• AI technologies in technical documentation, digitalization and document management, prompt engineering and other fields were the main topics at gdslive 2024
• Insightful keynote on product compliance, on the new machinery regulation and the digital product passport

gds GmbH successfully hosted the sixth edition of gdslive on June 12, 2024. It was the first time that the all-day event took place as a purely online event, bringing around 160 attendees together in order to discover the latest trends and topics from the world of technical communication.

A comprehensive event with fascinating presentations and valuable insights
After the welcome extended by Managing Director Ulrich Pelster, Philipp Reusch of reuschlaw Legal Consultants opened the event with a keynote on the current development status of the new machinery regulation and its effect on manufacturers and users.

The attendees then went their separate ways to the three parallel presentation slots. They had the choice of a number of topics.

• Christian Paul of gds introduced practical plug-in solutions for docuglobe and also held a discussion with his colleagues Jan Grüter and Tobias Kreimann on the integration of AI technologies into both gds content management systems and into the easybrowse content delivery portal.
• From gds Sprachenwelt Managing Director, Michaela Gorisch, attendees learned everything about writing for translation as per DIN 8579.
• Thomas Baçani of Congree and Tom Küster of gds made a presentation on how generative AI can help with quality assurance in content management processes.
• Helle Hannken-Illjes and Lukas Jetzig, parson, provided an introduction into the subject of prompt engineering and showed very clearly how AI can be used to communicate effectively.
• Christoph Beenen of kothes provided practical tips on how to successfully implement content management systems and content delivery portals.
• Harald Dierkes, gds, explained where the boundaries lie between manufacturer and user obligations in operating instructions.
• Benjamin Steinborn of AIXTRON provided a practical report. Together with Björn Ferencz of gds, he introduced attendees to the path from the simple Word documentation to digital instructions in the AIXpedia knowledge portal.
• CE expert Ludger Bruns of gds spoke of the new ecological design regulation and the digital product passport and their effect on technical documentation.
• Attendees found out from Maximilian Gärber of PANTOPIX how metadata and knowledge graphs boost the consistency of generative AI.
• Michael Ungethüm, A2 Doku, made a presentation on the Allindo AIS software which optimizes document management and collaboration for industrial plants.
• Franziska Gabriel of gds provided a clear explanation of how warnings are used efficiently and in line with the standards.
• Lars Schiller of Zindel shed light on the challenges faced when it comes to defining a permissible error rate in technical instructions.
• Finally, Oliver Brunneck and Jan Grüter, both of gds, introduced attendees to the reviewhub portal, a solution which optimizes the review process by way of collaborative verification.

Interactive format with positive feedback
The topics were selected by vote in the run-up to the event. From 22 suggested topics, the 15 with the most votes found their way into the program. This participative element made a considerable contribution to the success of the event and reflected the interest and the needs of the attendees faithfully.

Thanks to a carefully selected online platform, the character of gdslive as a forum for exchange and networking remained intact even in its digital form. The feedback was universally positive, and the concept was very well received.

Thanks and outlook
The presentation slides and recordings of all presentations are available to attendees at gdslive.eu.

“We would like to thank all attendees and speakers for a successful and inspiring event. We look forward to next year and are excited to see which new developments technical communication will have in store for us by then”, says Ulrich Pester, Managing Director of gds, with Marketing Manager Anja McGuire adding: "gdslive will take place again on May 14, 2025, so make sure to save the date".