A First Timer’s Half-Week “Off”

By CHRISTY CAPPS
Carolina Chapter

What to Expect?

Anticipation

I felt like celebrating since I was getting to spend a few days in a stylish metropolitan enclave instead of the expanding industrial/suburban sprawl where I normally work. And instead of being browbeaten by the realities of everyday practice, I would hopefully get lifted once more by the possibilities contained in theory, as well as from simply hearing how others face the same challenges.

The Wait Is Over

Day one of the conference consisted of picking up the registration packet and the requisite tote bag - a nice black and white ensemble that came with its own ID tag (nice touch). With my bag and STC speaker label proudly displayed around my neck, I was off to the vendor booths.

Next of course I had to accumulate as many freebies as I could - a mini green highlighter, a keyboard brush (for those crumbs you inevitably accumulate from meals at your desk), a stress-busting squishy thing. I was a bit overwhelmed by all the possibilities. The technology often seems to hold center-show. Not only are we (in most cases) documenting technology, but we must also use it to do that very job. Quite an ironic circle.

I started meeting people from other countries - England, Italy, Japan - to imagine they had come so far to attend a four-day event! It made me realize the significance of this annual pilgrimage. Nevermind the isolation of perhaps being the only technical communicator in your organization, imagine being one of few to represent an entire nation.

I also made a mental note to never complain about my flight from the east coast. (Hey, who would complain anyway? I actually got a whole can of ginger ale this time instead of the usual half-glass.)

Sessions Anyone, Anyone?

Deciding which sessions to attend on a daily basis is like having to choose two different chocolate desserts out of twenty. (OK, so this assumes that you’re also a chocoholic.) How to pick sessions when I want to know it all? Perhaps I could have just based my selections on the catchiness of the titles. Here are a few of the more memorable ones:

• “Yesterday API Was Just Another Acronym; Today I Have to Document One!”
• “Oh, Oh, The Job Ad Says OO!”
• “Avoiding Font Fiascoes”
• “Blunders 2001, or Why Smart Designers Produce Stupid Online Documents”
• “The Scare Book Project: Improving Process When Cursed with a Terrifying Deadline” (Hey - isn’t this every project?)
• and my personal favorite, “I Just Wanna Bang on the Drum All Day” (Is this some New Age, learn-to-express-your-inner-self kind of thing?)

My first session dealt with taking ownership of the user interface. I’ve seen firsthand the dangers of not having it and thought that herein might lie the secrets of how to extract such control from development. Can you believe it - the presenters suggested building a rapport with your development team and getting your time built into the project plan - and here I thought we might be given some universal lab passcodes or something.

Afterwards I concentrated on sessions aimed at familiarizing me with the tools and best practices of the trade - help engines, XML, single sourcing. Single sourcing is a foregone conclusion in my company. We even have to share our pronoun files (perhaps I exaggerate a tad); but I wanted to know the history, the big picture and what other people were doing to see how we stacked up. I begrudgingly decided that perhaps our methods were worth the collaborative hassles after all.

Not surprisingly, tools were a big topic. Sessions covered tools for translation, indexing, usability testing, online help, single sourcing, editing, managing, and so forth. How complicated it is to have to keep up with an ever-changing toolbox. Carpenters might get “better” hammers, but they still basically operate the same way - hold nail, hit. We often have to learn a completely new paradigm to accomplish the same task.

Theory versus practice, and bridging the distance between the two, also emerged as a popular track. Mentoring and projects in which industry and academia collaborate illustrated an interest of yours truly. How do we help new technical communicators fast forward to the best practices from day one? How do we get the researchers and the practitioners to work together to inform and strengthen each other as opposed to occupying parallel universes?

Put On Your Thinking Cap

Case in point: The tools especially interested me because the academic world from which I had recently emerged refused to discuss them. Instead, the program concentrated on more elevated topics such as rhetoric, writing theory, cognitive learning, and so forth, as if all else would magically flow from just knowing how to think.

However, the opposite problem can be even worse. The last thing you want is an employer who believes that anyone who knows how to use a particular tool also knows how to communicate technical information in a usable way. Tools assist - they don’t do the job for you. (Stepping down from my soapbox now ...)

I made it a point to hit the conference bookstore and check out the latest publications relating to how we do what we do or how we should. After being overwhelmed by all the choices for web development tips, XML overviews, design how-to’s and the like, I decided to just get a book that contained essays on creative thinking. True story. Go figure.

Technical Com-Pointillism

Before co-presenting on the last day (nothing like anticipation), I made sure to hit some of the cultural highlights of the city: the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC); the John Hancock Building and Sears Tower (OK, I didn’t go to the top of either, but I did walk by both); and a river cruise to check out the pioneering designs of famous architects.

That was about all I had time for, but at least at the AIC I stood in front of the same Seurat painting (Sunday Afternoon ...) that Ferris and friends saw. I too marveled at all those little dots adding up to a conceptual whole - just as we hope our online help systems and computer-based training contribute to a big picture that is greater than the sum of its parts. (How’s that for bringing things full circle?)

Danke Schön

When the fateful hour came for my presentation, I was exhausted, but also excited. People actually wanted to come hear something I might say about usability and low-fidelity prototyping. Imagine that! But the experience (I think it went quite well overall) brought to light a key point about our profession and the purpose for the conference in general: We can never learn in isolation as much as we learn together.

Whether presenting or attending sessions or both, what you take away is always something more than what you brought with you - and it doesn’t add any weight to your carry-on’s. (Unless you ordered the hardcopy of the Proceedings.)