Notes from 54th International STC Conference
Minneapolis, Minnesota, May 13-16, 2007

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

This site contains notes taken from the technical sessions at the 54th Annual International Conference of the Society for Technical Communication (STC) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, May 13-16, 2007. Below is a hot-linked table of contents of the sessions for which notes are provided. Additional links to other sites and materials are provided within the notes from the various sessions. Links to these sites are expected to be valid at least until September 1, 2007. In some cases, handouts are available only in hard-copy form. To get copies of such materials 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 Dan Voss via e-mail.

To view files of presentations from the conference and other related materials, check out the Conference Web site. Not only are materials from the most recent international conference available online, materials are also available back to the 45th international conference in the extensive electronic archives that run from 1998 to 2007.

Keynote Address

• "A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Production of the Documentary Fermat's Last Theorem", Simon Singh, author, journalist, and TV producer.

Management

• "Beyond the Basics: Project Management Essentials for Technical Communicators", Cynthia C. (Cindy) Currie, STC second vice president (will be president in 2009).
• "How to Deliver Outstanding Client Service", Lola Frederickson and Susan Borowick, Frederickson Communication.
• "Tools vs. Humanity", Phylise Banner Klein, Angela Eaton, Alan Houser, Karen Lane, Jerry Franklin, Geoffrey Hart, and George Slaughter (cross section of industry and academe).

Knowledge Management

• "What is Knowledge Harvesting?", Larry Todd Wilson.

Web

• "E-Mail and Digital Literacies: What We Know from the Field of Internet Studies", Laura Gurak, University of Minnesota.
• "Web 2.0 101: Understanding Web 2.0 and Its Impact on Technical Communication", Scott Abel, The Content Wrangler, Inc.

Graphic Design

• "Road Signs: Finding Your Way in the Visual World", Jean-luc Doumont.

Writing/Editing

• "How to Write an Effective White Paper", Manuel Gordon, Gordon & Gordon.
• "If You're So Smart, Why Does Your Writing Suck?"", Karen A. Schriver, KSA Communication Design and Research.

Ethics and Accessibility

• "The Ethics of Disabilities: It's a Matter of Fairness", Dan Voss, STC AccessAbility SIG.

Closing Address

• "Acceleration Anxiety", Ze Frank, high-tech humorist.

Comments or suggestions regarding the 54th International STC Conference notes? Please e-mail Dan Voss at daniel.w.voss@lmco.com.