I won something.

I actually won something.

That I didn’t have to work to win.

Awards and things take work…this was luck! My name, it was just pulled out of a hat! And all because I participated in a survey about my field as a member of The Content Wrangler community.

Yes, it sounds silly, but the name is accurate and appropriate. There’s a lot of wrangling in this business — gentle wrangling of people who are experts in their own fields but are not web writers, and less gentle wrangling of the content they want to put online.

I am one of the lucky winners of a free registration to DocTrain East, a web content conference at the end of October in New England. This is a conference I’d planned to attend anyway, but now, because I pay attention to my Work outside of my Job, my employer doesn’t have to pay for it.

Which, of course, is a selling point.

At this conference, I will continue my education on DITA, human factors, mobile accessibility, and optimizing content for a global audience, among other things. I will be surrounded by people who understand what, exactly, I do for a living, and why it matters.

I’m not positive, but I think that alone might be more relaxing than a weekend at a spa resort. Just a theory…