Society for Technical Communication's Annual Conference

I recently (6/2 - 6/4) attended the Society for Technical Communication's 55th Annual Conference in Philadelphia. (And yes, we have been around for at least that long trying to help users make sense of technology.)

Over the next several weeks I plan on sharing my impressions of the conference sessions, the experience, and all the new questions I have about the emerging trends in the field. To give you an idea of what is to come, I thought I'd share the sessions I attended.

Monday

Getting Real-World Feedback on Your Information: A Case Study
    - Korin Bevis, IBM
Trends in User Research
    - Karen L. Backhmann, Seascape Consulting
    - Jean Anderson, Siemens Medical Solutions
    - Whitney Quesenbery, Whitney Interactive Design
    - Ginny Redish, Redish & Associates
    - Todd Zaki Warfel, Messagefirst
XML the Easy Way: Moving Your Unstructured Content (Word / FrameMaker) to DITA
    - Todd Aldous

Tuesday

Writing as an Asynchronous Conversation
    - Ginny Redish, Redish & Associates
Guidelines for Effective Captivate Movies
    - David S. Locke, Wordsmith
So, You Can Write. But Can you Think?
- Dawn Maxson, Dell
- Deborah Doyle, Sun Microsystems
Stop Wasting Time: Ten Things You Can Do to Make Yourself More Efficient
    - Scott Abel, The Content Wrangler
Mining Web 2.0 Content for Enterprise Gold
    - Michael Priestley, IBM

Wednesday

Agile Technical Documentation
    - Jean-Luc Mazet, Hewlett-Packard
Engaging Diverse Audiences using Screencasts, Wikis, and Blogs
    - Gail Chappell, Sun Microsystems
    - Cindy Church, Sun Microsystems
Secret Social Session (S3) on new Social Media & Networking
    - Robert Armstrong
Editing Modular Documentation
    - Michelle Corbin, IBM
    - Yoel Strimling, Comverse

Overall, the conference was a great opportunity to network, learn, and think critically about how this new information can be applied to my team. Only two sessions ended up being disappointments but you can't be happy with everything, right? Either way, the future of technical communication is exciting and varied. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else than in the middle of progress.