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FacebookTechnical Writer as Conversation Stopper, and Other Notes from the STC Summit in Philadelphia
June 7th, 2008 | Posted in Technical Writing 33 Comments »
On the eve of the highlight conference of the year, I’m out with two colleagues at a grill in Philadelphia, and the waitress is chit-chatting with us more than usual when I mention, in the context of the conversation, that we are all technical writers.
“So you like work for the government? Tell me no,” she says.
And then in a split-second, she walks off, completely uninterested about our profession.
Through this and many other experiences, I have learned that telling someone you’re a technical writer is the best way to end a conversation. My manager Kurt agrees, calling it narcolepsy in a bottle. You say “I’m a technical writer,” and instantly the person listening falls asleep.
This seems a bit of a mystery to me. Is it really that boring of a career?
At night I’m in my hotel bed flipping through the conference proceedings — abstracts of many of the presentations that experts from around the world will be giving. By page 38 (of about 250), after skimming for at least 30 minutes, I’m drowsy with newfound narcolepsy. My eyes become tired and before I know it, I’m gone.
Fast forward four days later, post-STC conference.
If giving the conference a grade, my colleagues and I all agree that it deserves a B-. The tracks had a good variety of topics and speakers, the time slots were well-spaced out, and the conference venue itself had perks — right next to the Reading Terminal Market, in the heart of downtown Philadelphia.
But I didn’t come away with much new learning. I don’t mean to be critical. Perhaps my learning preference isn’t suited to conference style sessions. It’s a hard target — trying to hit the audience’s interests and knowledge level. Time and again I left a session without the high of having learned anything new.
To be fair, you probably get out of the conference what you put into it. And there’s always the value of the social networking that takes place between and after sessions, right? Unless you attend the open jam [karaoke], dance [for married people?], STC annual meeting [snooze], honors banquet [clap clap clap clap clap], and pub crawl [Mormons don't drink], there’s plenty of time to define your own social agenda.
We ended up eating at different downtown restaurants (Marathon Grill, The Continental, Hard Rock Café), walking around the UPenn campus, watching Iron Man, and exploring a bit of Philadelphia. If you don’t arrive with friends, it’s your challenge to make them. The night of the dance, I did venture out into the hotel lobby to see that two technical writers did make a special connection.
Having missed Ze Frank’s closing keynote last year, I made a special effort this year to ensure my plane didn’t leave early. Richard Wurman’s talk, however, lacked … the quality of being worthwhile. His strongest message was to ask questions when you don’t understand something, because doing so will “change your life.”
He had a 100 slide Flash-based PowerPoint that he quickly flipped through, allowing us to read the first 10 words of a paragraph on each screen before saying “Next” to the one driving the show. Soon an audience member took over the job of shouting “Next,” and it devolved from there. Kurt ducked out half way through, saying “I’m done.” We found him asleep in the lobby afterwards.
One highlight of the conference was meeting with Ed Rutkowski, Intercom’s editor, to brainstorm ideas for the 2008 calendar. I’m one of six people on a new Intercom advisory panel (submit advice here). I can honestly say that Ed is a sharp guy who is organized and dedicated. The Intercom has been and remains one of STC’s greatest values.
In addition to thematic considerations, my strongest recommendation for Intercom is to add a parallel online format that allows readers to directly interact. The print magazine is good, but I’d prefer to read it online, like a blog, and comment below the article.
Part of this idea depends on the upcoming new STC website, which was supposed to be unveiled at the conference. However, rather than any kind of unveiling, STC leaders merely repeated that they are still working on it.
Another cool part of the conference this year was the #stc2008 tweme. For the first time in STC conference history, a handful of Twitterers tweeted off and on during the conference sessions. On three separate occasions, I twittered about a session I was in, only to find another Twitterer was in the same session twittering his or her reactions too.
