Theme: The remit of communication professionals in the organisation. How can different comms professionals (technical authors, editors, web content/marketing/training writers, internal/corporate comms, information architects, graphic designers…) work effectively with each other and the rest of the organisation?

Time: Monday 25 January 2010, from 7.30 pm onwards.

Venue: Waxy O’Connors pub, 44 West George Street, Glasgow, G2 1DH. Please make your way to McTurk’s Room on the middle level.

The event is free and you don’t need to be an ISTC member to attend. Get in touch with Katja McLaughlin for more details.

I’m still tweaking my presentation for the Technical Communications UK conference, Thursday morning is looming larger and larger in my view so I’m distracting myself with considering the other good things that happen at conferences.

For me people are the primary reason for attending a conference. Don’t get me wrong, the value can be measured by the quality of the speakers and the information provided, but that tends to be transitory, so it’s the connections you make that count in the longer term.

I’m lucky that I’ve met some of the people I know through this blog, and I’m hoping to add to that tally this week. Part of me did consider trying to organise a little “meetup” of bloggers in attendance but I think I’ll leave it down to fate, I’d hate to NOT meet someone because I was concentrating on one small part of the crowd.

At times attending industry conferences can be a bit of a guilty pleasure, it’s only after the first hour or so you realise that yes, you CAN make jokes about the kerning on the dinner menu, or laugh at yet another example of Microsoft Word being helpful. It’s also acceptable to spend your entire lunch discussing whether audience surveys are a good thing, and whether you actually need to learn XML or not.

Obviously the presentations will drive some of the topics of discussion, but (and admittedly this is usual over dinner and a small beverage or two) conversation with your peers can lead to all sorts of other things. Chess boxing being one memorable conversation from a couple of years ago at TICAD.

So, despite still not being quite sure what the final form my presentation will take (I may also adapt it on Wednesday evening to reflect back on the speakers of the day) and not being 100% sure how I’ll get from the airport to the hotel (bus? taxi?), I’m starting to get a bit excited.

There will be a blog post published here on Thursday morning to coincide with my presentation, and I’ve no doubt I, and several others, will Twitter our way through the conference.

If you see me at the conference (I’m kinda hoping at least one or two people turn up for my presentation!) then rest assured, as long as you have either a coffee or a Guinness in your hand for me, I’m very likely to welcome you with a big smile.

The ISTC West of Scotland area group will meet on Thursday 22nd October from 7.30 p.m. onwards at the Waxy O’Connors pub, 44 West George Street, Glasgow, G2 1DH. Please make your way to McTurk’s Room on the middle level.

The evening will start with a discussion of “Conferences and how we benefit from them”, followed by an opportunity to network and chat with your peers (and hey, the bar will be open too!).

You don’t need to be an ISTC member to attend, and the more the merrier. Mine’s a Guinness!

Thanks to Katja McLaughlin for organising this. See you there.

Technical Communication UK
22nd-24th September 2009

http://www.technicalcommunicationuk.com

Technical Communication UK is the new annual conference that aims to meet the needs of technical communicators, their managers and clients, from every corner of the industry.

The conference is hosted by the ISTC, and run in partnership with X-pubs.

Technical Communication UK runs on 23rd and 24th September 2009, with pre-conference workshops on 22nd September. It will deliver more than 30 sessions over the three days, with presentations, workshops, case studies, and hands-on product demonstrations from experts in their field.

Let me know if you are coming along, as I’d hate to be sitting in the bar on my own on the Wednesday evening!

I’ve mentioned before that I’ll be attending, and presenting at, the Technical Communication Conference this year, but as the programme is now full I’ve been trying to pick my way through which sessions to attend. I think I’ve got it sussed.

Wednesday

Kicking off with the keynote from Peter Anghelides (who recently re-tweeted me on Twitter!).

Session 1 – Matthew Ellison – Pattern language for information architecture
As we delve into providing more of our information online, understanding how best to structure the information is key.

Session 2 – Kim Schrantz-Berquist – If you can write an article, you can write anything!
I have a long term goal to get my team to a position to allow them to write different kinds of information. Articles for our developer community are a good path towards that.

Session 3 – Linda Urban – Paths to success: networking and contributing (it’s all about relationships)
Largely because I think it’ll fit in with my presentation the following day.

Sesson 4 – Chris Atherton – Visual attention: a psychologist’s perspective
Not something I’m particular clued up on so will be an interesting session.

