RE: Training or conference?

["Deborah McNally" <dmcnally -at- windmill-intl -dot- com>]

--- That's a sign of a good boss, imho, and one well worth cultivating
in 
future. <g>--- 

I completely agree.  He is a great boss who knows what people need and
how to help them get what they need. 

I'm sure I would have been at the WritersUA conference next week if it
wasn't in Vegas.  That one sounded perfect for me. 

--- Well, you could come hear my talk next week in Nashua <g>. Details
on 
how to get there: http://www.stc-nne.org/meetings.htm ---

I will definitely see about going to that. I work in Nashua and want to
find out more about STC as well.

Thanks for the great info. 

Deb McNally
Help Desk Technician/Technical Writer

-----Original Message-----
From: Geoff Hart [mailto:ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca] 
Sent: Friday, March 18, 2005 8:54 AM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com; Deborah McNally
Subject: Training or conference?

Deborah McNally wondered: <<My boss has offered to pay for me to go to 
a conference or a training course to advance my skills as a technical 
writer.  Does anyone have a suggestion for the best course or 
conference?>>

That's a sign of a good boss, imho, and one well worth cultivating in 
future. <g>

The "best" conference is the one that helps you solve the most problems 
or that gives you the most new ideas that relate to your job. Make a 
list of the problems you're having at your workplace, the things that 
frustrate you, and the things you'd like to do better, then arrange 
them in order of priority. Now take a look at all the various available 
conferences* and put a checkmark beside each of your problems that one 
or  more presentations at the conference addresses. The conference with 
the most checkmarks at the top of your list wins.

* If you're an STC member, or know someone who is, pick up a copy of 
their Intercom magazine; the last few pages list upcoming conferences 
from a wide variety of organizations, and that's a great place to start 
looking for conferences.

STC's annual conference (http://stc.org/52ndConf/) probably has the 
largest attendance of any in the world, so if talking to many other 
people about your work is a priority, it's a great choice. (That's 
arguably my favorite part of the conference.) It's also a good value 
for the money compared with the cost of other conferences--though the 
conference hotels are usually too expensive for my taste and I look 
elsewhere--and it offers a wide range of topics.

The downside for this wide range is a dilution of the focus; the 
coverage of any given topic tends to be shallower, and there tend to be 
fewer "expert-level" sessions. I enjoy the conference greatly, but have 
to say that it tends to be most effective as a training opportunity for 
techwhirlers earlier in their career. (As writing and editing stem 
manager this year, I tried to bump up the number of advanced topics, 
but we can only present what the speakers who volunteer are prepared to 
talk about.)

<<We are currently using RoboHelp 5X for our writing projects.>>

The conference that used to be called WinWriters (now WritersUA, 
http://www.writersua.com/) is a well-respected conference that will 
give you a much more focused and intensive training of Robo and other 
online help ("user assistance", hence the new name) types of topics. 
You can't beat this kind of conference for intensive training, but it's 
pricey and I personally prefer a less narrowly focused conference. As a 
generalist, I tend to burn out when all topics are overly narrowly 
circumscribed.

<<I'm located in New Hampshire if that helps narrow down the choices.>>

Well, you could come hear my talk next week in Nashua <g>. Details on 
how to get there: http://www.stc-nne.org/meetings.htm

Looks like this STC chapter is a happening place, with lots of good 
talks. Thus, they're a good place to visit regularly between 
conferences for networking and education.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - --
Geoff Hart   ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca
(try geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com if you don't get a reply)
www.geoff-hart.com
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


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