Less than 1% of the attendees were on Twitter, but even with small numbers we witnessed the emergence of a powerful, connecting medium. Most of the Twitterers included the tag #stc2008 in their tweets, which allowed each tweet to be aggregated at http://twemes.com/stc2008. I set this as my home page during the conference. The only problem was that the wireless at Philadelphia’s convention center was spotty, only available in about half of the session rooms and for a fee in the hotel.
A few people at the conference asked me if I was interviewing people this year for podcasts. If you remember, last year I interviewed about 20 people. At Doc Train West 2008 I interviewed 10 people (they were longer interviews). This year at STC I didn’t interview anyone.
I had several reasons for not interviewing. First, I was burned out with interviewing from Doc Train. Second, I was presenting in two different sessions — a panel on marketing yourself in a web 2.0 world, and a presentation on podcasting. It’s difficult to present and podcast (and blog and attend sessions and hang out with friends and explore Philadelphia) at the same time.
But more importantly, I’m tired of the interview format. I’ve done too many of them. I’m getting bored with it. I’m not turning from podcasting, but I want to try a new approach. I’m still trying to figure out exactly what that approach is. Maybe a format like Leo Laporte’s TWIT, or DIggnation, or column-style podcasting like David Pogue, or who knows, maybe something entirely new. I know that right now I need a new approach.
I’m also a bit exhausted. During the past two months, I’ve made six different presentations: two to STC chapters (Intermountain and Phoenix), two at Doc Train, and two at the STC Summit. During one conference session interim, I asked Sarah O’Keefe how she maintains the stamina to talk with visitors at her booth all day, make numerous presentations, and live blog the sessions she attends. Her answer: It’s my job.
As Wurman was saying Next, Next, Next to each slide in his closing keynote, and explaining that he was an abrasive old man, I was dying for the conference to end. Well, the conference went on for another day, because our plane arrived late, and so we missed our connecting flight in Dallas. Homeland security confiscated our tiny Benjamin Franklin snow globe at the security gate. And if that wasn’t enough, it turns out when a plane is delayed due to bad weather, the airline doesn’t have to pay for your hotel. Instead, they give you a 20% discount on some two-star remotely located hotel whose shuttle never arrives. This meant my colleagues and I had a lot of time for discussion late at night at Denny’s, during which Ben admitted that his “fun-meter” was broken.
I usually find some worthwhile epiphany after a conference. This time it was unexpected. While I was cutting my steak at Dennys — 1:00 am, tired, out of laughter — I felt that I was indeed moving on to some new online territory. Exactly what I didn’t know. But I knew that I had reached the limit of where I was before, and it was time to walk a new web 2.0 path.
Tags: #stc2008, Ben Mison, Kurt, Philadelphia, STC Summit, twemes, Twitter
that with the pre-conference certification program, the STC officers are answering a call for training opportunities at the conference. I would like to see the certication program more central to the conference instead of simply an appendage.Tom Johnson notes
Summit in Philadephia this year. I was considering it, because travel costs would have been low, but I got a chance to go to DocTrain West instead. Tom Johnson did go and you can read a series of his posts about the conference on her blog, includingthis wrap-up post. If giving the conference a grade, my colleagues and I all agree that it deserves a B-. The tracks had a good variety of topics and speakers, the time slots were well-spaced out, and the conference venue itself had perks — right next to the Reading
Ooh, ooh – what a perfect example of “wherever you go, there you are”!
After I’d finished this thoroughly enjoyable and interesting post, I thought: “Wait a minute, didn’t Tom look for some more personal approach just a few days ago?” – And here we are already!
Thanks also for the clear and well-argued summary of the STC con!
Wow. I was bummed about missing the conference, but maybe I didn’t miss so much. Sucks about the snow globe. I guess you could put an eye out with that thing. Snow globes, dangerous weapons, they are.
Anyway, I look forward to your new-format podcasts. I’m sure they’ll be enjoyable and informative, whatever you decide to do.
Ninas last blog post..Would You Get a Luxury Home?
