August/September 2005

Volume 46, Number 1

2005 STC Annual Conference in Seattle

by Martha Sippel

If you haven't attended an STC conference, you are missing out on an unbeatable networking opportunity at the world's largest gathering of technical communicators. STC conferences provide something for everyone: educational sessions, workshops, vendor exhibits, and displays of winning entries from the Society's international competitions. At the 2005 Annual STC Conference in Seattle in May, attendees looking for new career opportunities were also able to use STC's employment resources at the Employment Information Booth.

Leadership Day provides resources

The conference started on Monday for most conference attendees, but for STC leaders, the conference began Sunday with Leadership Day in the morning and early afternoon. This year's leadership keynote speaker was Rob Ziegler of IHI Environmental, who talked about leadership, teamwork, and vision. Ziegler illustrated his points with photos and anecdotes from his mountain-climbing adventures in Alaska, Nepal, and Pakistan. His adventures and the photographs depicting them were all inspiring.

Other leadership topics included

• Planning, Executing, and Surviving an STC Regional Conference
• Rechartering-We Made It! More Value for More Members
• STC Community Newsletter Editor's Forum
• Recruiting and Working with Volunteers in Virtual Communities
• STC Transformation Value for Students
• The Marathon of Community Leadership
• Zero-base Budgeting for STC Communities
• Planning for Leadership Succession and Electing Officers in Virtual Communities

Several of our community's leaders attended these sessions to learn more about how we can improve the services we provide to you, our members. This includes recruiting and working with volunteers. We have some great teams of people working on several different things, so if you are interested in participating in managing our STC RMC community, please let me or one of the officers know.

Opening speaker and Honorary Fellow provide inspiration

On Monday morning, Patrick Whitney, director of the Institute of Design (ID) at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, opened the conference by speaking about a few of the Institute's design projects, and how researching needs and designing solutions with the user in mind can positively affect people's lives. One project Patrick shared is the ID's Design for the Base of the Pyramid: Concepts for improving economies and daily life in an urban slums project. This project included bringing water more efficiently to large population centers in India, among other benefits (see www.id.iit.edu/profile/gallery/design_for_BoP/).

Felice Frankel, STC's 2005 Honorary Fellow, is a research scientist in the School of Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Frankel presented some of her photographs at her "Envisioning Science" session. Frankel magnifies photographic images to communicate the beauty and magic of chemical and biological processes. Her images remove barriers between our world and the molecular one, inspiring her audiences to learn more about both.

Her photographs set the standard for images working in conjunction with text to help scientists and scientific researchers see ideas in new ways. Frankel's images enable scientists to produce research that enhances their own understanding, as well as that of the general reader. This session inspired me, so check out some examples at http://web.mit.edu/felicef/. Her photographs have been exhibited from the Champs-Elysees, Paris to Musee de L'Elysee, Lausanne, Switzerland, to the National Academy of Sciences, Washington DC. She also has written two books and several articles in many journals.

Technical communication sessions abound

Technical sessions ran from 11:00 Monday through 3:30 on Wednesday. The closing session rounded out the conference and post-conference workshops were held on Thursday. The stems, or session areas of interest were: Management (32 sessions); Professional Development (44); Theory, Research, Education, and Training (18); Tools and Technology (38); Usability and Information Design (48), and Writing and Editing (34). I concentrated on the Usability and Information Design sessions and attended some wonderful presentations, including session by Ginny Redish and Whitney Quesenberry, two usability experts who will speak to STC RMC next year.

Honors Banquet highlights

One of the highlights of the conference was attending the Honors Banquet Tuesday evening. Several STC RMC members proudly watched as Linda Gallagher received her Associate Fellow award from Larry Kunz, Associate Fellows Nominating Committee Chair, and Suzanna Laurent, STC's current President. On hand to celebrate Linda's recognition were Marella Colyvas, Jeanie Fogwell, Deb Lockwood, Marc Lee, myself, Mary Jo Stark, and Frank Tagader. The 2005 Society Honors booklet states, "Those selected as Associate Fellows are exceptional individuals who have demonstrated a consistent pattern of meaningful contributions to the Society and to the profession over a period of years." (See http://stcrmc.org/technicalities/ feb_march_2005/feature1.htm for a recent Technicalities article about Linda's award).

As if being awarded Associate Fellow wasn't enough, the Consulting and Independent Contracting SIG was also selected to receive a SIG Pacesetter Award, which Linda accepted on behalf of the SIG. To top off the evening, Jane Smith, who spoke at our May meeting and presented two seminars, received a SIG of Distinction Award for her service and management of the Instructional Design and Learning SIG.

Next year in Las Vegas

Even if you're not a gambler, attending next year's STC Annual Conference is in Las Vegas, Nevada May 7-10, 2006 (http://www.stc.org/53rdConf/) can provide you with new ideas to improve your skills and any products you design or create. Take your chance to win some professional knowledge at a reasonable price. See you in Las Vegas!