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Connecting Communities: Mission Accomplished!
The STC France Annual Conference 2009 set out to explore the impact of social media on the technical communication profession. This year’s theme, Connecting Communities, provided the backdrop for our educational sessions and encapsulated our overall objective of bringing together technical and business communicators, employers, managers, academics and students with a view to forging new and stronger connections between these various groups. Mission accomplished!
If there was a single unifying question underlying the STC France Conference 2009, it was “How must technical communicators — particularly technical writers — evolve to stay relevant in today’s climate?” All those that attended the event in Paris on 20-21 March were treated to numerous illustrations of the changes already taking place in our profession. Our speakers analyzed the impact of social media and new online communication trends from many different perspectives, providing valuable insight and suggestions on how working professionals, employers, students, and academics need to adapt to make the most of these trends.
How Should Technical Communicators Evolve?
It is no longer a question of whether they should or not; it is already understood that technical writers must evolve or risk simply becoming irrelevant. In fact, some at the conference suggested that technical writers were already irrelevant in certain sectors and that user manuals are things of the past. Whether or not you agree with this viewpoint, there were some persuasive arguments made during the first day of the conference that gave many participants pause for thought. So how should we evolve?
As you might suspect, there’s no cut-and-dried answer; it depends on the nature of one’s work, the products written for, and prevailing paradigms in a given company. However, there were three main themes that emerged:
- XML and DITA – for cutting costs, producing rich and varied outputs and managing localization and terminology
- The importance of better engagement with customers and incorporation of user feedback – whether through web forums, wikis, integrated commenting systems or interactive software help systems
- The increasing use of the communication channels that users actually use – especially social media.
There was another dimension to the conference that all of our attendees clearly appreciated and that was the value of direct interaction with one’s peers. Online forums, social networks, wikis, blogs and chats are all great, but nothing can replace conversing face-to-face over coffee and croissants, exchanging points of view and ideas over cider and crepes, or connecting with former colleagues (or new-found friends) at the top of the Montparnasse Tower. Over and above the thought-provoking and enlightening content of our educational sessions, it is the energizing buzz that comes from the collective experience of an event such as this that is so invaluable.
So if you find yourself thinking that events like this are too expensive or too inconvenient, you might want to think again. We all need to get out of our cubicles more and face the future head on.
Learning from Students
For many, the highlight of the conference was our Saturday morning session which saw students from the CDMM program at Paris Diderot University sharing their research and working professionals sharing their experience. The session began with each group of students presenting a summary of their research thus far. The forward-looking research topics included:
- The added-value of standardization
- The relevancy of words in 21st century documentation in light of increasingly user-friendly technology and techno-friendly users
- Migrating to DITA
- E-learning in academia and business
- Future and culture-proofing images in documentation
The presentations were followed by a spirited “Idea Market,” in which the established writers gave feedback to (and sought information from) their future peers in a series of parallel, free-flowing group discussions.
After an extended lunch, which gave further opportunity for interaction and exchange between participants, we ended the conference with a panel discussion on future trends in business and technical communication. Brilliantly moderated by seasoned professional Tony Self, the discussion explored several of the issues that had been raised by our speakers on Friday and offered various perspectives on how these issues might affect us in the future from the point of view of a recruiter, a tools vendor, and an academic.
Destry Wion, STC France’s Web Manager, also sat on the panel and did a great job of explaining how membership of a professional society such as STC can be a great way of staying ahead of the curve. He explained how volunteering on the STC France leadership team has helped him personally to showcase his skills, add to his portfolio and gain valuable experience and contacts to help him in his current job search.
We ended the day with an open invitation for attendees to get more involved in developing and driving STC France projects and events. After all, if there’s one thing that this year’s STC France Conference has shown, it’s the power of community! We’re pleased to say that several people came forward with some great ideas and have offered to volunteer some time and energy to turn those ideas into action. If you too are interested in getting involved, just drop us line!
Mission Accomplished, Thanks To You
We must give a big thank you to our sponsors who helped make the event so affordable, to all our speakers for catching and sustaining our interest over the two day event, and to our enthusiastic participants who made it all worthwhile!
We’ve compiled the grades and comments from participants who returned the feedback forms, and with a total of 79 attendees over the two days and average grades of 4/5 for Friday and 4.4/5 for Saturday, we can confidently say that this was the biggest and best STC France Chapter Conference to date!
Whether or not you attended the conference, you are invited to join the STC France community group on Ning, where you’ll find photos from the event, downloadable copies of the presentations, additional resources, and opportunities to continue the conversation in our discussion forum.
Download the STC France Chapter Conference 2009 Program (PDF, 1.6MB)
Looking Ahead
We’ve already begun brainstorming the 2010 STC France conference. Building on the success of this year’s theme of social media and the need for technical communicators to adapt their skills, we’re hoping next time to explore more holistic user experience topics such as content strategy and brand development (to name just two) that are already revolutionizing how companies communicate with their customers.
Content strategy determines what content is produced, who produces it, and where/when/how it’s done. The discipline brings together classic content publishing concepts with customer dialog, and increasingly takes into account social media channels. The Information Architecture Summit 2009 recently took place and included the first Content Strategy Consortium, bringing many of the leading practitioners in this young discipline together to talk about where content strategy will lead in the months and years to come and how it makes or breaks the customer experience.
Content Strategy is one of the hottest topics on the web right now, and poised to take it over. In fact, content strategy, along with other user experience themes, could very likely be on the agenda for next year’s conference, and you certainly won’t want to miss that. We look forward to seeing you there!
Editor’s Note: This article is itself a testament to the power of community, since it was collaboratively authored using Writeboard by several members of the STC France Chapter board: Stuart Culshaw (Chapter President), Ellen Lebelle (VP Programs), Destry Wion (Web Manager), and Robert Adlington (Treasurer).