Being a member of the the STC Program Advisory Committee (and manager of the committee for the 2009 Summit in Atlanta), I must admit that I read your post as “blah blah blah *deserves a B-* blah blah blah”.
Planning a conference of the size of the STC Summit is a complex activity, driven by many considerations, constraints and compromises. We need to provide value to attendees with a wide range of experiences, needs, and preferences, and we need to keep the sponsors, vendors, and bean counters happy.
Having said that, what would the conference committee and the STC Office need to do in Atlanta to improve *your* assessment by at least a letter grade?
Sorry about the flight delay. Air travel is like going to the dentist — something to be endured. If only there were general anesthesia…
One major challenge for STC’s conference is the breadth of topic coverage that’s required. You and I are interested in different things than the academics who are members of STC. Thus, you’ll find entire conference tracks that are targeted toward “others.”
Keynotes are tough, too. How do you find people who a) have something interesting and relevant to say to STCers, b) are willing to present at STC, c) fit STC’s budget, and d) will attract attendees. I suspect that if you can think of anyone, the Program Committee (see Alan’s comment above mine) would be all ears.
I agree that the availability of wireless Internet access is a requirement to make the conference more engaging. But things change SO FAST…at this conference, we had some Twittering, at DocTrain, there was a tiny bit, and at WritersUA back in March, I don’t think anyone had found Twitter yet. By next year, we’ll be on to something new. (PS I like plurk.com.)
Let’s hope that the next event will have better wireless. But keep in mind that these conference venues are chosen 3-5 years ahead of time, and I don’t think twitter and even blogs were really on the landscape for most people when the current venues were chosen.
One thing you could probably do to improve next year’s conference is to participate in reviewing conference proposals and in shaping the program. If, of course, you have the energy to take on Yet Another Project.
Between trade show duties and my own presentations, I generally get to attend only a few sessions during a conference. I nearly always choose speakers rather than topics. A good speaker can make any topic worthwhile; the reverse is sadly not true.
You hit on something very interesting along the way…what makes a conference compelling is not the formal conference program and presentations — it’s the connections you make at the conference in the hallways…the discussions between sessions, the conversation happening on Twitter, the comments in response to your blogging. When I made that “It’s my job” comment, you and I and Mary Wise were chit-chatting. Did you know that Mary was president of STC a few years back? Next to her was Leah Guren, a usability expert and STC board member from Israel. (hi, Leah!!) I really wanted to chat with her, too, but never got a chance.
Anyway, the official program can help to kick-start discussion, but what keeps people coming back year after year is the personal interaction among participants. After all, you can get conference presentations online. What you don’t get is those serendipitous meetings on the side.
Sarah O’Keefes last blog post..Evil Bad Luck Kitties
I am learning to read my audience.
If I’m being introduced to a new employee at my work, I say something like, “I’m the technical writer. I create documentation and write procedures. I also try to make instructions more usable.”
If I’m meeting someone outside of work, I don’t say “Technical Writer.”
The word “writer” is magic. The word “technical” is the conversation killer. No one wants to hear anything “technical.”
“Technical” is a four-letter word to the public. It’s why VCRs used to flash “12:00″ until they broke.
When I meet someone outside work, I say I write or create documentation or instructions. That will get a conversation going.
If I really want to “set the hook,” I say I’m a writer. Then they’ll say, with real interest, oh, what do you write? Then I will mention documentation and instructions.
Working as a technical writer, I consider myself a technie (of course). For instance, I just bought a 2 GB USB flash drive and I’m having fun finding out what I can do with it.
Most people are not techies and do techie stuff only when they must. They don’t want to hear about or listen to techie stuff, either.
Hi, Tom! Great summary of your conference experience, and I hope that more attendees take the time to write such thoughtful, personal descriptions of what worked (and what didn’t) for each of them.
Like Alan, I’m on the committee to help define next year’s program, and we can only continue to improve if everyone shares their impressions. Note that this doesn’t necessarily mean that we’ll be able to (or perhaps even want to) change things, but we need the input to make informed decisions.
