Plain Language: A Fireside Chat with Katherine Spivey

About this event

Plain language is one of those ideas that sounds simple—until you try to make it work across complex organizations, technical subject matter, policy requirements, competing stakeholders, and real-world constraints. For this special in-person Content Strategy DC gathering, we’re sitting down with Katherine Spivey, one of the DC area’s best-known and longest-standing champions of plain language, for an informal conversation about what it really takes to make information clearer and more useful. Katherine has spent decades at the intersection of writing, editing, web content, accessibility, communications, and public service. She currently leads GSA’s plain language program and has trained hundreds of federal employees in clearer communication. For more than a decade, she also served as co-chair of the Plain Language Action and Information Network (PLAIN), helping build a community of practitioners across the federal government and supporting PlainLanguage.gov. Longtime members of the DC content community may also know Katherine from her leadership of DC Web Women, where she served two terms as president, or from her years of teaching, training, speaking, editing, and generally encouraging people to explain things like actual humans. Rather than a formal presentation, CSDC hosts will guide a fireside-style conversation with Katherine about plain language in practice: what makes it difficult, what makes it work, how the discipline has evolved, and what content professionals should be thinking about now. We’ll also open the conversation to the room, so bring your questions, experiences, frustrations, and favorite examples. We’re keeping this gathering intentionally small and conversational at Teaism, a local tea house serving teas alongside curries, bento boxes, and other Asian-inspired dishes. Come ready for good food, good conversation, and a chance to spend an evening talking shop with someone who has helped shape plain language practice in Washington and well beyond it. Please note: Katherine is participating in this event with the permission of the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), but she is speaking in her personal capacity and not on behalf of GSA. Her views are her own.