STC is offering a 3-day virtual conference on “Starting Your Own Business.” This online event will include presentations on all aspects of starting your own business or freelancing shop.
If you are a business owner, independent consultant, freelancer or trainer, you should definitely consider attending. Prices are very reasonable. For more details or to register, visit the virtual conference website ..
www.stc.org/virtual-conference.
Monique Semp, one of our STC NorthBay members, is one of many distinguished presenters at this conference. She is offering to give us a virtual preview of her 30 minute presentation!
Strategy First: Launching Successful Technical Communication Projects
You’ve decided to take the plunge and begin your new career as an independent consultant, but now what? You need a place to work! This session covers important topics such as location, computer hardware and software, furnishings (both immediate necessities and business/tax planning for future purchases), ergonomics, IT concerns (outlets, networks, backup methods, etc.), and building your reference library (both online and old-fashioned print books). You’ll receive checklists and references to help you create an office that you’ll not only want to spend time in, but that fosters productive (and lucrative) work.
This “preview” is scheduled for April 9, 2013, at 7pm. If you’d like to join us, please contact the STC NorthBay webmaster at <webmaster@stc-northbay.org> at least 24 hours in advance (Monday evening).
TC Camp is an “unconference” focused on Technical Communications issues, skills, challenges, and the various applications used by technical communicators. So, what’s an unconference? It’s an event where users suggest topics, get together and discuss them in detail. It’s even described in Wikipedia .. check it out. The purpose of TC Camp is to provide …
Read More →
Those wise and fortunate enough to attend this meeting left appreciating a learning experience one likely would have to travel to an STC conference to obtain. Again, Scott Prentice shared his considerable depth of understanding of the technical details underlying the words we read on the surface, and in the case of EPUB, we got …
Read More →
With tight job markets, unique skills requirements, and risk-averse hiring managers, finding work in the world of technical communications is not what it used to be . . . no more mirror test. However, the world of contract and contract-to-hire can still be rewarding for individuals who have precisely what a company (often a young …
Read More →
Fundamentals of Agile Development Mike Ziegenhagen, a technical writer and tech pubs manager in the software business for more than 18 years, has also specialized in documenting virtual worlds. One virtual world you may be familiar with is the one that “relates” (read “force fits”) product specifications to actual products. If you have ever suffered …
Read More →
Our chapter meetings may not be SRO, but we still provide a service to the North Bay technical documentation community — and we invite your participation in chapter roles. As long as you are an STC member and are able to attend regular chapter meetings (you do not need to be a NorthBay Chapter member), …
Read More →
STC Sacramento is presenting the following workshop: Saturday October 22, 2011 9 AM to 5 PM Topic-based authoring is a technique for writing content as discrete, stand-alone pieces (“topics”) that can be combined and reused in different ways. The topic-based approach has been getting a lot of attention recently because it is an integral part …
Read More →
Scott Prentice, chapter webmeister, president of Leximation, and all-around FrameMaker guru, brought us up to date regarding the latest developments in electronic book publication standards. With the current proliferation of portable Internet devices, the savvy tech doc specialist may want to be aware of the issues involved in converting source documents to those that are …
Read More →
Andrew Davis, formerly principal of Synergistech Communications and now a recruiter for Content Rules (formerly Oak Hill Corporation), provided valuable insights (both live and remotely) at our March 2011 meeting. A true champion of the candidate, he reads a lot of job descriptions and resumes, and made clear that a great portfolio (and approach) is …
Read More →
Joe Welinske has been a technical writer since 1984, and one of his first documents was a comic book. In four colors. For plumbers. To put in a hip pocket. Why make plumbers carry around a standard size tech doc to tell them how fit pipe when something much smaller would do? The manual was …
Read More →