Scott DeLoach - User First Services

Scott is a founding partner of User First Services (www.userfirst.net), an Atlanta-based consulting company that specializes in designing and creating user assistance. Over the last 12 years, Scott has presented over 60 papers on web-based Help, interface design, embedded user assistance, usability, and JavaScript coding at conferences across the US and Canada and around the world. He has been developing online Help systems since 1992 and is a certified RoboHelp instructor. Scott holds a Master's Degree in Technical and Scientific Communication from Miami University.

Matthew Ellison - Matthew Ellison Consulting

Matthew has over 17 years experience as a user assistance professional in the software industry. Much of this time was spent managing a team of writers and trainers at a UK-based consultancy company, before enjoying a period in the U.S. as Director of the WinWriters (now WritersUA) Conference. Matthew has been a popular speaker at WritersUA events throughout the world since 1997, and has covered a diverse range of topics from context-sensitive Help to the Spice Girls. He now runs his own independent UK-based training and consulting company that specializes in online Help design and technology. Matthew holds a B.Sc. in Electronic Engineering and a Post-Graduate Certificate of Education from Bristol University in the UK. He is also a Certified RoboHelp Instructor. Email Matthew (matthew@ellisonconsulting.com).

Rob Houser - User First Services

Rob is a founding partner of User First Services (www.userfirst.net), an Atlanta-based consulting company that specializes in designing and creating user assistance. Through User First Services, Rob produces online help and web-based training as well as traditional documentation and training materials. Some of Rob's recent projects include designing and writing embedded help for Bank of America's online bill pay website and designing and developing the Getting Started Tour for WS_FTP for Ipswitch Corporation. Rob holds a Master of Technical and Scientific Communication from Miami University of Ohio. He is a Certified RoboHelp Instructor and Certified Captivate Instructor.

Tony Self

Based in Australia, Tony Self is recognized as one of the pioneers of hypertext and online documents. For 15 years, Tony has worked in the areas of online Help systems, computer-based training, and electronic documents. In 1993, Tony founded HyperWrite, a business and technical documentation company specializing in hypertext. In 1998, HyperWrite began producing the Australasian Online Documentation Conference, an annual event attracting specialists from Australia and New Zealand. Tony served as Chief Technology Officer for Asia-Inc.com in 2000, where he was responsible for an innovative Asian business information web and WAP service. Tony has now returned to HyperWrite, where he consults to organizations on online documentation and Internet strategy.

Joe Welinske - WritersUA

Joe is President of WritersUA, a Seattle company specializing in training and information for the user assistance community. WritersUA sponsors the annual WritersUA Conference for Software User Assistance as well as conferences in Boston, Europe, and Australia. Joe has been involved with software documentation for over 16 years. During this time, his books, articles, and commentaries have provided a widely respected source of information on Help techniques and industry trends. Joe has a B.S. in computer engineering (U. Illinois) and a M.S. in instructional design (Loyola University).

Kipper York - Microsoft

Kipper York is the Lead Program Manager for the Assistance Platform Client team at Microsoft. She joined Microsoft in 1999 and has worked on the help systems for Visual Studio .NET and the Windows code-named "Longhorn" operating system. Prior to joining Microsoft as a full time employee, Kipper worked on Microsoft database tools and a beta version of Windows 2000. Kipper holds a Bachelor of Science from Stanford University.