Virtual Conference
Sorting It Out
Friday, April 10 – Saturday, April 11, 2026
An index, perfectly sorted for its use and purpose, is a marvel to behold. What if we could sort out our business? Wouldn’t it be marvellous too?
In this conference, “Sorting It Out” means tossing outdated ideas and assumptions, filling in the gaps, and leveling up with new skills and inspiration.
Over two days we will have sessions on a variety of topics related to the theory and practice of indexing, improving quality, and growing your business. We’ll also have plenty of opportunity to visit with old friends and make new friends.
The day before the conference, on Thursday, April 9, there will be several niche events. The Fireside Chat (formerly “Networking for New Indexers”) session is offered to new and aspiring indexers to connect with an experienced indexer and get help with your burning questions. While that session is going on, there will be a demonstration of Index Manager indexing software. Following that will be a special presentation for Cindex users (see description under Conference Program below). This will be followed by a demonstration of Sky indexing software.
At the end of each day, we will wrap up with an after-party.
If you can’t attend all the sessions offered on Friday and Saturday, don’t worry. Recordings of the presentations will be available for twelve months after the end of the conference.
Conference Program
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 Browne, Kim Birchall, 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
What do productivity and efficiency have in common? Time. Time is also an essential variable when calculating indexing project fees. To increase your bottom line, you might think that you need to manage your time better. (Improve your efficiency! Be more productive!) Maybe there’s a better way. Michelle will explain the hows and whys of time tracking when indexing. After all, you need to know how long it takes to complete different jobs before you can accurately assess efficiency and productivity—and to determine what to charge clients to earn your target hourly rate.
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.
Thursday Special Session by Maria Sullivan, Use Cindex to Sort It Out
Cindex users! In this special Thursday session, Maria will show you how to make the most of your software’s Sort options. Dive into all aspects of sorting, from basic to advanced, including Cindex’s lesser known capabilities. Once you learn how to fine tune your sort settings, you’ll find it easier to focus on creating your index.
Pricing and Registration
Payment of conference fees gives you access to recordings for one year. Prices are in Canadian dollars.
| Members (includes partner organizations) | Non-members | Students | Member Institutions | Fireside Chat (optional) | |
| Early Bird | $100 | $125 | $50 | $150 | $10 |
| After March 15 | $125 | $150 | $62.50 | $150 | $10 |
