From The Editor’s Desk

Thursday, 17 October | 4:00–5:00 PM EDT (GMT-4)

How do you build a world-class team of information architects? How do you advance your content strategy without the formal mission or funding? You can do great things with your information strategy through smart stakeholder management, savvy metrics, and a collaborative, community-based approach. Join Alyson Riley in this session as she explores techniques to break down organizational barriers, lead with a common vision and set of goals, navigate tricky political waters, drive change with metrics, and grow IA skills.

Tuesday, 22 October | 10:00–11:00 AM EDT (GMT-4)
Rescheduled from 6 August

The market is good. The money is good. Are you good for contract work? If you value benefits such as autonomy, flexibility, and entrepreneurial expression, contract work may be just what you need. This webinar gives you the lowdown on contract work from an award-winning technical communicator, Bonnie Davis, who has worked as a contractor for more than 20 years. Bonnie will discuss core considerations for contract work—the contractor’s mindset, the market for the services offered, and the money that contractors can earn.

Thursday, 24 October | 4:00–5:00 PM EDT (GMT-4)

Infographics are a powerful way of communicating large amounts of disparate data to inform or persuade your audience in a manner that is often more engaging than text alone. This presentation covers the different methods of data visualization, steps for planning and wireframing, tools that can be used, and ethical considerations.

Tuesday, 29 October | 11:00 AM–Noon EDT (GMT-4)
Free to STC members!

As technical communicators, we touch every product, process, and service on this planet (and off of it). Without us, governments would fall, inventors would have a hard time getting their products to users, and patients would die. In short, no product, process, or service would function very well. Yet, because our work is part of the infrastructure, we often don’t hear about how we’re doing until something goes wrong. Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines a catalyst as “an agent that provokes or speeds significant change or action.” During this talk, we will look at different kinds of change and how we, as technical communicators, can influence and change processes to make our world a better place.

Wednesday, 30 October | 1:00–2:00 PM EDT (GMT-4)

Managers who take a service-oriented approach to leadership proactively coach, encourage, and create targeted opportunities for the people who work for them. When people are able to work in an environment where they are in a flow state, they are happier, more productive, and tend to make better decisions. In this presentation, Judith Glick-Smith uses research-based concepts to explore how managers can facilitate environments where employees do their best work, enabling the organization as a whole to operate with high reliability.

Thursday, 31 October | 4:00–5:00 PM EDT (GMT-4)

In a first-ever horror-movie-themed webinar, Rhyne Armstrong will discuss how your documentation team can monitor social media and social networking sites to get feedback that you can use. You will also learn how to put on the creepy mask of “The Marketer” and interact with customers out there in the frightening world of the Internet. Not horrifying enough? We’ll even talk about how you can put those monsters to work for you to help you improve your products, your department’s awareness, and your value to your customers and to your organization.

Wednesday, 6 November | 1:00–2:00 PM EST (GMT-5)

The presenter for this webinar was laid off in the mid-1990s like half of California, and he couldn’t find another position as a sales engineer (the job he was doing at the time). A friend offered him a summer job selling Ginsu knives, which he gladly took just to be working. After a crash course on how to demo and sell the knives, he hit the road. At the end of the summer he landed a gig as contract technical writer—a job he found he both liked and at which he excelled. Fifteen years later, he now has his own technical writing and staffing company. But he still can never forget seven life-changing career lessons he learned from that summer selling Ginsu knives. Want a different job, more money, a better standard of living? Don’t miss this session!

Thursday, 7 November | 4:00–5:00 PM EST (GMT-5)

Truth or urban legend: Will brownies guarantee a Subject Matter Expert’s time? When you do secure a meeting, how can you make the best use of that time? Here are some SME-handling tips from a seasoned, multi-industry, panel of experts to help you cover the bases and hit home runs in your interactions with SMEs.