2011 STC Summit

Combine four days of professional development, thought-provoking sessions, and the company of some of the greatest minds from your field and what do you get? The 2011 STC Summit that was held in Sacramento, California this May.

Our very own Escoe Bliss team member and president, Dr. Adrienne Escoe, attended and presented at the 2011 STC Summit. She had a wonderful time catching up with STC and friends and returned to the office with lots of food for thought.

A couple of the more memorable sessions that Dr. Escoe attended were:

• What's the Next Big Challenge? Content Delivery! -This presentation by Scott Abel took a look at how businesses big and small are leveraging the power of the crowd to create exceptional socially enabled customer assistance experiences, engaging interactive/enhanced digital content, useful mobile device apps, and powerful location-aware help. Dr. Escoe found that Scott was a very engaging speaker and that the content was refreshing, current, and practical.
  
• CIG SIG Progression - This session presented several topics that technical writers working in a contract/consulting role could really relate to and gave them some valuable pointers
  for increasing productivity, accuracy, building a professional portfolio, and cultivating good client-contractor relationships.
  
  
  

Dr. Escoe's presentation, Do You Have What it Takes to be an On-Demand Editor?, was part of a lineup of Topics of Special Interest from STC SIGs. All three of the sessions were full. To give you a small taste of Dr. Escoe's presentation we have included the quiz she kicks things off with so that you might find out if you've got the knowledge, skills, and work style to succeed in this growing sector:

	True	False
1.      Whenever I view a presentation I look for the typos.
2.      I have ready access to one or more style guides, such as The Chicago Manual of Style.
3.      People often give me their writing to proofread.
4.      I can make time to edit unexpected documents.
5.      I know how to save documents with and without mark-ups displayed.
6.      I know how to make Jones plural.
7.      I never place an apostrophe in the possessive pronoun its.
8.      I think on a daily basis is wordier than it needs to be.
9.      When I am proofreading, I always check headers, footers, headings, and subheadings.
10.  A good writer is naturally a good editor.

If you found questions 1-9 to be true and question 10 to be false, then you probably have what it takes to be an on-demand editor. If you'd like to learn more about on-demand editing services check out 

dr. edit® - The Gold Standard of Online Editing.

dr. edit® is a perfect example of the type of on-demand editing service that is necessary to keep up with the needs of today's fast-paced industries.

In conclusion, there were many sessions and presentations throughout the 2011 STC Summit that Dr. Escoe found to be both fun and informative. If you are a member of the technical communication community we encourage you to consider making room on your calendar for the 2012 STC Summit. This conference is well-worth your time and investment!