Elizabeth Bartmess, Update on AI: Sorting Out Hype and Reality

Large-language-model-based AI chatbots don’t produce viable indexes. They do produce documents that look enough like indexes to fool authors, editors, and publishers. So what are we doing about it? Elizabeth, who is Chair of the AI Committee of the American Society for Indexing will bring us up to date on their recent and upcoming research and outreach efforts.

Iva Cheung, Sorting out work with the feds: What Accessibility Standards Canada’s Plain Language Standard Means for Indexing

In October 2025, Accessibility Standards Canada published the Plain Language standard. If this standard is adopted into regulation, federally regulated entities will have to follow it to create accessible, audience-centred communications. The bonus for indexers is a proposed clause that could mean more project opportunities. Note: Iva will speak as herself only and not as a representative of Accessibility Standards Canada.

Larisa Smyk, Sorting Out What You Can and What You Can’t Do with Regular Expressions

Regular expressions (aka Regex) are powerful sequences of characters used to find, match, manipulate, and remove specific patterns in text. Using examples in Cindex, Larisa will show you practical scenarios where Regex can shave hours off your editing time.

Glenda Brown, Kim Berchall, Rachel Gee, Devon Thomas, Alex Peace, Teaching Indexing

Indexing can be taught, but how do you do it? How do you teach term selection or go beyond “it depends”? How does an instructor decide what types of genres and texts and to focus on, how much time is devoted to software tutorials, or client relations? Our esteemed indexing instructors from across the globe tackle these questions and more.

Danny Bate, Keynote: Who ordered the alphabet?

Join Dr. Danny Bate on a journey back through time to uncover the origins of the English alphabet and why they are ordered from A through Z. Dr. Bate, who resides in Czech Republic, is a linguist, writer, and podcaster. His book, Why Q Needs U, was published in 2025.

Pierke Bosschieter, Keeping One’s Index in Order (with the Aid of Several Devices)

Indexing is an exercise in sorting things out, though the tools involved have a habit of multiplying. In this presentation, Pierke presents a survey of technologies she has adopted or tried out in the name of efficiency, comfort, and the avoidance of unnecessary irritation. We will look at programmable keyboards and shortcut devices, alternative pointing tools, multi-screen arrangements, speech input, and the use of tablets and e-readers as auxiliary workspaces.

Michelle Guiliano, Sorting Blocks of Time: Tracking Time to Increase Your Bottom Line

To make a good living in your indexing practice, you need superb time management and the ability to sustain focus for long periods. Michelle has cracked the problem with her approach to time tracking and time blocking. You’ll come away with new strategies to get more out of a day of indexing.

Inderjeet (Indy) Takhar, Is it really Carpal Tunnel Syndrome?

Keeping with this year’s theme, let’s sort out what is carpal tunnel and what isn’t. Indy will teach you about the carpal tunnel and its associated nerve, the median nerve. You’ll learn about the role of the nerve, all the areas it can be pinched, how to prevent and treat carpal tunnel syndrome without surgery, and specific exercises you can do to stay syndrome-free. Indy is a registered Physiotherapist who has been specializing in hand therapy for over a decade.

Carlisle Froese, Mary Newberry, Joan Shapiro, Alyssa Graybeal, Sorting Out Who’s Doing What: Subcontracting Panel

For new indexers, subcontracting work from an experienced indexer can be a great way of gaining experience and potentially some extra mentoring. For established indexers, hiring a subcontractor can let you juggle more clients and let you focus on those parts of indexing you enjoy most. Or can it? In this session, our panelists sort out what subcontracting is all about from both sides of the equation.

Sergey Lobachev, Indexing in LaTex

Sergey will discuss the difference between LaTeX and other document preparation systems, and identify the users of LaTeX among the academics and the publishers who use LaTeX in the manuscript production. Topics include indexing workflow, LaTeX editors, indexing syntax, macros for converting tab delimited index into LaTeX coding, embedding process, fixing sorting errors, and dealing with footnotes and endnotes.