56th STC Summit Gets Some Concrete Results

Thursday, May 7th, 2009 | Technical Communication

Last year, I came to the Society for Technical Communication Summit as a first-timer. This time, i came as recently elected Intermountain Chapter president.

Actually, I found out from our webmaster here at the Summit what the results were. No one ran against me, so I was pretty sure of the results, but I didn’t want to make assumptions.

For me, the Summit was an overall positive experience because I learned things that I can take back to my local chapter and use to boost activity—or at least to get some attempts going. I attended much of Leadership Day and the annual business meeting, which got me thinking about what the chapter can do to help members who may not have renewed membership due to unemployment. STC has experienced a substantial shortfall this year, just as many other associations have been severely impacted by the state of the economy. I found myself discussing opinions with other chapter officers.

Leadership Day ended and the main program of the conference began with the opening general session and a keynote by Shawn Henry, an accessibility advocate and member of the W3C’s Accessibility Initiative. Her main point was not just that we should make our products accessible to those with disabilities, but that when we do it, we benefit all users and can even develop better ways of doing things in general.

Susan Burton, STC Executive Director, gave a sobering report on economic projections: the recession will increase (deepen?) for another year, and unemployment will increase for 18 months after. Much of the hit to STC’s pocketbook was the reduced attendance at the conference. In February, registrations amounted to only 120, but due to STC’s programs, a total of 700 preregistered, with another 100 walk-in registrations by the annual business meeting.

David Pogue, originator of the For Dummies series, gave an entertaining and dynamic keynote address about how software companies’ tactic of piling on features has led to a backlash involving the introduction of simplified products. Simplicity helps consumers have a positive first impression and experience with the product, and this results in positive feelings about the company and subsequent products. I enjoyed the keynote, but it came across as fairly generic in its scope and message. It seemed to apply more to designers of interfaces than designers of information. (Though of course, some technical communicators do work specifically in design, and others of us do design work on a moderate basis.)

I go to education sessions looking for specific things I can use to apply to my writing and other practices. Fortunately, I came away with some notes to that affect. I attended some sessions where it took a little while for the presenters to get to the specifics, but they got there.

Jared Spool, a Web design guru, was scheduled for closing keynote, but that fell through for some reason, though I heard his presentation on the last day of the conference was packed and very enjoyable. The interesting thing was that at the closing lunch—where I got to chat with folks the likes of Sarah O’Keefe—someone said that even Spool gets nervous before giving a presentation.

I applaud STC for recording sessions and providing them to conference attendees. This provided a comfort when I wanted to attend more than one concurrent session. On the other hand, sometimes I felt less inclined to take notes because I knew I could get the presentation materials online later. I tended to write things down that I found directly applicable or especially if I had my own expansive thoughts during the presentation. I think that’s a more effective way to take notes anyway if transcripts or recordings will be published later: Write down your own thoughts because those aren’t in the materials, and you’ll probably lose the thoughts if you don’t.

Someone asked me Tuesday if I thought this year’s Summit was better than last year. I answered that it’s hard to say because last year I was a first-timer and it was a pretty new experience, and this year I’m chapter president and have other things I’m thinking about. Last year was soured to some degree by the somewhat lacking closing keynote and the missed connecting flight going home. I remember coming away thinking that Ginny Redish’s session was the only one that had really given me something concrete to apply back at work. I admit that this may be partly due to making less-than-optimal choices about which sessions to attend. At any rate, this year, I’ve come away with more, and I also came away with feeling that I can pull off this chapter president thing. I got to meet people whose names I’ve heard, and it adds another dimension to blogs and other things I’ll be reading.

Oh, yeah. And I got a Twitter account. But I could have done that at home.

Good job on the Summit, STC. Tough things are ahead, but let’s see what the coming year brings.

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