On a personal experience note, this was my 15th or 16th conference, and I though I thought most of the speakers were phenomenal, I did find the “vibe” a bit disconnected. This was also the first year I skipped the banquet (though others from my chapter attended) and the annual meeting. I missed talking with most of my buddies from prior years, and with the session rooms so far away from my hotel (Marriott) I spent a lot of time “commuting” that would have been better spent “communicating”. I understand that next year, however, the session rooms are closer to the main hotel, and have high hopes that I’ll get to bump into most of the people then that I missed this time around.
I’m particularly intrigued with your epiphany – but suggest that you don’t limit yourself to “a new Web 2.0 path” but rather remain open to a new path, wherever that may take you, Web 2.0 or not. Honestly, I think one of the greatest things about this technical communication profession is that we have so many paths within our field (technology and usability and management and visual and audio and more…) as well as paths that lead from our field into others (like commercial book publishing, conference management, linguistics, or more traditional artistic endeavors). This is the thing that keeps me interested. This is the inspiration that allows me to continually try new things and to keep learning every day.
Please keep us posted on the path(s) you choose to try next!
Don’t you know, we’re going for Web 3.0 now
I must admit, I never realized how exciting Technical Writing was either until I happened to get a job doing it. Have recently started going to local STC meetings and enjoyed it very much, though those are more social than anything.
[...] Tom Johnsons last blog post..Technical Writer as Conversation Stopper, and Other Notes from the STC Summit in Philadelphia [...]
Thanks everyone for your comments. What would I do next year to improve the grade I gave the conference by at least a full letter? I’m glad that you guys read my blog. It makes me feel like my voice matters. I can think of 5 major ways that you could improve the annual conference for next year.
1. Provide better social activities in the evenings. As Sarah said, much of the value of the conference is in the interactions with others. However, for me, the open jam session and the dance aren’t appealing activities. I briefly stopped by the open jam and it sounded like karoake. The music was way too loud to really socialize anyway. The dance doesn’t quite appeal to me because I’m married, as many others are. Plus I’d venture to say that most guys dislike dancing.
Rather than an open jam and dancing, I recommend coming up with alternative activities. I’m not sure exactly what here. Maybe appoint someone to be a social activities coordinator (perhaps someone from the local Atlanta chapter). Even simple activities, such as a walk through a scenic part of Atlanta, a dinner out at a restaurant, a show of some kind — I don’t know.
I’d also recommend providing alternative social activities during the nights of the STC Banquet and Annual Meeting. I’m pretty sure those events are unchangeable, but they really only appeal to a specific crowd.
One time during lunch I stayed in the conference center to make a few edits to my PowerPoint, and I noticed there was a gentleman who also stayed near me, but he was totally alone. I think if you come to the conference alone, it’s a lonely experience. You have to reach out and invite yourself into the social events that are going on. Many people don’t have that skill.
I realize that you aren’t responsible for this side of the conference, but really, why don’t we have a social activities coordinator for a conference of 1,300 people? Just as there are 7 separate sessions each hour to choose from, why not have 7 separate social events (small ones) that people can choose from each evening? Again, I’d recommend seeing if the local host chapter could take charge of this.
2. Provide better wireless connectivity in the hotel and conference center. As Sarah also pointed out, events are planned far ahead of time, and it’s not always possible to ensure connectivity beforehand. However, in this day and age, I think wireless connectivity in each conference session, hallway, and free connectivity in the hotel would do a lot to enable the interactions that were starting to take place over Twitter and the blogosophere.
This would help out the social calendar too. At one point, Lindsey Robbins mentioned she was going running at a park and then out to a dinner. If more people were on Twitter (and had access to it in the conference places where it was crucial), those little outings could be powerful.
Additionally, if wireless connectivity were more ubiquitous, it would drum up more posts in the blogosphere from the live bloggers. This would help people who were unable to attend better follow the conference (it’s the best way to market the conference as well).
