What’ll Ya Have?
Join the Varsity Line-Up… Don’t Miss Washlines XIX, Atlanta Style
A Colorful Mini-Conference in a Lively Progression Format
By Dan Voss
Can you believe this is the 19th time our August Washlines meeting has raised the curtain on the chapter year with a cornucopia of mini-presentations drawn from the STC international conference in the spring.
If you’re nostalgic, you’ll enjoy the blog post about Washlines in the community-to-community blog in “STC Notebook” on the Society’s web page.
In keeping with tradition, the conference theme, as well as the themes of the six “venues” (a.k.a., progression tables) is tied to the site of STC conference in May—Atlanta. The Varsity is the Peach City’s famous multi-level diner with a wide menu of tasty delights. Fitting indeed, in that the menu of information at Washlines XIX offers a buffet of knowledge.
So mark your calendars and be sure to be at Wyndham Vacation Ownership Corporate Office on Thursday, August 22, at 6:30 p.m. to partake in the fun and the sharing of information—not to mention cleverly themed refreshments like pecan candies, peaches and cream, goldfish crackers (Atlanta Aquarium), real ball-park hot dogs (Atlanta Braves), and, of course, plenty of Coke and Coke products.
Following the usual social networking time and a brief business meeting, six chapter members who attended the 60thannual international STC conference will bring you a full-blown mini-conference that is a cross between a progression and a street festival.
The format simulates a realistic conference experience—including the challenge of selecting the sessions you attend from an abundance of fascinating and informational alternatives.
Six Atlanta-themed progression tables will offer you the opportunity to choose from 14 mini-presentations covering a wide range of subject areas within technical communication (see box).
Colorful signs dangling from the traditional washline will “hawk” the informational treasures to be found at the six venues. You can find your venues either by recognizing the venue hosts or by zeroing in on the appropriate color-coded balloons. If the host is not there, that means the venue is closed for that rotation.
The complete program is published in this edition of Memo to Members or you can click here 2013_08_Washlines XIX Program. A printed handout will also be available at the event. A word of warning, however—choose now (with first and second choices for each rotation), because the mini-conference, just like the real thing, will fly past you at a dizzying pace.
Four venues will be open in each of three 25-minute rotations; two will be “dark” (closed), thereby allowing the table hosts to take a break and attend one rotation at another venue so they can acquire as well as share conference information.
In addition to choosing which three venues you are going to visit, you will also be faced with 2 to 3 choices of topics at the tables. The process is interactive; table hosts survey their audience to determine if there is 1 topic the audience would like to focus on with detailed treatment, or if they prefer a shorter survey of 2 or even 3 topics. Each rotation at each venue is different, but that’s all part of the fun!
A special thank you goes to Jack Molisani, who is making the long trek down from Jacksonville to give us the “real thing”—excerpts from the 2 sessions he presented in Atlanta last May.
Without any doubt, Washlines XIX has something for everybody!
Your table hosts will be competing vigorously for your attendance by offering not only information, experience, and handouts, but also a wide range of trinkets, goodies, and other bribes to lure you unabashedly to their venues.
We literally do not know exactly what will happen at Washlines XIX until it happens (just as in the previous 18Washlines sessions), but we do know this—it will be richly varied, vastly informative, thoroughly entertaining, probably quite loud, and unquestionably a whole lot of fun!
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Topics at Washlines XIX
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Social Media and Documentation
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The Future of Technical Communication
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Using Foreign Accents in Localization
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Information Architecture
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Content Strategy
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Global English
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Simplified Technical English
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Careers: Personal Branding
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Career Lessons (from a Ginsu Knife Salesman)
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TC Body of Knowledge
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Tips from Journal Editors
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User Experience in Gamified Products
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Every Page is Page One
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Building a Web Referral Machine
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Handouts
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Conference Notes (Posted to Chapter Web Site)
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