Fox Tales: Does the Early Bird
Get to Philadelphia Any Sooner?

By Susie Lynn Fox, 2007-2008 LSC President

It’s that time of year again when Arctic cold fronts dip down and skate across the wide-open Texas plains. The cold temps make you wonder if winter will ever end. A few years ago, I finally moved my sun-starved houseplants outside on a bright, sunny March 31st. Later in the day, snow began falling and even sticking to the ground. So, I hauled the tender houseplants back inside for further safekeeping.

Sometimes it seems like winter will stick around forever, especially on days when temperatures can easily range from 80 degrees to freezing. But seasonal change harbingers, the neighborhood gardening and hardware stores, start planting spring gardening ideas in our collective heads early, and we realize there is hope for sunnier days. But you have to be careful what you wish for, too. Sunnier, spring days in Texas easily stretch into warmer, summer days of possibly 120 degrees in the shade.

Watching for Harbingers of Spring

Other spring harbingers, the birds, instinctively begin their seasonal migration returning home for the spring and summer months. If you are beginning to look ahead to warmer days, are you also thinking like an early bird and instinctively planning your migration to the upcoming Society for Technical Communication (STC) 55 th Annual Conference to be held in Philadelphia, PA, June 1-4, 2008?

If so, you can take advantage now of the early-bird registration deadline of March 17, 2008. Even if you are a semi-late-bloomer, you also have a chance to register by the advanced registration deadline of May 23, 2008. For last-minute attendees, you can register on site. For more information about registration of all types, go to http://www.stc.org/55thConf/index.asp.

While early-bird registrants might not get to Philadelphia before everyone else, they can certainly save money on their conference fees. Current STC members can also save money, which is a great deal for your pocketbook and for your career.

Double-Checking Conference To-Do List

• Check out the conference hotels and make reservations for a hotel within walking distance of the conference.



• Register for the conference, networking lunches, and honors banquet by the early-bird registration deadline.



• Research and make airline and airport/hotel shuttle travel arrangements.



• Review and prioritize my favorite list of session topics, which is the hardest job of all.



• Plan on arriving a day early, if possible, to attend Leadership Day sessions.



• Compare notes with others from my community who are planning to attend the conference.



• Plan on a sight-seeing tour or attending a special event that highlights the conference city.

Reviewing Parade of STC Conference Highlights

Looking back over the STC conferences I’ve attended, I realize that I’ve learned many things and met some pretty interesting folks, too.

• 2003 STC Conference in Dallas, TX . As a new STC member, this was a great starter conference for me because it was in my own backyard of Dallas/Fort Worth. So I drove to and from the conference each day, learned about the types of sessions that I get the most out of, had lunch with friends who were also attending the conference, and also saw the fun side of the Lone Star Community (LSC) members who organized the 50 th annual conference. I attended sessions on metrics, mentoring, content management, documentation strategies, information process maturity model, skills for managing my career, moving from paper to electronic distribution, and writing and editing tips.



• 2004 STC Conference in Baltimore, MD. For the first time, I registered for the networking lunches and honors banquet, which were great networking opportunities. I attended sessions about constructing a one-stop answer station, using and calculating metrics, documentation quality tracking system, creating graphics, managing large and small projects, planning for tomorrow, getting information online, and mentoring, coaching, and creative thinking. In my spare time, I toured the nearby National Aquarium in Baltimore.



• 2005 STC Conference in Seattle, WA. My session picks were textual bloopers and how to avoid them, planning for tomorrow’s trends and technologies, usability testing, FlashHelp, WebHelp, and Web Help, working with interns, card sort usability testing, improving documentation through customer feedback, measuring technical communication projects, and Longhorn Help. I enjoyed the networking lunches and honors banquet as usual and took side trips to the famous Pike Place Fish Market, Space Needle, and Science Fiction Museum.



• 2006 STC Conference in Las Vegas, NV. My hubby came the weekend before the conference so that we could tour the “Star Trek the Experience” exhibit … twice! We also enjoyed going with fellow LSC members to the Cirque O show. At the conference, I learned about migrating from RoboHelp to Flare, collaborative programs between STC chapters and universities, group dynamics, usability of Help systems, accessibility and usability differences, editing from an author’s point of view, understanding and applying editing, planning for tomorrow’s trends and technology, golden rules of grammar, and creating show-me demos with Macromedia Captivate. The networking lunches and honors banquets were much fun, too.



• 2007 STC Conference in Minneapolis, MN . For the first time, I attended Leadership Day, which offers great resources to community leaders. My session favorites were Web 2.0 and its impact on technical communication, myths and trends in the changing English language, podcasting production, how the Web sounds, using wikis for collaborative writing, e-mail and digital literacies, coaching, and the art of friendly persuasion. Besides the networking lunches and honors banquet, I attended other networking events. Before the conference, I also attended a live radio broadcast of “A Prairie Home Companion” with Garrison Keillor.

Flocking to Philadelphia

What will the 2008 STC Conference in Philadelphia, PA, bring? I don’t know yet, but I’m sure that I’ll learn more, meet some interesting folks, and come away inspired and enthused for my future projects at work. So I’ll start planning ahead now, check my to-do list, and register early to reserve my place. I hope to see a bunch of early birds and others flocking to Philadelphia, too!