At the very least, the STC should be able to negotiate free wireless access from the hotel rooms. They do it at Doc Train. Many people are too cheap to pay $10 to get Internet access for a hotel room that is costing them $225 a night.
3. Make it easier to pre-explore a session. I don’t think the quality of sessions varies too dramatically from one year to the next. The question is whether you can find the session that is most relevant and engaging to you, amid about 7 choices each hour.
The printed programs were decently laid out. However, it’s not enough to read a paragraph and make a decision. This year the proceedings and presenter’s handouts were available ahead of time. However, they were hard to access because they weren’t all grouped together. Additionally, when I needed to quickly access them, I either didn’t have Internet access or I didn’t have time or remember where the session materials were.
I would recommend creating a better online program — one that puts the presentation description, the presenter’s proceedings article, the presenter’s session material (e.g., PowerPoint), and a link to the presenter’s website right in the same area. Easy to find. Centralized information about the session. And organized in a navigable way, such as Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4. Then on each page, sub-organized by the session hour. It would be easy to compress this information using javascript, so that the page didn’t extend forever down.
This year, I tried reading the proceedings ahead of time, but not only were they dry, they weren’t well matched up with the session. Anyway, to be more positive, I think the proceedings are a great idea, and I’m sorry to admit that I didn’t write one (shame on me), but only because I overlooked the deadline. If I were to have read each proceeding well-ahead of time (probably an impossible kind of self-imposed requirement), it would have allowed me to better select the sessions that were most relevant, with presenters who were most engaging.
You’re probably thinking that what I’m asking for is an impossible task for the STC webmaster (given short time constraints). But that’s not the case at all, actually. If you make the online program site a wiki or a blog that presenters can edit, each presenter can easily fill his or her own little space with information.
4. Look at the attendance popularity of each session, and do more of those sessions. If 150 people attended a session on visual information, I think you should try to include more sessions on visual information at the next conference. Regardless of the actual evaluation of the session, there’s a lot of value in knowing the sheer numbers of people who attended a session. Many attendees make these decisions based on the session’s title and description.
I personally prefer it when presenters have a practical twist on the topic. I’m not an academic, so the theoretical analyses of topics are less important to me. I like to walk away with practical techniques that I can implement. And remember that a good majority of people create user guides and online help.
5. Record the sessions and provide them to all attendees. I’ve recommended this in the past and was told by Lloyd that recording the sessions would cost a ton of money (like $100,000, or something astronomical).
However, in many of the session rooms, they already had all the necessary equipment. They had a microphone plugged into a mixer, and often from the mixer there was a Marantz recorder that functions pretty much the same as my Zoom H4 recorder. In one session all I had to do was flip the record button on the Marantz and it would have recorded everything. Karen Mardahl told me that the charge was $100 to record a single session.
I’m not advocating that the recorded sessions be made available for free to everyone, because that does challenge the business model behind the STC. But for those who already paid conference fees, this would be an incredible boost. All those sessions I missed — I could now listen to them on my mp3 player. I would get, potentially, 7 times the value of the conference than without the recorded sessions.
I hope some of this advice was practical and that others who have advice would also feel free to contribute.
Thanks for listening.
Please, please don’t ask to schedule anything against the Annual Meeting. (This year it was stagger-scheduled against the Monday night reception.) The Annual Meeting is the only time of the year that members can bring motions to the entire board for consideration (and it’s the new board for that year), and this year we didn’t even have a quorum (which meant that David Farbey’s resolution couldn’t be voted on).
Char, I know this sounds pathetic, but if you offer free food at the meeting, you might get a better turnout. Works for most things. It was sad that the pub crawl drew more than the meeting.
I’m surprised there aren’t any online voting mechanisms for board decisions like this.
[...] read Tom Johnson’s notes from the conference with interest, and while I haven’t asked him this specifically, I think he and I share some [...]
