STC Annual Conference, Philadelphia, PA

I've been at the STC (Society for Technical Communication) Technical Communication Summit and Annual Conference in Philly, PA since Sunday. A very exciting event for all technical communicators, with 1,250 in attendance from all across the USA, Europe, Japan, India, Korea, Israel, and a few other countries.

STC has organized 3 solid days of presentations on half a dozen subject tracks. There were so many workshops and seminars that I wanted to sit in but had to skip most of them since there was time enough only to attend three a day.

I'm surprised by the strength of localization and translation companies among those who rented a booth in the exhibition hall. The ones I talked to acknowledged growing competition but also seemed pleased with the direction in which their business is heading.

XML was a big focus area, as evidenced by the opening panel discussion on Sunday evening. All technical communicators need to pay attention to XML's growing footprint in corporate communications.

I've also had the opportunity in this Summit to meet many authors and educators whose work I've known for years but never had the chance to meet in person previously.

Adobe and MadCap as well as AuthorIt were among the corporations who've invested big time in this conference as main sponsors. I assume Adobe has spent a little more than the others as the Platinum Sponsor of the event. The two seminars presented by Adobe's very-qualified R.J. Jacquez were among the best that I've attended during this conference.

Other corporate participants and sponsors of note: TechSmith, DocToHelp, Ken Cook Co., CARA, and Texas Tech Univ. Distance Learning Division.

I'll continue to share the lessons and my impressions of this excellent conference in the days ahead. Perhaps I'll meet you next year down in Atlanta where the 2009 STC conference will be held.

For more info, please visit www.stc.org