That was just one of the many, many lines from keynote speaker and Honorary Fellow Tim O’Reilly that hit home with the audience at the Opening Session for the 2011 STC Summit. In true Tim O’Reilly fashion, he started his presentation before he even took to the stage, tweeting the line “At STC11. Back to my roots. Technical communication is an under-appreciated field.” And when he took the stage at approximately 6:00 PM PDT (GMT-7), it was to a very welcoming crowd.
That wasn’t the only highlight of the Summit kickoff, however, as Steve Jong announced that certification for technical communicators is now “open for business!” This pronouncement came as part of Hillary Hart’s speech where she outlined four exciting initiatives from STC over the past year—certification, the new website, 38 free archived sessions, and the Community Affairs Committee. (We’ll have a little more about that last initiative a bit later, so check back to STC’s Notebook!)
The Opening Session was followed by a Welcome Reception in the exhibit hall, with big crowds networking, chatting up exhibitors, and having some of those delicious lemon bars.
Sessions at the Summit start Monday morning at 8:30 PDT, so those of you on Twitter can follow #stc11 or follow our Cover It Live stream at http://summit.stc.org.
Edited to add: Those of you reading this from Sacramento, what was your favorite part of the Opening Session or Tim O’Reilly’s talk? Please share in the comments!