Recording the sessions and making them available for a broader audience would turn quickly into a “triple win” situation. For instance, I personally cannot afford going to the conference overseas, but for a few bucks per download I would not hesitate a moment to be up to date with TW trends. Needless to mention, the participants could catch up with the missed sessions – as you pin pointed it above.
) Good luck!
Your interviews from DocTrain were excellent. Some of them guided me into new areas of thoughts, how my work could look like and how I would like it to be in a near future.
I enjoyed David Pogue’s column-style podcasts. Although, I wish to find your future podcasts as ambitious and professional as they have been so far, without that David’s -”for Dummies”-tendency
Hi, Tom
I’d have to check into offering food…I don’t know if it’s commonly done at a business meeting nor what the cost would be (and how that would affect registration prices).
And the pub crawl didn’t draw more people that I know of…we had 80+ and they had 50+. (However, had they stopped in on their way, we would have had a quorum! I was tweeting like mad hoping to get folks to stop in for 20 minutes to participate and vote).
Any votes taken at the Annual Meeting are advisory only…the board uses the motions, discussions, and votes to determine how to proceed during the following year. Of course, anyone is invited to write to a board member and ask for a motion to be placed on the next agenda. (This is how the copyright policy got changed several years ago.) This method doesn’t have the results of an “immediate response”, though.
I believe that there’s no online mechanism because of NY law in relation to the advisory nature, not to mention the cost. (I’ll have to remember to check on this. I know that NY law tends to favor face-to-face meetings, plus the Annual Meeting is in our bylaws, but I don’t remember what it says about member motions.)
Also, the Annual Forum was held on Wednesday afternoon. Once upon a time, this was where members met to voice complaints and kudos (back when there wasn’t as much online communication). This year, folks who attended mostly talked about what they liked and didn’t like about this year’s conference. Most of the board and staff were there listening and taking notes.
Karol, you raise an excellent point. I don’t think the STC conference would ever be held in another country because the attendance would be low. People from the U.S. simply couldn’t afford to attend in a place like Israel or India. However, the reverse is also true. Technical writers in other countries usually can’t afford to attend the conference in the U.S. If the STC wants to truly be a global organization, with appeal to members in every country, it has to make its annual conference somehow accessible to them. Offering recordings of the sessions to members in other countries would do wonders for global inclusion.
I’m curious to know the number of technical communicators in other countries. Heck, even just including England, India, and Israel would probably quadruple the number of “virtual attendees” of the conference.
Char, why not combine the pub crawl with the STC Annual Meeting? Half kidding here, but if you could hold the STC Annual Meeting in a place where there’s food, that might be much more appealing.
I just had to comment on something Sarah said…
“One major challenge for STC’s conference is the breadth of topic coverage that’s required. You and I are interested in different things than the academics who are members of STC. Thus, you’ll find entire conference tracks that are targeted toward “others.”
I totally disagree with trying to focus on academics and professional stuff. Academics have a lot of other organizations and conferences they can attend and STC sorry to say didn’t rank up their with my options when I was in grad school. I think it’s important for academics to influence the industry but it’s presence at the conference isn’t as important for a track. I really think STC as a whole should focus more on the professional side and development from entry level to experienced.
I would have even participated more as a grad student if I knew it was going to teach me more about the professional side of my career choice. We had a lot of resources as academics but not enough on the job side.
I think that’s the mistake of trying to cover so many tracks. Sometimes when you try to do a lot well you only do everything mediocre. STC should focus a little more on professional development and then we can go show people what we have to offer instead of whining about how no one respects us and is bored when we talk about our job.
I actually have a lot of fun telling people what I do because I get to work on so many varied projects. I think the days of technical writing/communicating as boring is soon to be over if we allow ourselves to progress.
Anyways, take my comments or leave them. Either way, I’m disappointed with the leadership with STC and some of the directions they are taking. The nice thing for my team though is now we have DocTrain and WritersUA to fill gaps where STC used to lead.
