SpeedCon Success!

We’re very excited about SpeedCon 2011! We loved the sessions, the food and the turnout (despite the crummy weather!) and we’re hoping that everyone who made it out feels the same.

A few housekeeping items… First, we’ve listed all the presenters we’re aware of who have copies of their content online. If you’re one of those people and we missed you please either email us or add the links to your presentation in the comments section of the page: http://speedcon.wordpress.com/2011/10/31/presentation-links/.
Secondly, we really want to know what worked an what didn’t. Unconferences are challenging and ever-evolving so please complete our short survey to let us know your favorite things about the day and clue us into the things that we might want to change in the future. The survey is available at http://speedcon.wordpress.com/evaluate-speedcon-2011/.

Finally, we really couldn’t do it without the participation of both our attendees and speakers. An unconference is dependent on user-generated content and everyone contributed to that, so thanks very much to everyone for showing up and caring enough to contribute.

Tags: presentations, thanks

Presentation Links

Here’s a list of the presentations available online. If we’re missing yours please let us know or add it in the “Comments” section of this page.

Big thanks again to all our presenters - we really couldn’t do it without your knowledge and willingness to participate. Thanks for helping make SpeedCon great!

• Rick Sapir: Creating an epub Book for Free, Welcome to Tiki | http://ricksapir.com/article12-See-Rick-at-SpeedCon
• Christina Eftekhar: Better User Analysis | http://www.twocubes.net/audience.html
• John Martin: Control from the Crypt | http://nematome.info/lastwishes.htm
• Jen Riehle: The Genius of WordPress | http://www.slideshare.net/ncsumarit/the-genius-of-wordpress-notes

Tags: Featured, presentations, speakers, thanks

Schedule

We’re underway! We had some great piches and we have some wonderful topics for discussion. Here’s a look at the schedule!

10:45-11:15am
Green Room – Writing and Personality Types, Andrea W.
Blue Room – Communication Metrics, John M.
Brown Room – Welcome to Tiki Wiki CMS, Rick S.

11:30am-12:00pm
Green Room – Creating an E-Pub, Rick S.
Blue Room – Non-Traditional Resumes, Desiree B.
Brown Room – Control from the Crypt, John M.

12:00-1:00pm: Lunch, Room 3118

1:00-1:30pm
Green Room – [LIGHTNING] Fear of Speaking (15 min),  How DITA Can Keep You Viable (15 min)
Blue Room – [LIGHTNING] Blogging Your Passion (15 min), Better User Analysis (15 min)

1:45-2:15pm
Green Room – 21st Century Challenges for Tech. Communication, Dr. Brad M.
Blue Room – Strategies for Simplicity, Andrea W.
Brown Room – Designing an Infrastructure to Support the Publishing Lifecycle, Julio V.

2:30-3:00pm
Green Room – What Will a Professional Society Mean to You? Larry K.
Blue Room – WordPress, Jen R.
Brown Room – Presentations Other Than PowerPoint, Sarah M.

SpeedCon Preview

SpeedCon kicks off tomorrow with breakfast at 9am, pitches at 9:30am and our keynote speaker, John Kohl at 10am! We have some great talk already lined up; here’s a quick look at some of the favorites…

21st Century Challenges to Technical Communication

We often assume that our expertise is in communication and that we need to spend our energies learning new technologies. But technical communicators may be as challenged by radical changes in the way we need to communicate as we are by emerging 21st-century technologies. This talk presents strategies for operating effectively as rhetorically-sensitive multi-communicators in ill-structured design situations working with audiences who too frequently exhibit limited attention spans as a result of too much incoming information across too many media devices.

Strategies for Simplicity

The more difficult the subject matter, the simpler the writing style should be. This session offers tips for simplifying your writing style by paying close attention to grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, and word choice.

Control from the Crypt: End-of-life Documentation

I will share various ways to communicate about a topic that is usually in Steven Covey’s “important, but not urgent” quadrant, and one that can quickly become a buzz kill no matter when it’s brought up. I’ll examine the audience, context, and purpose (while invoking the Oxford comma) of the various communicative avenues available to approach this daunting task. I’ll conclude with an example of a person who has “re-framed” the task in an effort to make it more palatable.

Playing to Your Strengths: Writing and Personality Type

Even when the subject matter is technical, communication is a creative endeavor, and the process of writing is personal. Personality affects our writing style in our preference for
• gathering information through research and reflection, or brainstorming with coworkers
• layering the details to form the big picture, or starting with a concept and filling in the facts
• understanding the product first, or the audience needs
• finishing a project early, or working up until the deadline

Check out the other planned sessions at https://speedcon.uservoice.com/ and remember, we welcome presenters who bring their ideas to the conference. Pitch your own topic or idea tomorrow. Hope to see you there!

Tags: keynote, speakers

Presenters, Prepare Your Pitch!

If you submitted a presentation to SpeedCon (or if you’re planning to), be prepared to pitch your idea to attendees during the opening session. Since this is an unconference, we won’t have a program prepared in advance. We’ll make up the schedule on the morning of the unconference, based on the proposals received. This is your chance to entice attendees to come hear your talk. So be prepared to share your passion for the topic!

Tags: speakers

Session Submissions

Want to take a look at what’s coming for this year’s SpeedCon? Visit our UserVoice site to see a list of submissions!

UserVoice is a unique tool that will let you read and interact with user topic submissions. You can see a description, vote for your favorite topics and even submit new ideas of your own! Check it out at http://speedcon.uservoice.com/ and start getting excited about the conference!

Tags: speakers, userVoice

Thanks to Our Sponsors!

Big thanks to our sponsors TPS and Scriptorium!

Since 1993 TPS has provided targeted staffing solutions for those in need of technical writing services. TPS employes technical, scientific, marketing and medical writers to assist in a variety of fields. Contact TPS for quality writing solutions today! http://www.t-p-s.com/services.html

Scriptorium Publishing provides content strategy for technical communication. They help companies with large amounts of technical content streamline their publishing processes, which results in cost reduction and quality improvements. Learn more at  www.scriptorium.com

Tags: sponsorship, thanks

Keynote Speaker: John Kohl

The keynote speaker at SpeedCon will be John R. Kohl, author of The Global English Style Guide: Writing Clear, Translatable Documentation for a Global Audience.

An authority on writing for translation and non-native speakers, Kohl holds an M.A. in Teaching English as a Second Language. He has worked at SAS Institute since 1992 as a technical writer, technical editor, and linguistic engineer. In his current role, he supports tools such as controlled authoring to help writers and editors apply the principles of global English style—and reduce the cost of editing and translation.

The Global English Style Guide uses abundant, clearly explained examples to show how technical communicators can improve the readability of technical documentation for a global audience. Guidelines are rated by importance to human translators, machine translators, and non-native speakers. But the cardinal rule of global English style is, “Don’t make any change that will sound unnatural to native speakers of English.” A review in Carolina Communique noted, “Kohl understands the needs of technical communicators, technical translators, and non-native speakers alike, and his guidelines respect the needs of each of those groups.”

Don’t miss this opportunity to improve your skills in writing for a global audience. Register for SpeedCon today!

Tags: keynote, speakers

Registration now available!

Registration is now open for SpeedCon 2011!

Registration is available online at http://speedcon-comm-2011-eorg.eventbrite.com/. The event is free and door prizes will be awarded courtesy of TPS and Scriptorium, so sign-up early and tell your friends!

Tags: eventbrite, Registration

Talley Student Center

SpeedCon 2011 will take place on the lovely NC State campus in the Talley Student Center!

Tags: Featured, NC State