year and that’s a long time to hide and feel scared.I fully respect that some people are more private and their choice not to disclose is what feels best for them. It’s those who choose silence out of fear that I’m talking about. I’m afraid I don’t have quick solutions, but I think we should look around and ask ourselves if our workplaces are set up to support people who face a life-changing diagnosis like this. If not, how can we make them safer?

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