Great post and suggestions. I also like to walk away with something that I can concretely apply to my day-to-day work (and on that score, I agree with Lindsey’s comment about academics vs. professional development).
If Alan, Brenda, or any of the rest of the committee for next year is interested in any more feedback, I’ve also posted on this subject.
Hey Tom,
I was one of two STC Summit attendees who travelled from Australia for the conference. I’m very lucky that this was my fourth STC conference, and for all but one, my company has at least contributed 50% of the cost of my attendance. The vast majority of Aussie STC members cannot attend the Summit due to cost, it’s generally cost a total of up to $6000 to attend, depending on how cheap my hotel is (that is, if there’s a cheap hotel nearby!). I would never expect the STC to have the Summit in Aus, heck, I talked to some US STC members a few years ago about having a regional conference in Australia, and they weren’t keen on the idea because they’d need to get passports.
Anyway, some kind of virtual collaboration for the conference might attract more attendees (even more virtual presenters?!) from all those places where we have to travel many hours and timezones from home and work to join in.
[...] Summit 2008: Mixed reviews Tom Johnson’s has written his assessment of the STC Summit in Philadelphia. You can also check out Ben Minson’s take on the [...]
Technical Writer as Conversation Stopper, and Other Notes from the STC Summit in Philadelphia | I’d Rather Be Writing – Tom Johnson…
Tom gives a narrative writeup about his experiences at the STC Summit. This post has a lot of comments — the track managers want to know how to improve the conference for next year….
I would have liked to see descriptions for the progressions. Other than the overall topic, all that was listed was the name of the presenter and presentation. So when you walked in a room, that had 10 tables, you didn’t have much to go on picking a starting spot. I’ve found progressions great conversation starters int he past, but this year, I felt that I always ended up at a table that was not the best suited for me and often I moved. I did not go to the jam or dance. I too would like to see more networking in the evening. Someone commented that if you came alone the conference could have been lonely. I tried not to stick to the people that I knew but rather network and meet people.
[...] both at the STC annual conference. I’m not sure whether he had as good a time as I did, but his review resonated with my experience at least to some degree. But he indicated that he was getting tired of the whole interview-based [...]
Honestly, after attending two STC conferences (Vegas and Minneapolis) I left the STC. I still follow a lot of the ideas in the Technical Writing field, but STC never gave me anything I wasn’t finding on my own, so I let my membership expire.
I think Alan Housers comment above was an example of the nail in the coffin that did it for me:
“Being a member of the the STC Program Advisory Committee (and manager of the committee for the 2009 Summit in Atlanta), I must admit that I read your post as “blah blah blah *deserves a B-* blah blah blah”.
**Alan, holy cow, that’s a rude comment. Tom gives some great honest feedback and you pass it off as ‘blah blah blah’. No wonder membership is down and Technical Writers are going the way of the Dodo; you need to learn how to change and be humble.**
“Planning a conference of the size of the STC Summit is a complex activity, driven by many considerations, constraints and compromises. We need to provide value to attendees with a wide range of experiences, needs, and preferences, and we need to keep the sponsors, vendors, and bean counters happy.”
**Apparently Alan can’t see past his own problems. The fact that providing value to attendees and keeping bean counters happy is made in the same breathe shows STC isn’t here just for the writers. You’re lost in the details. It’s time to refocus guys.**
“Having said that, what would the conference committee and the STC Office need to do in Atlanta to improve *your* assessment by at least a letter grade?”
**Man, what an arrogant way to ask for feedback. Thanks Tom for your report and good luck with future projects.
Also, thanks to all those that do make STC a fun place to be, good luck to all of you too.
Chris McQueens last blog post..Scoutle
Chris, thanks for joining the conversation. I always appreciate everyone’s comments, and I didn’t interpret Alan’s comments as rude. When he said “I must admit that I read your post as ‘blah blah blah *deserves a B-* blah blah blah’,” I understood this similar to a report card. The first thing you look at is the letter grade, and if it’s not what you’re expecting, it dominates your mind and dwarfs any other comments or feedback that the teacher makes.
