As those who submitted a proposal no doubt noticed, the tracks for the 2012 Technical Communication Summit have been updated. A few members have asked about the updates. Paul Mueller, conference manager, sent in an explanation for the changes. Here’s Paul:
Each year, the Conference Manager and the Program Advisory Committee Manager meet to discuss industry trends, other conferences in the technical communication space, and lessons learned from the previous Summit. They also meet with the STC Education and Publication teams to discuss industry trends and hot topic areas. During these discussions, key content areas are identified for the upcoming STC Summit. Then, the Conference Manager and Program Advisory Committee Manager identify the tracks needed to offer content in these areas.
For this year, we changed a few track names and reorganize topics in the design, develop, and deliver areas. We also added a few tracks that were either Institutes (advanced topic areas) in the past, or are important areas related to technical communication that we wanted to include this year. Here were our thoughts on the updated list of tracks:
User Experience & Accessibility. We chose User Experience instead of Usability to cover a wider range of topics. This track often includes both usability and user experience-related sessions.
People, Project, and Business Management. This track is relatively unchanged, except a slight name change for consistency.
Content Development. We changed Writing and Editing to Content Development. This change is to match the phases of the publishing model in which content is designed, developed, and then delivered. All topics related to developing information are in this track, including gathering sources, writing of all types, editing, and more.
Content Strategy and Design. We split Design, Architecture, and Publishing into Content Strategy and Design and Content Delivery. This also allowed us to focus on Content Strategy, which was an Institute in the past and is a hot topic area in our industry.
Content Delivery. After splitting Design, Architecture, and Publishing, we wanted this track to reflect the many ways information is delivered. Publishing is often thought of as printing, so we used the term Delivery to cover all methods.
Education and Training. This track remains the same as previous years, focused on instructional design and education-related topics.
Professional Development. This track remains the same as previous years, focused on your career development.
Web Design and Development. This track is new this year, though some topics from the old Web Technologies track will fit into this track. Web Design and Development is a hot topic area related to technical communication. Trends in that area directly affect how information is designed, developed, and delivered. We should also all be aware of not only the trends in this area but also the job opportunities.
Visual Design. This is a new track this year, but we have had sessions in this area over the years. Visual communication is an important aspect of technical communication and we wanted to make these sessions easier to identify. We also wanted to encourage presenters in this area. As cutbacks continue, many technical communicators are being asked to develop more of their own graphic elements. This track will focus on providing the information we need to be successful.
Social Media. This track has been an Institute the last several years, so we have moved it into the main Summit programming.
Communication and Interpersonal Skills was removed as a track, but we have included those types of topics in either the Professional Development or the Management tracks. We often saw overlap in these tracks and topics, so we decided to combine them this year.
Content may be a buzz word, but it isn’t new. Information Architecture and Content Strategy are closely related, so we chose to use Content Strategy and Design to cover this area.
Content Development includes all types of writing, from Marketing and Scientific writing to Help and Policy and Procedure writing. Editing and Indexing are also part of developing content, so they are included here as well.
I hope this information has helped address any questions you may have about the track name changes and the processes the Committees use to ensure the Summit offers the latest information members of our industry need.