Saturday, May 31 - Sunday, June 1, 2008
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Master Writers – presented by Sharon Burton and Bonni Graham

(Im)proving Our Worth – presented by Bonni Graham

About This Workshop

In the beginning, technical experts wrote documentation (largely for other experts). Then it occurred to the industry that perhaps using people who were good at writing to craft documents might result in better documents and more available work time for the experts, and the technical communication profession was born. Next, we evolved to understand that we needed to provide information that the users needed to know, rather than what the engineers wanted to deliver, and we became staunch user advocates. Now the business climate has changed yet again as markets and margins are tighter, and companies are ever more diligently looking to cut costs. Since most upper management does not really understand what we do, they don’t think it’s necessary to pay someone to do it. But we know better.

Poor documentation leads directly to product returns, increased support costs, and unhappy users, and this workshop explains how to communicate the real cost of poor documentation to management in a language they understand. We focus on what it means to their bottom line.

What Will You Learn?

All workshop discussions, examples, and exercises are tied directly to activities we already perform on a daily basis and emphasize how we can better communicate with upper management. We'll show you how to tie your work to corporate goals and how to demonstrate to management that you are committed to operating "lean and mean."

At the end of the workshop, you'll have a solid written business case you can share with decision makers in your organization.

• want to move to the next level of respect
• are tired of explaining why what you do is important
• want to be able to show with data your impact on the bottom line
• need the validation of knowing your existing skills are an important business resource
• are being asked to show relevance
• want to be more customer-focused but are running into brick walls

this workshop is for you!

The Instructor

Bonni Graham has spent nearly 20 years as a practicing technical communicator. In 1994, she started Manual Labour, a technical documentation outsource provider, which still serves a variety of clients today. In 2005, she accepted a full-time position as Documentation Manager with Scantron Corporation, where she manages and writes documents for multiple product lines from scanners to software.

She also works extensively with STC. A senior member, she has been involved in nearly every Region 8 conference, has been a deputy chair for the Annual Conference, has served as a local and international level publications competition judge, and has served as chapter president and newsletter editor. She has been a Director-Sponsor for Region 8 (California, Nevada, Hawaii, Australia, and New Zealand).

She also works with the Technology Committee and speaks regularly at area chapters.

Bonni teaches technical communication to engineers for the Engineering Department of University of California, Riverside and to other technical communicators for the Technical Communication Certificate program at University of California, San Diego Extension.

Laptops are strongly recommended.