2025 ASI Conference—Spring into Action!

April 25–26, 2025, Online

SCROLL DOWN for Conference Registration!

Pre-conference Workshop
Thursday, April 24—Intermediate/Advanced

WORKSHOP
9:00 AM, Pacific / 12:00 PM, Eastern
Become a Regular Einstein! Genius-level Search-and-Replace Strategies Michele Combs.
Add extra spring to your indexing or editing step! Regular expressions (regex) are a powerful tool for manipulating text, from changing capitalization to fixing punctuation to flipping the order of words.

Regular expressions let you make search-and-replace your superpower. Add or remove formatting like bold or italics, turn a lengthy bibliography into a list of names suitable for import into your indexing software, and much much more.

During this hands-on session you will be introduced to the world of regular expressions, from the simple to the complex, and have the opportunity to explore and practice through hands-on activities. Attendees should bring a laptop with Microsoft Word installed.

In this three-hour workshop, you will

• Understand what regular expressions are and what they can (and can’t) do for you as an indexer
• Become familiar with the various types of regular expressions and how they are represented
• Learn how to use regular expressions to apply, remove, or change text formatting including bold and italic
• See how to use regular expressions to flip or rearrange words and phrases
• Learn how to add, remove, or change layout features such as line breaks, spacing, tabs

Useful for beginner, intermediate, and experienced indexers, this three-hour hands-on workshop can help indexers increase productivity in their daily work.

Separate registration required. You will be able to add this to your cart at checkout. Limited seating

Thursday, April 24, Bonus Session

BONUS SESSION
2:00 PM, Pacific / 5:00 PM, Eastern
Reinvigorating Local Chapters and SIGs. Lisa Sorenson, Caitlin Morgan, Sam Arnold-Boyd.
Indexing can be lonesome at times. Email and mailing lists help, but there's no substitute for real-time interaction! Local ASI chapters and SIGS can help establish community, share knowledge, and encourage relationships. ASI's Pacific Northwest Chapter has thrived for decades and managed a successful transition to virtual during the pandemic. In this presentation, we'll talk about the benefits of group membership, how we run a chapter, and strategies for encouraging volunteering and participation.

Friday, April 25 Conference Sessions

9:00 AM, Pacific / 12:00 PM, Eastern
Strategies for Booking Projects. Shannon Li.
Are you a new indexer hoping to find your first project, or a seasoned indexer looking to expand your client base? This presentation will offer a variety of strategies to help you spring into action and book your next job. We will discuss conventional marketing strategies, as well as explore alternative approaches to advertise your services and widen your appeal to prospective clients.

10:15 AM Pacific/1:15 PM Eastern
Keeping the Pulse of Your Freelance Business: Prompts and Templates to Use Annually, Quarterly, and Monthly. Natalie Silver.
It is vital to give yourself time and space to reflect on your freelance business regularly, not only to hold yourself accountable and assess the health of your business but also to allow yourself room to explore what’s possible professionally. I will share more about my introspective process during this presentation as well as useful prompts and templates to help you incorporate this practice into your own routine.

11:45 AM Pacific/2:45 PM Eastern
An Introduction to the Book Design Process. Anna Aridome.
We all love books, but do you know what goes into designing them? Are you mystified by terms such as gutters, picas, and signatures? This presentation will give an overview of the book design process and help you become a better-informed indexer and publishing professional.

1:00 PM Pacific/4:00 PM Eastern
How to Spring into Action and Not Get Cross with Cross-references (and Double-Posting) Pilar Wyman.
Pilar will share strategies for complete coverage with regard to cross-references and double-posting. She’ll discuss both generic and specific cross-references and answering author/editor questions about cross-references and double-posts, including how to head them off at the pass beforehand. Come join the fun as we spring into action. You may never get cross again with cross-references and double-posts!

