Society Pages

So You Want to Be a Summit Speaker

September 30, 2010

By Alan Houser | Fellow
and Nathaniel Lim | Senior Member

Speaking at an annual STC Summit gives you the opportunity to share your knowledge, let others learn from your experience, get and give feedback, and represent your company (or yourself). You also receive a complimentary registration or a registration discount. After the Summit, you receive copies of your audience evaluations and average scores for content and delivery. And if your evaluations rank you among the top speakers, you may also be invited to present an STC Live Web Seminar.

Becoming a Summit speaker is not a walk in the park. For the 2010 STC Summit in Dallas, Texas, approximately 30 percent of the proposals were accepted. To help your proposal make the cut, read on!

Review Process

The 2011 STC Summit will be held in Sacramento, California, 15–18 May. The Call for Proposals opened in August, with a submission deadline of 4 October. See the STC conference website (http://conference.stc.org) for the official Call for Proposals and instructions on how to submit.

The Program Advisory Committee (PAC) reviews conference proposals. A track manager and several other people who are subject matter experts in each track review each proposal. The review process can be a challenging task. Track managers must decline many excellent proposals because they receive more than will fit into the program schedule.

After the program has been finalized, the STC office follows up with conference administration paperwork. If your proposal is accepted, you must sign a speaker agreement, followed by your paper submission (if applicable) and speaker registration form.

Pick a Format

Prospective speakers can propose several different session formats. Review the call for proposals on the STC website for more information. The session formats usually include the following:

  • Presentation: an expert on a subject shares his or her knowledge, experience, or findings.

  • Panel discussion: panelists present diverse points of view on a subject or issue. Audience participation is often encouraged.

  • Case study: a speaker presents a report on a technical communication project, technology implementation, or management effort and its results.

  • Workshop: participants learn by performing a hands-on activity and analyzing their results.

  • Progression: a collection of related multiple short presentations, held concurrently and repeated several times.

You are expected to propose a complete session. For example, if you are proposing a panel discussion, identify your panelists in your proposal (list your panelists as copresenters).

If you would like to speak at a progression (rather than organize one), contact the manager for the STC Special Interest Group (SIG) closest to your topic (see www.stc.org/membership/sigLinks01.asp for a list of STC’s SIGs). If that is not an option, propose a progression topic; make a note in the supplementary materials that you are hoping the track manager can find a suitable progression for your topic.

For several reasons, track managers sometimes change the type of session from that proposed. If this happens and you have questions, check with your track manager.

Have a Great Idea?

If you have an idea for a topic or are still looking for one:

  • Review the Call for Proposals to see what the track managers are requesting.

  • Review last year’s topics.

  • Check recent issues of Technical Communication, Intercom, SIG newsletters, and literature from related trade organizations.

  • Suggest sessions on new technologies or new approaches to familiar topics.

  • Connect with chapter or SIG members to put together a session or be part of a progression.

Your proposal must answer the attendees’ questions: What’s in it for me? What’s worthwhile that I can use on the job? What makes this presentation original (as opposed to what has been presented elsewhere)? Track managers consider how relevant, interesting, and original your proposed topic will be for potential attendees. If you are unsure about the relevance or appropriateness of your topic, ask a track manager for help.

Increase Your Chances

You can increase your chances of acceptance by paying careful attention to the following items:

  • Choose your track and format carefully. Progressions are usually the least competitive format, while the “presentation” format is the most competitive. Track managers may reassign proposals into different tracks or formats. However, your proposal probably has the greatest chance of acceptance if you submit it into the appropriate track.

  • Be distinctive. For the 2010 Summit in Dallas, the PAC considered nearly 200 proposals for approximately 65 sessions. The program must include conventional topics and “soft skills” as well as cutting-edge technologies. Regardless of your subject matter, a distinctive approach is likely to be of interest to the Summit audience and may increase your chances of acceptance.

  • Make your case. Why is your topic important to technical communicators? Why should you be selected as a presenter? Communicate the answers in your proposal. In your speaker biography, summarize your relevant experiences and qualifications.

  • Pay attention to details. Describe your session in as much detail as possible. Some people submit the main proposal form but do not include any supporting materials. Supporting materials should include the supplemental form and PowerPoint slides/handouts, if any. For progressions and panels, multiple speaker bios are also commonly missed. If you are proposing a panel discussion, contact your panelists and include their detailed bios. The more work you put into your proposal, the less work the PAC has to do. Answer all questions, and be meticulous about spelling, grammar, usage, and punctuation.

  • Finally, meet the deadline. STC publishes the names and contact information of the track managers with the Call for Proposals. Should you send a personal note to the track manager? That depends. A note to confirm receipt of your proposal will not hurt. You may also wish to communicate something distinctive about yourself or your proposal that may not be clear in your formal submission. If you have a case to make, feel free to add an email note to your set of tools.

Other Factors

Perhaps in an ideal world, the strength of each proposal would determine whether it is accepted or declined. However, the PAC must consider many factors in selecting the sessions that comprise the STC Summit program. These factors include the following:

Program coverage. The PAC must choose a balanced set of sessions that covers a range of subjects relevant to our field. The PAC is likely to receive many proposals on the current “hot” topics—social networks, collaboration, XML/DITA, and content strategy, to name a few. Many of these proposals may be excellent, but not all can be accommodated. Proposals in these areas also tend to compete with those from well-known industry experts. Unless you are a well-known expert in one of these areas, a distinctive proposal on a core competence or skill may have a better chance. If you propose a current “hot” topic, highlight your experience with that topic and propose something distinctive. Proposals that demonstrate “real world” experience with a popular technology or methodology are especially valuable.

Speaker experience. In recent years, very few first-time speakers have been accepted to present full sessions. The PAC very strongly considers other speaking experience, as well as speaker evaluations from previous years’ Summits. Your chances of acceptance increase substantially if you have presented at previous Summits or at other events, including STC chapter meetings and (especially) regional STC or other conferences. If you do not have previous conference presentation experience, you may want to try to get a slot in a progression or propose a case study.

The job of the PAC—creating the program for the STC Summit—is a complex activity and is constrained by many factors. If your proposal is not accepted, don’t take it personally, and don’t consider the decision of the PAC to be a rejection. Consider instead that your proposal was “declined.” It may be an excellent proposal on a relevant topic that just didn’t fit into the Summit program for any number of reasons.

Feel free to contact the track manager if you would like feedback on the committee’s decision. You may wish to try again next year. Also, consider submitting your proposal to a regional conference or local chapter or writing and submitting your idea as an article in Intercom, Technical Communication, or a SIG newsletter. STC is a great opportunity to learn and network, and its member contributions are the reason why.

Alan Houser (arh@groupwellesley.com) is president of Group Wellesley, Inc., a technical communication consulting firm, and presents at many technical communication conferences. Alan is a member of the STC Pittsburgh Chapter and is serving as conference manager for the 2010 and 2011 STC Summits.

Nathaniel Lim (nlim@elekta.com) is a senior technical writer for Elekta. A member of the STC Silicon Valley Chapter, he has been a speaker at various STC events, including the last six annual conferences, and has served as a track manager on the Program Advisory Committee for the 2008 STC Summit. Nathaniel was elected to the STC Nominating Committee in 2010.