Danielle Villegas, also known as TechCommGeekMom, is attending the STC Summit for the first time this year, so we’ve asked her to blog about her experiences at the Summit. This is the seventh post of her series.
Greetings from Atlanta! The last 31 hours or so since arriving have been a whirlwind already! This is just a quick check-in from the Summit. For me, the Summit began before I even left New Jersey! I was leaving from my local airport rather than the usual major metropolitan hub, and two of my fellow Philly Chapter members were there, having driven in from Pennsylvania. I had met them at the STC-PMC Mid-Atlantic Conference back in March, so it was nice to have two people whom I knew as unexpected but welcome travel buddies. Once we got the hotel for the evening, we went our separate ways, settling into our rooms and pursuing our own evening plans. (I met up with a college friend—an Atlanta native—who took me on a personal driving tour and out to dinner.) The weather was stormy and rainy upon our arrival, but our outlooks were sunny!
Despite the fact that I got in from seeing my friend at 11:00 PM, I was up super early Sunday to attend Adobe Day. It was five and a half hours of nonstop information that, as I said to one of the Adobe marketing managers, both taught me some new things, and also validated some of my own experiences and thoughts about where tech comm were going. I was even very excited to have a short chat with the creator of FrameMaker itself, Charles Corfield! I also caught up with several people I had met at LavaCon Adobe Day several months ago, as well as some Twitter friends I hadn’t met in person before.
After Adobe Day and freshening up, I met up with “MomGeek545,” whom I had met online after she had contacted me (pre-Summit networking!) since we both had “geek mom” in our monikers. We spent the afternoon at the World of Coca-Cola, which yes—cost money—but it was fun. We tried every single drink in the Tasting Room and lived to tell about it! After returning for a rest it was off to the keynote and official opening of the Summit.
The opening was rather entertaining. Alan Houser was the MC, and as a group we celebrated those who had come to MANY Summits, as well as the newcomers. Imagine my surprise when I saw MY nametag used for the First-Timers’ slide of the presentation! It was a good laugh for me. After the President’s Awards (there were two! Cool!), the keynote speaker, David Pogue, received his honorary fellowship and membership to the STC. Based on everything he’s done, he deserves it! He was an awesome speaker and we could all easily relate to his stories. He even wrote a song about Twitter, which he debuted at the end! The evening ended with the opening of the exhibition hall, where there were vendors a-plenty, and it was a great time to eat delicious hors d’oeuvres for dinner (I listened, Nathaniel Lim and Rhyne Armstrong!), and catching up with MORE Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook friends. I was going to go to the offsite TweetUp, but frankly, I was tired! I’m sure that was a good time so I’m sorry I missed it, but now I’m just winding down for the night and wanted to get my thoughts down.
As much as my nerves and shyness are still getting the best of me, I’m glad to be seeing and meeting so many people who are as enthusiastic about tech comm as I am! I am seeing old friends and making new ones as well! I will try to update again later in the week (provided that the hotel lobby wifi and my iPad continue to cooperate), and I will also be updating later in the week on my own blog, TechCommGeekMom.com, with more details about my Adobe Day experiences as well as some bonus extras (a.k.a. videos and photos).
Stay tuned! This looks to be quite the exciting adventure!
Danielle M. Villegas writes the blog TechCommGeekMom.com. She graduated with her MSPTC degree from NJIT in 2012, and is currently a Web publishing consultant for BASF North America and an instructor for World Learning teaching Business and Technical Writing.