STC is once again offering exhibit space for consultants at the Summit in Dallas, TX. Per the conference website, “A space at STC Consultant’s Corner gives you the opportunity to market directly to your target audience and build valuable professional relationships with leading technical communicators from around the world. STC Consultant’s Corner provides an inexpensive way to participate in a large show while still being extremely beneficial in reaching your new prospects and current customers.” The cost is $100 for STC members or $225 for nonmembers. Space is limited and is first-come, first served. You can check out the Consultant's Corner section of the conference website for all the details and the contract.
Your Friendly Neighborhood Blogger chatted with the first person to sign up for this returning venture, and I captured our conversation below. Enjoy!
Name?
Neil Perlin
Company/title?
President, Hyper/Word Services
How did you first hear about the Consultant’s Corner?
I proposed a similar idea in 1999 to Mark Hanigan, 2000-2001 STC president, who implemented it for several years in the early 2000s before that “consultants’ corner” was replaced by the tote bag insert program. After the tote bag insert program lapsed, I proposed the “consultants’ corner” idea again, this time to Alan Houser, who forwarded the idea to Lloyd Tucker. Between them they implemented the idea. So I suppose I'm partly responsible for creating the Consultant's Corner. It's based on my perception of the need for a marketing venue at the conference that's suitable for individual consultants, in ways that an exhibition hall booth is not. I first saw it on the conference website.
What makes it worthwhile to you?
I always found the conference to be a great place to network and market services, but the need to take out a booth in order to market services isn’t appropriate for an individual consultant. The Consultant's Corner lets me market my services in a way that’s appropriate, convenient, and affordable.
What do you expect to accomplish by having a presence on the Consultant’s Corner?
Simple: raise awareness of the services that I offer.
What types of consulting do you do?
Training, consulting, and development on help authoring concepts, authoring tools such as Flare, RoboHelp, Captivate, and others, structured authoring, single sourcing, and conversion of old WinHelp projects to up-to-date formats like HTML or XHTML.
Are you also attending Summit?
Yes, and giving and/or moderating a workshop and several presentations
What are you looking forward to most of all at Summit?
Getting a sense of the state of the profession, reconnecting with friends and acquaintances, and meeting new people.
Any last thoughts?
I’m been attending, and speaking at, the conference since DC in 1995. Between meeting people and getting a sense of the state of the profession, I’ve always found the experience to be worthwhile.