Minneapolis: Land of
10,000 Learning Opportunities

By Susie Lynn Fox, LSC President (2007-2008)

Minnesota is known as the land of 10,000 lakes, but I quickly learned that the 54th Annual Conference of the Society for Technical Communication (STC) in Minneapolis was a land swimming with learning opportunities.

Reorganization of the 2007 conference format meant that attendees could choose from 100 technical sessions during the conference and/or concentrate on particular topics by attending multiple technical sessions, called institutes. Vendors offered product sessions, performed demos, and hosted the vendor exposition. To earn a certificate in a particular subject, early attendees could sign up for pre-conference sessions as well as specific technical sessions during the conference.

I arrived early to attend Leadership Day on May 13 and also opted for the following technical sessions during the annual conference:

• Leadership Day. For the first time, I attended Leadership Day where Society leaders presented vision, leadership, resource, and industry topics. Other presenters provided a progression of how-to topics, such as community programs, public relations, virtual education, treasurer, volunteer recruitment, Society project management, Society leadership, virtual collaboration with communities, Society marketing, Society's benefits for communities in areas where they exist or serve, and community newsletters by Douglas Dow from the Lone Star Community (LSC). Also, LSC’s Jackie Damrau helped unveil the latest news for the STC Leadership Community Resource (LCR).



• Keynote Address: Fermat’s Last Theorem. Simon Singh—physicist, author, journalist, and television producer—described how he transformed his best-selling math book into an award-winning film. The high point for me was seeing the emotional a-ha moment on the face of a mathematician when he recalled solving Fermat’s last theorem. On May 14, STC named Singh an honorary fellow for 2007.



• Web 2.0 101: Understanding Web 2.0 and Its Impact on Technical Communication. Scott Abel (The Content Wrangler, Inc.) explained how the current Web 1.0 allows searching and viewing content and how the emerging Web 2.0 allows creating, mixing, and publishing content. For example, wikis and blogs allow folks to write collaboratively on the Web. Really Simple Syndication (RSS) data feeds allow reusing and mixing content from multiple sources.



• Developing and Delivering Content: Myths and Trends in the Changing English Language. Thea Teich (Teich Technical & Marketing Communication) and Karen O’Keefe (Haverstick Government Solutions, Inc.) explored the rules, myths, and trends of the ever-changing English language and how these changes affect decisions made by writers and editors. Did you know that double spaces after a period started in the old days of hot lead typesetting machines and monospace fonts began disappearing in the modern days of computer typesetting and proportional fonts? That’s one theory …



• Producing and Publishing Information: Podcasting Production 101. Jerry D. Franklin (Bricsnet) provided a demo on how to produce a podcast. Today 2 to 10 million users listen to pre-recorded, downloaded audio podcasts. By 2010, 60 million podcast users are predicted.



• Applying Research and Theory to Practice: How Does the Web Sound? Jennifer E. Jobst (The University of Texas at Austin) showed audio and video demos of how a variety of visually impaired users experience the Web via screen readers. Design and code changes can make the Web more accessible.



• Web 2.0 Institute: Using Wikis for Collaborative Writing. Char James-Tanny (JTF Associates Inc.) listed the pros and cons of using a wiki as a collaborative writing tool in the Web 2.0 environment. She defined wiki visitors, communities, administrators, and contributors and also explained the administrative aspects of operating a wiki.



• Applying Research and Theory to Practice: E-mail and Digital Literacies: What We Know from the Field of Internet Studies. Laura Gurak described how e-mail, the number one digital communication tool of the Internet, affects all forms of writing. E-mail applications have fundamentally changed the way that people communicate in such areas as speed, reach, anonymity, and interactivity.



• Managing People, Projects, and Business: Using Coaching as a Management Technique. Timothy McClernon (People Architects, Inc.) and Victoria Frank (Blue Cross/Blue Shield Minnesota) discussed how managerial coaching techniques can improve employee performance in the workplace. Coaching differs from mentoring, counseling, and friendship.



• Web 2.0 Institute: Distributed Writing: A Psychology of Social Computing Practices. Johannes Strobel said that social computing tools, such as wikis, blogs, and podcasts, have increased distributed writing on the Web and created a new form of literacy. With social computing tools, technical communicators need to straddle the traditional world of quality, written deliverables, and the new world of quick, collaborative writing processes.



• Developing Your Skills and Promoting Your Profession: The Art of Friendly Persuasion. Suzanna Laurent (Communications Design Group) and Candice D. McKee (University of Central Oklahoma) described how people can recognize and use their influencing styles to meet the legitimate needs of everyone involved. Influencing styles include dominance, partnership, putting others first, bargaining, and withdrawing. I took the test and discovered that my primary influencing style is partnership.

See Also: Destination Is Minneapolis with Lake Wobegon Stopover