Tag: Summit

Sep 02

Summit Topic Tango: The Dance of the Summit Call for Proposals

18 August 2014. There it was. Sitting in my email inbox. STC’s Call for Proposals for its annual Summit. How was it possible? I was still basking in the glow of the Summit in Phoenix, fondly remembering the dry heat, the networking, the plethora of informative sessions, the camaraderie of like-minded technical communicators, and my off-note karaoke singing at the TweetUp. I checked the inbox again. Yes, the message was still there. It was time to shake off the summer daydreaming and get to work on a proposal.

Aug 12

Summit@aClick Sale Extended through 29 August

If you haven’t purchased Summit@aClick yet, there’s still time to save! The post-Summit sale has been extended through Friday, 29 August, for the best price on just about all the education you missed at the Summit.

Jun 26

Villegas Views: Digital Content is Not the Only Content Out There

While at the STC Summit in Phoenix last month, I had an opportunity to do something I couldn’t do elsewhere, which was have a face-to-face conversation with Dr. Miles Kimball from Texas Tech University. I’m interested in getting my technical communication PhD from Texas Tech, but have been hesitant to apply for the degree because of cost, time, lack of ideas for a thesis topic, and terror in doing certain types of research. Only after talking to him did I find out that several of my fears were unfounded. The kind of research I do like to do can still be done, the program would help me figure out how to pursue topics that would work for me, and many students in the program take one class at a time per semester on a part-time basis because of work obligations, so my situation is not unique. Now, it’s just the cost and the GREs I have to pass as my obstacles!

Jun 25

Watch the Keynote Speech from the 2014 Summit

We wanted to share his talk (“Wicked Ambiguity”) with everyone, so we’ve embedded the video of his talk as well as his slides from SlideShare below. Unfortunately we don’t have them synched, but you should be able to follow along relatively easily by advancing the slides yourself as you watch the video. Enjoy!

Jun 03

At the Summit: Photos, Get Yer Photos Here!

STC owns the rights to all the photos taken by the official Summit photographer, Phoenix Chapter member Miachelle DiPiano. As such, members and communities are invited to use the photographs as desired on websites, newsletters, emails, etc. You can access Miachelle’s photos on the STC Flickr site.

Jun 02

Villegas Views: 2014 STC Summit was HOT!!

My perspective this year was different since it was my second Summit. While there were some things I knew to expect, I had some new experiences, too. My anxieties about meeting people were lessened, as I knew a lot of attendees. I made an attempt to say at least a “hello” to everyone I knew. (If I missed you, I’m sorry! Next time!) I made new friends as well.  From a social aspect, this year was easier because I had befriended so many people from last year’s Summit. I never had to be by myself, and there was always good conversation going on around me.

May 27

At the Summit: Recovering from the Summit Hangover

I’m suffering from the Summit hangover. And I don’t mean a hangover from drinking too much at the Honors Banquet (I didn’t). I’m talking about the “high” you get from seeing so many friends that you only see once a year. There are several posts on my Facebook feed from STC friends who are feeling the same thing, the post-conference depression that settles in after you’ve hugged all your friends goodbye and flown (or driven) home. It’s hard, because you know that unless you attend other conferences or visit other communities, you won’t see many of those friends again until next June at the 2015 Summit.

May 20

At the Summit: A Man, A Plan, A Panama Hat

This year’s Summit has a bunch of subtle changes that translate to significant improvements. There have been some years when the STC Summit was at convention centers and hotels where the individual sessions were spread across a wide area—sometimes on separate floors. I remember at times either showing up for a session that was standing room only and having my second choice being a bit of a jaunt. In past years there was only a 15-minute break between sessions, which of course made things complicated if you had to haul from one end of the venue to the other for your next session and no doubt truncated some of the after-session Q&A. One excellent change this year is that for the most part all the sessions are in one hallway in adjacent rooms.

May 20

Watch the Alan Alda Honorary Fellow Video

On Sunday evening at the Opening General Session of the 2014 Summit, we closed with the Honorary Fellow presentation to Alan Alda, actor and technical communicator. Alda is the namesake of and visiting professor at the Stony Brook University Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science and was honored for his work promoting the need for greater technical communication in science.