By Mary Burns
Secretary
Orlando Central Florida Chapter STC
secretary@stc-Orlando.org
If you missed last meeting…
Going to an out-of-town conference means itineraries, reservations, expenses, the discovery that you’ve forgotten your toothbrush…unless the conference comes to you. Washlines XIX, our own “mini” version of the international 2013 STC Summit in Atlanta, did just that on August 22.
Set to the theme of the famous multi-level Atlanta drive-in “The Varsity,” Washlines XIX was powered by chapter members who attended the Summit and were eager to share the knowledge they gained there. The clothesline strung across the Wyndham meeting room was hung with colorful signs advertising five rotation venues, each imaginatively linked to an Atlanta icon.
Coca Cola: Karen Lane presented on “Social Media and Documentation: Why Should You Care?” (Jennifer White, MadCap Software); “The Future of Technical Communication is Here—Are You Ready for It?” (Kapil Verma, Adobe); and “Using Foreign-Accented Speech: To Localize or Not?” (Halycon Lawrence, Illinois Institute of Technology).
Atlanta Braves: Debra Johnson presented on “Information Architecture Boot Camp” (Andrea L. Ames and Alyson Riley) and “From Technical Writer to Content Strategist” (Alan J. Porter).
The Peach City: Dan Voss presented on “Global English Skills” (John R. Kohl, SAS Institute, 59th STC conference) and “There’s Nothing Simple about Simplified Technical English” (Bernie Koontz, Lycoming Engines, 60th STC conference).
Downtown Atlanta: Jack Molisani drove all the way from Jacksonville to share distilled versions of both presentations he made at the Summit: “Ask Me About … Career Advancement through Personal Brand-ing” and “Seven Career Lessons I Learned from Selling Ginsu Knives.”
MARTA (Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority): Bethany Bowles shared on “Re-animating the TC Body of Knowledge: TC BOK” (Hillary Hart, Liz Pohland, Craig Baehr, and Joel Kline) and “Meet the Editors of the STC Journals (and Others)” (Liz Pohland, Michael Alberts, Saul Carliner, Menno de Jong, Jim Dubinsky, Joe Dumas, Miles Kimball, and Kirk St. Amant).
There was enthusiastic attendance at each venue for both rotations. Dinner was pizza and salad, plus themed food and beverages (ball park hot dogs at the Atlanta Braves venue, peaches and cream at the Peach City venue, and Coke products at the Coca Cola venue).
To echo the pre-meeting tweet on this whirlwind tour of Atlanta and intriguing trends in technical communication,
Twitter, twitter,
Tweet, tweet, tweet
Washlines Nineteen
Can’t be beat!
See a selection of STC Summit presentation materials at http://www.stc-orlando.org/prodev/60notes/mainmenu.asp.