2006 Region 5 Conference: “50 Facets of Technical Communication”

by the Region 5 Conference Committee

Since early this year, planning for the next STC Region 5 conference to be held November 2^nd through 4^th has been moving right along. Our theme, "50 Facets of Technical Communication," reflects the Lone Star Community's 50^th birthday this year. It was just three years ago when STC itself held its 50^th annual conference in Dallas.

The Region 5 conference team has been busy all summer choosing the theme, the venue, the corporate sponsors, the programs, and all the other items that go with planning a conference. As the Conference Chair, I want to say a hearty "Thank you" to a wonderful group of volunteers. We are a small team, yet we are all dedicated to providing a terrific conference.

Let me share some of the conference details with you.

• Where: Crowne Plaza Hotel, North Dallas-Addison (Our regular home for Lone Star STC meetings has given us a great deal.)
• Corporate Sponsors: We have commitments from ABCO, Inc., Adobe, AuthorIT, Madcap Software, and TechSmith. We are still looking for corporate sponsors. You can find information about being a conference sponsor by visiting the Region 5 Web site at http://region5conf.com/Sponsors.htm
• Programs: The Programs committee put out the Call for Proposals about 30 days ago with an aggressive deadline. Just when we thought we weren't going to have enough sessions, the gates opened, and proposals starting arriving. The committee spent a Sunday at Elisa Miller's home (she's the Programs queen) reviewing 36 session proposals and 4 post-conference workshop proposals.

  Elisa and her committee are working on notifying the submitters on the status of their proposals. The program should be finalized and available on the Region 5 Web site by the end of August, which is when we will open Registration. In the meantime, I can share with you the four tracks that will be available: Global Perspectives, Learning & Leading, Standards of Practice, and Usable Tools.
  
  The Programs committee has also been busy acquiring keynote speakers. We have the Closing Keynote speaker for Saturday and are working hard on the Opening Keynote speaker. I'll let you wait a bit more in anticipation to know who they are.

We've also been working on other conference details:

• Conference website: http://region5conf.com where you can find everything you want to know. Some areas are still under development, so be patient as we continue putting the puzzle together.
• Thursday, Nov. 2^nd, Welcome Reception & Registration: On Thursday evening, the conference attendees will have two opportunities from which to choose:
  • Attend the Lone Star Community's monthly dinner meeting for the member price of $20, network with Lone Star Community members, and listen to Jack Molisani present "How to Make a Six-Figure Income as a Technical Writer."
  • Visit the Hospitality Suite, register for the conference, and mingle with other conference attendees for an informal evening. The Hospitality Suite will be open from 5:30 pm to 9:00 pm for conference attendees. Of course, any LSC members that want to mingle with the conference folks following the monthly dinner meeting are welcome to wander over to the Hospitality Suite.
• Accessibility Guide: The fact that four Honors students from the Business English class taught by Dr. Lory Hawkes, an STC Fellow and LSC member, at DeVry Institute in Irving are putting together the Conference Accessibility Guide is a real blessing for the Region 5 Conference team. When Dr. Jackie Damrau, the Region 5 Conference Chair, met with these four students, she was amazed at their dedication in wanting to take on this project even though they are full-time students who are working one or two on-campus jobs working on this additional project. The most notable comment the students made to Dr. Damrau was, "It will be great to actually see one of our projects being put into use outside of DeVry." A round of applause goes to these electrical engineering and sales/marketing students.
• Public Relations: The Public Relations team will start publicizing the conference as soon as plans for the program are complete.

Volunteer Opportunities

Finally, the Region 5 Conference team needs your help, support, and good wishes. We are a small group of 10 dedicated individuals working hard to bring you a fantastic program. During the conference, we will need volunteers to serve as room monitors, hostesses, registration takers, and other positions that we've yet to really consider.

Volunteers can approach any of the listed Region 5 committee members to volunteer:

• Ann Balaban, Facilities
• Barbara Ruth, Exhibitors/Sponsorship
• Elisa Miller, Programs/Proceedings
• Maxine Higginbotham, Public Relations
• Deborah Schwartz or Carla Stokes, Hospitality
• Jeanne Foster, Registration
• Beth Bailey, Web Weaver
• Doug Dow or Dale Erickson, Photography
• Jacque Miller, Graphics
• Kristy Nolan, Treasurer
• Paul Holland, Secretary
• Jackie Damrau, Conference Chair

You can also send e-mail to confcommitee@region5conf.com, and we will get in touch with you.