Re creating a conference that both has value to attendees and also value to sponsors, vendors, and bean counters, I am hesitant to jump in here and try to evaluate anything — I’ve never planned a conference and I don’t know the complexities involved. I do know that there is a wide range of audiences involved, from first-timers looking to enter the profession to tenured academics to content management single source enthusiasts to editors. In fact, part of the problem in planning a conference for the STC is that the STC’s umbrella is too wide — by trying to include so many disparate groups, it becomes difficult to create content that appeals the majority of them.
With the vendors, I do have to say that I am put off my Adobe’s sales pitch at the beginning of the conference. Maybe that can be more discreet.
With the “your assessment” comment, I think Alan is pointing out that different people vary in their assessments. Some loved the conference, others disliked it, etc. I readily acknowledge that opinions and experiences vary.
Chris, can you provide some specific suggestions for improving the conference? I’d like to make the discussion as constructive as possible. Remember that Alan is a volunteer and he’s only focused on one specific track of the conference program.
I was disappointed in this conference too. Both keynote speakers this year were awful, in my opinion. They both apparently ran a boilerplate presentation that they could have given to any audience, and they were both selling their own books/projects.
My previous experience with conferences was with journalism conferences in college at the NYTimes and Grady college, where I had my mind blown in every session. So I had high hopes for this conference, I guess. It was a big step down.
The Conference Center apparently charged $100/day for internet access. What’s up with that?
JBronsons last blog post..Are you a sportsman or a punk?
I’m actually impressed by the numbers of people that DID show up and attended the various talks and events.
Technical writing is an extremely boring subject; praise is due to anyone and anything that makes it less so (even slightly less so!).
Well done everyone!
- roGER
PS: I doubt you’d get vast numbers of extra writers even if the teleport system was invented and cost 1c per journey. Here in the UK STC numbers are small, and always have been.
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I simply say “I work in high-tech”. It usually does the trick
[...] Palimpsest Thursday, June 19, 2008 Conference showdownposted by Sarah Tom Johnson’s post about the STC conference has sparked a lot of great discussion. You should read it and the comments if you haven’t [...]
As a UK based tech author, travel and accomodation costs make STC attendance impossible, we are the impoverished members of the development world and our budgets reflect that.
Plus we have the ISTC over here, which seems to be on the up, with a monthly newsletter and excellent magazine (some of the bloggers who have commented here have been featured!). I’d also point out the X-Pubs conference, TICAD and others, and that’s just the UK.
Reading this from afar the idea of a ‘dance’ seems very antiquated. I connected more with people during lunch and over beer after last years X-Pubs conference, the dinner that preceded TICAD was similarly successful.
Like you Tom I get more from personal connections, and real-life learning than theoretical sessions, but love the idea of offering recordings of a conference.
@JBronson
“The Conference Center apparently charged $100/day for internet access. What’s up with that?”
Just for clarification – there was free internet access in all the public areas of the convention center. Inside the rooms, reception was very spotty.
As for cost at the hotels, Rachel Houghton has a theory that less expensive hotels provide free high-speed internet access and more expensive hotels charge a fee. Several people agreed with her, although we couldn’t fathom why.
@Tom
You made some excellent follow-up suggestions such as “4. Look at the attendance popularity of each session, and do more of those sessions.” Here is where every attendee can help with their feedback when the survey is sent out. Maybe a session is wildly popular, but if no one submits a proposal on that topic next year, there won’t be a session on that topic next year. If you know that so-and-so is a fantastic speaker on the topic of such-and-such, contact that person and encourage them to submit a proposal. The radar of the program advisory committee cannot catch all the potential speakers out there. And let’s all remember to provide constructive feedback on that survey. We love feedback on our own work, so let’s do unto others…
(Must blog my own impressions/experience soon….)