Andrea Ames has guest edited an outstanding issue of Intercom for September on a much-needed topic—the business value of content. In the issue, she and six other authors show how content is crucial to business, especially in the era of Information and Industry 4.0, where information is an integral part of emerging technology.
Drawing from both the technical and marketing sides of her brain, Andrea speaks and teaches about how organizations can best leverage technical content to grow revenue, acquire and retain customers, and create raving fans from those customers. She also inspires technical content strategists, designers, and creators to build skills and capabilities for measurable impact in their organizations.
Recognized in 2016 by MindTouch as one of the Top 25 Content Strategy Influencers, and in 2017 by [A] as one of the Top 25 Masters of Multichannel, Andrea is a content experience strategist and founder and CEO of Idyll Point Group. Idyll Point Group assists executives and managers to build content organizations that have measurable business impact and provides content strategists with apprenticeship-style coaching to develop the skills to lead businesses in content strategy.
Andrea is a Certified Online Training Professional and the curriculum designer and Program Chair for the UCSC Extension in Silicon Valley certificate program in technical writing and communication, where she teaches content design and architecture, human factors, and usability courses. She is also a Fellow and past President of STC, a Distinguished Engineer of the ACM (the first content professional to achieve this distinction), a Senior Member of the IEEE, and a member of numerous other professional associations.
When she’s not advising content leaders or teaching technical writers, Andrea teaches quilt making and design, kayaks, SCUBA dives, and walks her dogs—typically while binging on podcasts and audio books. You can reach Andrea on Twitter @aames, LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreaames/, or her website: www.IdyllPointGroup.com.
Thank you to Andrea, Melissa Breker, Colleen Jones, Saul Carliner, Jenifer Schlotfeldt, Joe Gollner, and Jack Molisani for sharing their expertise and thoughts with Intercom readers. Thanks also go to the the columnists who wrote columns on Ethics and Accessibility within this issue and a My Job by Linda Oestreich. Be sure to read the Society Pages for some exciting news for the 2018 membership year, including 65th anniversary rates on dues and new benefits, as well as President Alyssa Fox’s quarterly report.
—Liz Pohland
