Ideas and Notes from STC WDCB Summer Vision Day 2014

Photo of a spot at the beach with a chair, sunglasses, coconut drink with an umbrella

The recording for Summer Vision Day 2014 in in our list of podcasts in the sidebar.

Download the Summer Vision Day 2014 PowerPoint Slides (3.2 Mb .pptx).

During the meeting, we asked members to post ideas and needs for future events. Please use our WDCB website as a forum for sharing ideas.

  • What kinds of events would you like to see in the coming months?
  • What kinds of topics should we cover?
  • For what kinds of speakers should we look?

We asked to hear from you, the membership, and we mean it. What’s on your mind? What do you need?

Please share your thoughts here.

Evolution of the Knowledge Broker Slides Are Available

On 21 March 2014, Christopher Ward (@WebWorksChris) and Bernard Aschwanden (@aschwanden4stc) gave a presentation to our chapter on "Evolution of the Knowledge Broker: Trading your content for revenue". The slides from the presentation are now available on our Speakers' Handouts and Presentations page: Evolution of the Knowledge Broker slides (52 pages .pdf).

When available, handouts and presentations from previous chapter events may be downloaded from the Speakers' Handouts and Presentations page.

A Tech Writer Goes Fluffy: How to Transition from Tech Comm to MarComm Writing

This is an STC recorded Webinar. Price: $59.00
Order from https://access.stc.org/iMISPublic/Core/Orders/product.aspx?catid=7&prodid=191

joe_staples

Overview

What is a technical communicator to do when called upon to write marketing material (also called marketing communication, or marcomm)? Excel, of course, using tips you’ll learn in this webinar to help you apply your existing tech comm skills to new marcomm tasks.

Are you one of the many technical communicators whose jobs pushed them into marketing communications (marcomm) work? Perhaps you fell into a marcomm role reluctantly (“other duties as assigned”) since you were the only writer available. You might have disparaged marcomm as “fluff” compared to the serious and precise technical communication you were accustomed to creating.

However, as an experienced technical communicator, you bring valuable and directly applicable skills to the task. With a little guidance, these skills can help you rock your marcomm role, turning fluff into engaging, action-inducing substance.

Join Joe Staples in this hour-long webinar, where you will learn why your tech comm skills are a great foundation for marcomm writing (hint: tech comm is marcomm). You will also learn some practical ways to apply these skills to your new tasks.

Presenter Biography

Joe Staples is a senior information architect at Prowess Consulting where he technical markets pieces for some of the world’s largest IT firms. He has a PhD in English and 10+ years of teaching experience, as well as six years of experience developing a range of information products for large businesses. He lives in Utah with his wife, four children, and a dog. Learn more about Joe at his LinkedIn profile.