2 PM Pacific/5 PM Eastern: Happy Hour

Saturday, April 26 Conference Sessions

9:00 AM, Pacific / 12:00 PM, Eastern
Indexing and Generative AI. Tanya Izzard.
This presentation will include an overview of how generative AI tools work and share some examples of how they perform at indexing and other related tasks. It will discuss some of the problems involved with using generative AI for indexing work, including reliability and legal and contractual issues. Finally, it will suggest resources and activities to help indexers both keep informed of AI developments and make the case for the value of human indexing.

10:15 AM Pacific/1:15 PM Eastern
Scripture and Ancient Sources Indexing: Current Developments. Richard Shrout.
The presentation will include a brief introduction to both the indexing of standard scriptures and the indexing of ancient sources. These introductions will also introduce the current version of Best Practices for Scripture and Ancient Sources indexing. One goal of this presentation will be to capture areas in the Best Practices that need improvement or expansion. The presentation will include examples from current projects. One current project is a very standard scripture index. Another project is a super complex scripture and ancient sources index for a book written by multiple authors. The presentation will also include criteria for preparing rates for scripture and ancient sources indexes. And perhaps, most importantly, you will learn how to overcome the biggest time waster related to ancient sources indexing, determining the category of the work cited.

11:45 AM Pacific/2:45 PM Eastern
Harnessing Your Superpowers of Persuasion. Lila Stromer.
Professional freelancers expressly choose not to be employees. We choose to be small business owners with clients. Unfortunately, we have never been defined legislatively, unlike with the terms “employer” and “employee.” This federal oversight has led to bills over the years that could take away our choice to remain freelancers (instead misclassifying us as employees). This session is an opportunity to hear about new legislation that could finally legally define us as freelancers. Over the years, at both the federal level (e.g., the PRO Act) and in many states (e.g., AB5 in California), bills/legislation and regulations have been written/passed that make it exceedingly difficult to remain freelancers. This presentation will explain why this keeps happening and how to “spring into action” for yourself and your business. There’s no one better than you to know what is going on, why it is going on, and what to do to protect your freelance business. There’s no better time to learn how to use your superpowers of persuasion!

1:00 PM Pacific/4:00 PM Eastern
Leaping Literature! Strategies for Indexing Literary Criticism. Devon Thomas.
In this presentation, we will jump into the deep end of literary criticism and explore the challenges and pleasures of indexing books about books. Literary studies texts can be complicated and often include elements of other subjects, such as biography and history that also need indexing. Together, we will plumb the depths of this rich area of scholarship.

Program is subject to change without notice.

Registration Information

Your conference registration includes all eight sessions, plus our bonus session. The event will include breaks and networking time. To ensure you receive the meeting link, please register no later than 5 p.m. Eastern time on Monday, April 21.

Please note: This virtual event will be presented live via Zoom, and the sessions will be recorded. Just as with an in-person event, attendees will be able to ask questions by (electronically) raising their hands or by asking questions in the chat box. Please understand that the quality of the live presentation may be lower for viewers with slower internet connections. Recordings will be available for one year following the event for those who register. No refunds can be given after April 21, 2025.

Registration: ASI Members: $179 | Non-members: $229

ASI members, please log in to the website for member pricing.

Cancellation Policy for Conference

There is a $50 processing fee per registration for cancellation April 12–20, 2025.
No refunds can be given after April 21, 2025.

Cancellation Policy for Regular Expressions Workshop

There is a $50 processing fee per registration for cancellation April 12–19, 2025.
No refunds can be given after April 20, 2025.

Best Practices for Optimal Viewing

Here are best practices to improve your viewing experience of this presentation. Please be aware that the setup of your computer and software impacts the quality of your connection.

Streaming services may adjust the quality of your video stream from standard definition (such as 240p or 360p) to high definition (720p or 1080p) based on the speed of your Internet connection (bandwidth). For this reason, you may notice that the quality of your video changes as you watch.

For an optimum experience, we recommend that you turn off other computer applications. Ask others at your location to avoid excessive use of the internet such as video streaming. Use a wired connection, rather than wireless, if possible. Also ensure that your browser is updated. It is good practice to reboot your computer before joining the live event.

While most online events go off without a hitch, if you happen to experience connection issues, remember that you can view the replay on the ASI website following the conference.