Ellis Pratt

 
 
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Ellis Pratt's picture

Personal

Personal overview

I am part of the Ecademy Corporate Services team involved in creating the Spidera network. I am also a director of Cherryleaf Technical Authors.

Cherryleaf writes straightforward user information - explaining tasks, procedures and concepts, user manuals and online Help (aka technical authors, writers and trainers). I've realised that I enjoy explaining things to people. It's the part of sales and marketing that I love the most. Having said that, I'm not a technical writer, and I'm usually kept away from the delivery side of the business.

I use the IET's building on Victoria Embankment, the Hubworking Centre in the City and The Victory Services Club at Marble Arch for 1-2-1s in London. I'm based in Ashford, Middlesex (near Staines and south of Heathrow Airport), and I visit our offices in Brighton and Thame. I'm very interested in networking with people in software companies.

I've co-written a book called "BusinessWise - Words of Wisdom for Small Businesses with Big Ambitions", which was, for a short period, the second biggest selling book on Amazon UK (and 19th best selling book overall).

I'm a second dan in Aikido, which my father calls the martial art of putting Swedish flat pack furniture together. I teach the class now and then, and I'm always struck by the similiarities between aikido, networking and selling. I have a German wife ("aus Kölle"), and we have a son at primary school who we're raising bilingually. He goes to a German language class at the weekend, which has the added benefit for us of being close to a German bakers and all its delicious bread loaves, pretzels and cakes.

We've seen some wonderful places and had some great experiences - seeing iceflows in Iceland, horse riding with the Navajo and in Petra (Jordan), sunrise over Uluru, sleeping on Fitzroy Island in the Coral Sea, Israel, Ireland, Florence, Venice, New England, NYC, Canyonlands, Great Barrier Reef, Tokyo, Nikko, The Great Ocean Road, etc. Now we have a child, holidays mean trips to Germany, Center Parcs or a beach hut on Mudeford Sandbanks. Having said that, Germany (particularly Cologne and the Allgau) is very nice and I'm very privileged really.

Recently, I've rediscovered the joys of swimming, thanks to these wonderful swimming goggles. They give you clear 180 degrees of visibilty and are leak free.

My sporting tastes (to watch): Rugby League and Ice Hockey - two sports that never look as good on TV as they do in the flesh.My TV tastes: Columbo; Spaced; CSI Miami; Samurai Champloo.

We've some free stuff that might interest you:

10 tips for single sourcing documentation
12 tips for hiring a technical author
15 tips for writing great Help files
Finding a job through networking
Planning user documentation - a guide for software project managers
How to network