Notes from 49th International STC Conference
Nashville, Tennessee, May 5-8, 2002

Dan Voss
Communications Department
Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, Orlando, Florida
Lockheed Martin Corporation

This site contains notes taken from the technical sesssions at the 49th Annual International Conference of the Society for Technical Communication (STC) Nashville, Tennessee, May 5-8, 2002. Below is a hot-linked table of contents. Additional links to other sites and materials are provided within the notes from the various sessions. In some cases, handouts are available only in hard-copy form. To get copies, contact Dan Voss via e-mail.

The presenters of several of the sessions covered below published one or more articles on the conference Proceedings, which are available in hard copy and, in some cases, electronic format. To get copies of these papers, you can contact the authors (whose e-mail addresses are provided with the notes to the sessions), or you can contact Dan Voss via e-mail.

For downloadable files of presentations from the conference, check out the Conference Web site.

Links to other Web sites expected to be valid at least until September 1, 2002.

Good Ideas: Look for the Light Bulb! Sprinkled throughout the notes, you will find an image of a light bulb, indicating a particularly useful idea or suggestion.

Keynote Address

• "Keynote Address", David Macauley.

Web Authoring and Electronic Publishing Technology

• "Analysis of Web Authoring Programs", Linda Wokosin, CitizensFirst Credit Union.
• "Introduction to XML for Technical Writers", Steve Manning, The Rockley Group, Inc.
• "What Every Technical Communicator Should Know About Metadata", Gwen Thomas, Ciber, Inc.
• "eHelp Demo", Marketing team from eHelp, Inc., makers of RoboHelp.

Marketing Communication

• "Making the Leap from Marketing Communication", Patricia Clark McDaniels, The University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture ("Marketing Science through the Media") and Kristen T. Schultz, FGM, Inc. ("But I'm Not Creative! Conquering Your Fear of Creativity.")
• "Can You Help Us Sell It? A Crash Course in Marketing Writing for Technical Communicators", Jack Massa, Guidance Communications.

Six Sigma

• "Using Six Sigma to Improve Documentation", Lori Beard and Erin A. Beal Welch, GE Medical Systems, Information Technologies.

Strategic Planning

• "Thinking Strategically for the Future", Mary Merrill, Merrill Associates. Focuses on strategic planning for an organization.

Integrated Strategic Communication

• "The Tina-Xena Transformation: A Recipe for Professional Empowerment", Dan Voss and W.C. Wiese, Communications Department, Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control-Orlando.

Ethics of Technical Illustration

• "Sweetening 'Cruel Pies' with a Dose of Humanity: Adding the Human Element to Technical Illustrations that Depict Grim Statistics", Sam Dragga, English Department chair, Texas Tech University, and Dan Voss, Communications Department, Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control-Orlando.

Special Needs in Technical Communication

• "Let's Take the 'Dis' out of Disabilities: A Progression on How to Harness Technology to Meet Special Needs in Technical Communication and to Ensure User Accessibility in Communication Products", Lori Allen, Lori Gillen, Andy Malcolm, Helen Marty, Gloria Reece, Fabien Vais, and Dan Voss.

Special Feature

• "Thirteen New Ideas from the 49th Annual STC Conference", Brought to You by W.C. Wiese, Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, Orlando, FL.

Comments or suggestions regarding the 49th International STC Conference notes? Please e-mail Dan Voss at daniel.w.voss@lmco.com.