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 eighth post of her series.
The first full day of the Summit went off to a rip-roaring start. After having a great breakfast at the cafe-bakery across the street from the hotel with some of my STC-PMC comrades, it was off to a fairly full day of education sessions. I started off with Leah Guren’s “Editing as an Extreme Sport” session, which was a great refresher on how to tighten up our writing when we self-edit. I like several of her examples which I hope to use in the business and technical writing course that I teach. My next session was Rahel Anne Bailie’s content strategy session. I will admit, this was a session that I especially wanted to go to, as my career has been focused on content strategy lately. One of the things that I liked about this session–and all the sessions, for that matter–is that it not only taught me some new perspectives and ideas, but it also validated concepts that I’ve been trying to push at my company. Hearing seasoned experts say the same things that I have only been saying for a short time assured me that I am not crazy (okay, I am, but not that way) about promoting these ideas, and that I’m current with how tech comm concepts should be implemented. Hopefully, others at the Summit are getting that vibe as well.
I was originally going to try to explore Peachtree Street for something for lunch, when I bumped into two other attendees who were essentially doing the same thing. I asked if I could join them–even though we had just met right then and there–and we all went off to try out the Juke Joint, which is a Southern comfort food restaurant a few blocks away. We had a great conversation getting to know each other while listening to some great jazz piano played live in the background.
Upon returning back to the hotel for the afternoon sessions, I attended the social media session with Jennifer White of MadCap Software. I liked that session because–well, let’s face it, I like social media and am known for my social media involvement. But I also liked it because she emphasized how social media documentation really is a form of customer service. Since my career originally started years ago in customer service, I agreed with points she made about language used when representing one’s company. The last session I attended was Meet the Editors, which was an interesting insight into how the academic and professional journal and book editors produce their respective media.
During some of the breaks between sessions, I did go through the exhibitors’ hall again, talking more with vendors and picking up vendor swag where possible! I might not have buying power where I work, but I can certainly learn about tools and services that might help me in the future!
The evening ended with the Communities Reception and the 60th Anniversary Celebration Party. It was a good opportunity to connect with the various SIGs, as well as connect some more with other attendees and compare our days. Karaoke and the smooth stylings of the STC house band, the Rough Drafts, capped the celebratory night.
This first full day was jam-packed, for sure. It hasn’t been overwhelming necessarily, but it has been a lot to absorb in one day! It’ll be interesting to see how the second full day goes.
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.