“Beyond the Bleeding Edge” is Looking for Proposals for the 2013 Summit

In the last year or so, have you …

… used QR codes or NFC stickers or augmented reality for a tech comm application?
… shaken your head at the idea of using words like “augmented reality” in relation to tech comm?
… created a document containing metadata-driven dynamically customizable content?
… performed a hard-dollar cost-justification of your documentation group’s work?
… or done something else that’s really cool, perhaps a bit weird, andapplicable to tech comm?

Many technical communicators are hard-put to keep up with the daily grind, let alone have time to look into emerging technologies. “Beyond the Bleeding Edge,” which debuted at the 1999 annual conference, addresses this by presenting summaries of technologies and methodologies that are too new or unusual to make it into traditional Summit sessions. Now, the Bleeding Edge is looking for presenters for the Tech Comm Summit in Atlanta.

Is there a technology or methodology that you’d like to discuss?  It can be:

• New … Are you using augmented reality or NFC stickers?
• Existing, but fairly new to technical communicators … like physical context-sensitivity for mobile devices.

To be accepted, a “Bleeding Edge” topic must be fairly new to tech comm as of Q1 2013. A “Bleeding Edge” presentation should be:

• Short—You’ll have about 20 minutes to cover your topic and take questions.
• Informal—Attendees prefer handouts but this is at your discretion.
• Level-appropriate—You can cover a topic at whatever technical level you consider necessary as long as you warn attendees what to expect.

If you enjoy new topics and like to discuss them, we want to hear from you. Send your proposals to Neil Perlin, Hyper/Word Services, by 27 March 2013. There are only three slots this year and they fill up quickly, so don’t delay!