Session 5 – TBC
Nothing really catches my eye, and still waiting to see what Paul Ballard is going to present. Might a good time to go grab a coffee?

Session 6 – David Mackay – talking about how he wrote his book
Always interesting to hear how these things come about.

Thursday

Session 1 – Me!
I’m guessing I need to be at this one, right?

Session 2 – Nigel Greenwood – Quality Improvement in technical communication
A different take on things, and it’s usually informative to look at the way other professions do things, so this should be good.

Session 3 – Justin Collinge – The secrets of telepathy
Who wouldn’t want to learn telepathy! This will be useful as I’ve recently taken on Line Manager duties for some of the wider development team.

Session 4 – TBC
Either going for the session about localisation or the one on how to start up your own docs business…. hmmmm

Session 5 – TBC
There is still a slot to be filled, so I’ll wait until that happens and then decided. At the moment, its looking like an early end to the day.

Session 6 – Adobe
Will probably skip this as we are no longer an Adobe house.

So, add in the Gala Dinner and it’s a pretty busy couple of days. As ever I’m going to miss some sessions that I would liked to have attend but I’ve got a pretty good balance of things here, most of which benefit the company that is allowing me the time to attend, a couple of which will help me as a professional.

I’ll most definitely be twittering and will write some thoughts post-event as well. The chances of me blogging are slim but you never know (I’m wary that my 9am slot on the Thursday morning may be in jeopardy if I get ‘forced’ into the bar on Wednesday evening…).

I’m looking forward to the conference, my first ISTC conference as it happens, and as two other members of the team are off to Cardiff for the UA Conference it’s safe to assume we’ll be heading towards the end of the year a-buzz with ideas and enthusiasm.

In their own words, the ISTC is:

the largest UK body representing professional communicators and information designers

I joined the ISTC a couple of years ago. They’ve been on my radar for a while now, but to be honest I’ve never been sure of what the benefits have been, nor have I found much need to be a member of a professional body. So what does the ISTC offer members? Well the ISTC website states that:

the ISTC offers opportunities to exchange views and information with other professional communicators. Members enjoy discounts, news, training events, networking and recognition of professional status including the use of FISTC or MISTC (for suitably qualified people).

OK, so you can now refer to me as Gordon McLean MISTC.

Yes, that’s much better than “Oi, twit!”.

I’ve been a member of various committees and charities in my time so there is one thing that I know holds true. When it comes to any organisation you get out what you put in, which would explain why I’ve recently been struggling to justify my ISTC membership.

It’s not that I don’t put in, I write a monthly column for the newsletter and happily volunteered to be on the newly formed members panel which is in the midst, thanks to the outstanding efforts of Rachel Potts reviewing those very same benefits that the ISTC offer.

And it’s not that I don’t get value back out, the ISTC mailing list has proven useful and I’m sure when I attend the conference this year, my first, I will learn a lot and benefit from speaking to my peers

So the question is, am I getting value for money?

Ultimately I believe I am, but I do feel I could be getting more. When I joined the ISTC I was already following some technical writing blogs and already had the beginnings of a network of people who were offering some good advice and interesting thoughts about this profession of ours. Some of those were discovered through the TechWR-L mailing list, others by chance encounters or links from other blogs. It’s the one thing that, as yet, the ISTC hasn’t really managed to grasp hold of, the idea that what they are facilitating is a community of like minded souls.

In a way an organisation such as the ISTC has the advantage over ad-hoc groups, given that all of the members have paid to be part of the organisation. It’ll be interesting to see the outcome of the review of member benefits, to see where the community aspect of being a member rates with everyone else. Perhaps it’s just me but I truly believe the ISTC would benefit from increasing the networking/community aspect of membership.

(OK, mainly aiming at West of Scotland)

Following a recent discussion about ISTC local area groups, a few of us based in the West of Scotland have decided to try to set up a local group.

Our first meeting will be on Thursday 15th January 2009. If you work in the area (or further away), please come along to meet other writers and talk about technical writing.

We’ll meet at 7 p.m. in the offices of Sumerian in Glasgow city centre, at 19 Blythswood Square, Glasgow G2 4BG. Tea & coffee provided.

If you plan to come along, please email me so we can get a rough idea of how many writers might be attending:

gordon [DOT] mclean AT gmail [DOT ] com

(if you can figure out the email address you are allowed to attend ;-) )

Now, what on earth will we talk about??