Welcoming the 10th tekom Europe Country Organization

tekom Israel was officially founded on July 2, 2017, in Tel Aviv. Dr. Michael Fritz, CEO of tekom Europe, attended the successful founding event organized with the support dedicated technical communication professionals.

On the 34th floor of the Electra Tower overlooking the Tel Aviv skyline, tekom Israel was founded on Sunday, July 2, 2017. The event was attended by 100 professionals in the field of technical communication. It marked the final step in the process of becoming part of the tekom Europe family and thus the tenth country organization.

A look back at the beginnings 

Dr. Michael Fritz attended MEGAComm in Jerusalem in February 2017. He met many motivated technical writers with an interest in creating more opportunities, networking, and becoming part of tekom Europe. From there, the idea was consolidated to establish a tekom Europe country organization in Israel.

Paula Stern, CEO of WritePoint, volunteered to kick off the process on site and then worked on approaching and winning over professionals for the initiative to advance the technical communication profession in Israel. In June 2017, ten tekom Europe members from Israel signed a founding proposal, which was then approved by the Executive Board of tekom Europe.

More than 100 participants joined the event

The initiative to found tekom Israel and provide a platform for technical communicators was highly appreciated, and over 100 participants accepted the invitation to join the event. Leah Guren, CEO of Cow TC, opened with a keynote on "Finding the Sweet Spot - balancing the needs of the users with the needs of the company". This was followed by a panel on "Documentation Rules of 2017: Documenting Rules for highly technical and lowly technical, mobile and SaaS documentation", moderated by Rochelle Fisher.

The break provided a chance to network in a market where tekom Europe sees lots of demand and potential for generating and exchanging ideas on technical communication. After the break, the country organization was officially launched. Michael Fritz presented an overview of tekom/tekom Europe. He talked about the latest activities and goals, also building a vision for tekom Israel.

This well-received event continued with an interactive panel moderated by Paula Stern on "How Would You Handle This Scenario? Popular tech writing challenges presented to documentation experts". It used the momentum of excitement at the birth of tekom Israel to generate a lively, informative, interesting discussion. 

We thank Google for sponsoring the facilities and refreshments and extend a big thank you to all the volunteers for their support in organizing this event and getting tekom Israel off the ground.

The Initiative Committee

Meet the volunteers who form the initiative committee appointed by the tekom Europe executive board:

• Paula Stern, CEO of WritePoint and spokesperson of tekom Israel
• Rochelle Fisher, documentation manager and trainer and vice spokesperson of tekom Israel
• Yoni Palmer, CEO of Tech Tav and secretary of tekom Israel
• Ezriel Yellin, Technical Writer at McKesson and budget officer of tekom Israel

Next Steps

There will be a call for delegates in Israel, and elections will be held to determine our tekom Israel delegate who will be joining the tekom Europe Assembly of Delegates on October 23, 2017 in Stuttgart.
The initiative committee will be in the process of planning events and a webinar for 2017 and 2018. An exciting time lies ahead for the newly founded tekom Israel, as well as the tekom Europe family. We look forward to working with such an enthusiastic community and are glad to support them in their development.