References Consultant Technical Communication

References

On this page you'll find references about my work as a Senior Technical Writer and as a Technical Trainer.

If you have any questions contact me or call +31 6 5518 2487.
I hope to be of service to you.

Kind regards,

Gerard du Buf
Senior Technical Writer
Technical 'Train the Trainer' Trainer

References Consultant Technical Communication

Rademaker BV - 5 Day Train-The-Trainer course

A course with a lot of depth, focused on our situation.

Kasper Rozeboom
Training Coordinator
Rademaker BV

Omron - Sr. Technical Writer

Omron, June 2019

Dear reader,

With a young product development department that was becoming increasingly professional, in 2011 we decided to look for a professional technical author to write manuals for business-to-business technical products. Complex products that intertwine and require quite a bit of context knowledge to use them properly.

In the years before, we had moved from "one of the engineers writes the manual" to complete outsourcing. But neither solution led to the desired quality or desirable results.

The third way turned out to be the right one: the immediate hiring of Gerard du Buf for a couple of days a week at our department.

Over the years Gerard has been integrated within our R&D team and the entire Omron location in Den Bosch. He has also built a good relationship with the manuals headquarters in Kyoto.

I've come to know Gerard as a positive person, a nice colleague, a driven professional, who on the one hand regularly comes up with new good ideas about the big picture but who on the other hand is not too shy to go the extra mile to meet the release date, with all the (Japanese!) dots on the i's, if once again something has been changed to the product at the last minute. And of course there is Gerard's humor and truly magical qualities, which should not be underestimated!

Throughout the years we've marketed many beautiful products and their manuals together. And we always managed to coordinate the fluctuating deployment of Gerard with him, in good consultation.

I hope that Gerard and Omron will continue to work together on a regular basis for many years to come, and I can heartily recommend Gerard to you.

Dr. Tim Foreman
European R&D Manager
Omron Europe BV
www.omron.com

Stirling Cryogenics - Created a maintenance manual based on source knowledge from experts

In mid-2011, we asked Gerard to support us in securing knowledge within our company. To this purpose we've organized a specialist training course, with Gerard being asked to follow it closely and record the content well.

Gerard, because of the enthusiasm with which you work and because of your critical questions, it has become a well worked out and complete document. Thanks for all your good work. If there's another project we'll certainly approach you.

Luuk van der Salm
Service Account Manager
Stirling Cryogenics

OTB Solar - Training Material & Manual

Good day,
In late 2010 and early 2011, we asked Gerard du Buf to create manuals and training materials for our MES system. This is software used to monitor the performance of our equipment and turn-key production lines. Our wish was a "Context Sensitive" online help system with a printed manual and all necessary training materials.
Since Gerard has experience in designing User Interfaces, we also wanted his view on possible improvements for our User Interface.

All of this work was done by Gerard to our complete satisfaction. The User Interface improvement points Gerard mentioned were extremely useful and are now almost all implemented. The manual has been implemented in the software and the training materials could be used immediately.

Particularly enjoyable was the collaboration and especially Gerard's flexibility and independence. He works hard and enthusiastically and has a vision of training materials and manuals that he stands for. I would therefore highly recommend Gerard and wish him continued success.

Tom Lemmens
Project Manager MES
www.OTB-Solar.com

OTB Solar - Creating & Providing Training

Dear Sir, Madam,

Gerard du Buf (Magic in Communication) has worked from the beginning of 2008 until October 2010 on a regular basis within OTB-Solar to professionalize our training courses. We've come to know Gerard as a very open and enthusiastic employee who, with respect to the total training palette, can be regarded as very competent. His ability to overcome problems in organizing training courses can truly be called remarkable. Heartily recommended.

J.C. Weltje
Global Service Coordinator
www.OTB-Solar.com

Presentation on training approach

Your training presentation today was truly sublime, congratulations. Clear and lucid.
An excellent basis for working together!
Kind regards,

Andre Verduijn
Director Tedopres
www.etteplan.com

Train the Trainer

From: Robert Rondeel
Subject: Feedback Training Train the Trainer

Hi Gerard,

Now that I can finally put the 'Train the trainer' training into practice, I'd like to share my first experiences with you. I feel that your training has given me many tools to better convey the information as a trainer. Especially the part about the attitude of the trainer has impressed me a lot. I've noticed that during my trainings I am more aware of my own posture during my story and that I can actually use this to reinforce the material. By being more conscious of my posture, the interaction with the trainees also seems to be better. Every time I'm in front of a group, I am reminded of the impressive examples you portrayed so convincingly during our training. Thanks again.
Kind regards,

Robert Rondeel
Trainer Trim & Form and Singulation
Besi Sales & Customer Support
www.FicoSingulation.nl

Worldwide Coordinator Manuals and Training

It is difficult to summarize Gerard in a few keywords. He has a very broad background and is an all-rounder. If I have to characterize him in just a few words, the words motivated, energetic, quality and cheerful pop into my head.

Gerard has developed a full training package at Fico for our molding machines. This is highly advanced 'high tech' equipment used in the semiconductor industry to encapsulate chips. In addition to setting up the training courses, Gerard also provided the customer documentation for the machine. During his time at Fico, he managed a group of writers and trained several trainers. In addition, he has been responsible for training hundreds of customers, worldwide. What is always clearly at the forefront of Gerard's mind is "managing expectations". What are we going to do, and how are we going to do it. He sets goals and afterwards measures whether those goals have been achieved. The training materials and methods he developed for this are still used to this very day.

Gerard's leadership skills mean that as a manager he has a bird's eye view of things, in such a way that he is up to date in every detail. This also makes him an excellent supervisor/coach for our writers and trainers. His enormous knowledge and overview also ensured that we were able to set up a new, clear, very customer-friendly manual structure..

Due to his upbeat and cheerful character, a training session of Gerard is always fun to attend. His unique way of training ensures that the information he wants to convey actually sticks. No effort is too much for his trainees and that creates a close bond during (but also after) the training. In the design, coordination and elaboration of training sessions, we'll hopefully be able to call on Gerard often. Also with his former colleagues there remains a close relationship.

Marco van den Born
Fico Competence Center Coordinator
Fico Molding Systems

Evaluation report Operator training LINEx

Gerard,
Thank you for your clear report and inventory and work.
Good insight and overview (which proves your competency).
Greetings,

Marcel Grooten
COO OTB
www.OTB-Solar.com