Plain Language Association International (PLAIN)

Start planning now for International Plain Language Day on October 13.

Theme for 2018: Let’s be clear!

Share your plain language successes

Plan a local, regional, national, organization-wide, in-person or virtual event to celebrate accomplishments in 2018 or promote your plain language initiatives for the coming year.

Event ideas:

• competition for best clear customer service message in your organization
• display of before and after examples of plain information
• create a list of your jargon and challenge staff to create and commit to clear alternatives
• run a plain language training session

Share your plans for IPlainDay October 13:

• tweet about it with #iplainday or #letsbeclear
• or share on our Facebook page and LinkedIn group.

Past Events

Past International Plain Day celebrations have included art and music displays celebrating plain language, public demonstrations and marches, coffee meetings, luncheons, dinners, and exhibitions of plain language work from around the world.

PLAIN was pleased to sponsor the first international seminar on plain language on Thursday, July 26 in Santiago, Chile. Held in the Bicentennial auditorium of the Chilean Interior Ministry, the seminar was attended by 270 people. Organized by the Chilean Transparency Council, the PUCV and the Chilean Plain Language Network, the seminar featured speakers from the Chilean branch of Transparency International and the Chilean Plain Language Network, as well as international experts.

PLAIN’s sign-up and renewal system is now working normally. If you couldn’t sign up or renew your membership these past months, please try again now. We apologize to our members for any inconvenience caused.

Exciting and innovative plain language programs and projects were presented during PLAIN’s 2017 conference in Graz. Were you impressed with the “Needs Plain Language” stamp used by the Minister of Communications in Norway? Or the Plain Polish Project? How about work being done in Hungary or Ireland?

You can find most of the 70 presentations now online. Check out the conference program below, and click on the presentations’ title to view them.

PLAIN 2017 Conference Programme Austria (pdf)

Copyright of the presentations belongs to their respective authors. Please use the direct link to the presentations on PLAIN’s website if you want to share them with other people. The PLAIN Board thanks you in advance for complying with this requirement.

PLAIN’s Executive Committee for 2017-18 is President Joanna Richardson, Vice-President Jana Goldman, Treasurer Diane Macgregor, and Secretary Greg Moriarty.

We’re happy to welcome 3 new Board members: Bede Sunter from Australia, Kate Harrison Whiteside and Marie Antaya, both from Canada.

This Board has 4 members from non-English speaking countries, continuing PLAIN’s international commitment. At the recent annual general meeting in Graz, Austria, PLAIN pledged to continue expanding to other countries.

PLAIN looks forward to an active and productive 2017. If you have any suggestions please get in touch at info@plainlanguagenetwork.org.

Breaking news: Oslo, Norway is the venue for PLAIN’s 12th international conference in 2019!

Watch this video for details about #PLAIN2019.

PLAIN is pleased to announce that there are two more pages on our website in French, and in Portuguese.

In line with PLAIN’s international and multilingual perspective, our website now has four non-English plain language pages: French, Portuguese, Spanish, and German.

With this initiative we aim to promote plain language in languages other than English so that more people can access our resources and learn about plain language. If you have any suggestions for the language you would like to see featured on our website, please let us know!

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Looking for a visible way to show your support of plain language? Become a sponsor of PLAIN’s 2017 conference in Graz, Austria.

Benefits of sponsorship

Leadership: Gain a competitive advantage by being recognised as a plain language advocate.

Consumer Trust: Increase trust in your company. Consumers trust companies that use plain language. Use this as an opportunity to align yourself with consumer needs.

Media Attention: Increase social and traditional media attention as we saturate both with promotions about the conference mentioning all our sponsors at every opportunity.

Visibility: See your organization’s name listed in the awards program and on-screen during the ceremony.

Sponsorship Levels

Consider sponsoring all or some of our key Conference events or program materials as described here. Or, become an official service provider, such as Conference airline, technology or banking sponsor.

Please contact Rudolf Muhr at rudolf.muhr@uni-graz.at for more information on becoming a sponsor for PLAIN 2017.

PLAIN is pleased to announce that there are two new pages on our website in Spanish, and in German.

In line with PLAIN’s international and multilingual perspective, our website now has two non-English plain language pages:

• in Spanish with extensive resources from different Spanish-speaking countries, and
• in German to coincide with the PLAIN2017 Conference which will be held this September in Graz, Austria.

[one_half]With this initiative we aim to promote plain language in languages other than English so that more people can access our resources and learn about plain language. Coming next is a plain language page in French, so for now, à bientôt![/one_half][one_half_last padding=”0 0px 0 10px”][/one_half_last]