Convince Your Manager

Do you need help justifying why your manager should send you to Write the Docs? Do you need help convincing your community to submit a Writing Day Project? Don’t worry – you’re not alone. Based on the experiences of some of our previous attendees, we’ve put together two sample emails and a list of resources below. Feel free to adapt and share with your employer and community to convince them that there are many benefits of attending!

Sample Email #1

Convince your manager to send you to Write the Docs

Remember to change the things in [brackets]!

FROM: [your name]
TO: [your employer or manager’s name]
SUBJECT: Professional Development: Documentation Community Conference

I’d like to attend Write the Docs Berlin from Sep 6-8, 2026. This three-day event explores the art and science of documentation, and covers a diverse range of topics related to documentation in the software industry.

Write the Docs conferences bring together everyone who writes the docs – Tech Writers, Developers, Developer Relations, Customer Support – making the events an ideal networking opportunity. Each conference successfully combines a number of different event formats to deliver engaging, practical, and timely content.

There is a single track of talks, a parallel unconference event, and a community writing day. The sessions from last year will give you a good idea of the kinds of topics covered, many of which are relevant to my work.

Costs:

Benefits:

  • Discovering solutions to problems I’m facing at work
  • Exposure to the latest ideas, techniques, and tools for software docs
  • Opportunity to learn from the best doc teams in the industry
  • Building professional connections with other documentarians

Thanks in advance, [your name]

Corporate Resources

When discussing how to pitch the conference, a few generally helpful tips emerged:

  • Highlight specific talks that relate to ongoing projects at work (after talk line up has been announced).
  • If your company is looking to hire another documentarian, the networking is an excellent resource.
  • Attending raises the visibility of your company in the community.
  • Establishes your team’s reputation for caring about their docs.
  • Share info about previous conferences. View the main page overview explaining Write the Docs, history, and schedule overview.

Sample Email #2

Convince your manager or community to participate in Writing Day

Remember to change the things in [brackets]!

FROM: [your name]
TO: [your employer or community lead’s name]
SUBJECT: Docs hackathon: Documentation Community Conference

I’d like to attend Write the Docs Berlin from Sep 6-8, 2026. This three-day event explores the art and science of documentation, and covers a diverse range of topics related to documentation in the software industry. I am particularly interested in leading a project at Writing Day. I believe this event can positively impact our project and community.

Writing Day is modeled after the concept of “code sprints” or “hackathons”, which are common in open-source conferences. The primary goal is to bring interesting individuals into the same room and have them work towards a shared goal; in this case the goal is creating or improving documentation or other related projects.

Costs:

Writing Day Benefits:

  • Introduce our project and community to a new audience and demographic in our industry
  • Get highlighted as a project in the conference blog and announcements (must submit online by April 17, 2026)
  • Onboard documentation enthusiasts to increase the likelihood of post-conference contributions
  • Strategically tackle documentation tickets and requests
  • Update existing documentation
  • Peer review new and existing documentation

Conference Benefits:

  • Exposure to the latest ideas, techniques, and tools for software docs
  • Opportunity to learn from the best doc teams in the industry
  • Building professional connections with other documentarians

Bringing our project to Writing Day benefits us as a community. It gives us the opportunity to improve our documentation and create a more inclusive project.

Thanks in advance, [your name]

Writing Day Resources

When discussing how to pitch Writing Day, a few helpful tips emerged:

  • Highlight specific projects from a previous Writing Day project list.
  • If your community is looking for regular documentation contributions, this is a great place to onboard potential contributors and editors.
  • Attending raises the visibility of your company in the community.
  • Establishes your team’s reputation for caring about their docs.
  • Review the tips for leading a project at Writing Day.
  • Share info about previous conferences. View the main page overview explaining Write the Docs, history, and schedule overview.