SIG NEWS: Marcia Shannon Reports on 2021 Summit Honors Reception

By Marcia Shannon, Immediate Past Manager

June was an exciting month, filled with education and awards, socializing and networking. 

At the Summit Honors Reception, our IDL SIG received the Bronze-level Community Award AND the Most Improved Community Award. The Bronze citation reads:

“For your impressive educational programming for your SIG and at the STC Summit, creative inclusion of students through your competition, and effective communication via your social media outlets and newsletter.”

This is the Most Improved citation: 

“For your extraordinary level of engagement and outreach within the STC community, and for continuing to provide impressive programs and value to your members.” 

We received notice about the Bronze achievement in April, but the Most Improved Award was a surprise. Both are the result of the hard work of all our volunteers throughout 2020. Additional kudos to Viqui Dill, for bringing us useful and interesting programs throughout the year, to Mellissa Ruryk, for her energetic student outreach expansion and Paul Scott, for his patience with our missed deadlines and skill in editing our newsletter contributions. Working with so many talented, dedicated winners is a continuing benefit of volunteering with the IDL SIG. I recommend it because each volunteer brings a fresh perspective to the SIG.

Summit presentations in review

Summit itself was three days of learning and fun and catching up with friends. I was able to attend a dozen of the 60 education sessions, most of the Featured Speaker presentations and several social/networking sessions. Thank goodness I have until August 31 to watch more of the education sessions, check out additional vendors. There is still much to explore and some sessions to watch again.

I enjoyed and learned from every session. These are my top picks with my take-ways from each.

So You Think You Know What Your Readers Want? (Strimling)

  • Research paper brought to life. 
  • How to measure whether users believe content is meaningful and actionable.
  • Documentation Quality Feedback Model is immediately useful.

Develop Engaging, Interactive Online Training Sessions (Kleinsmith)

  • Real world example of overhauling in-person and online training in variable settings.
  • Meet the user’s needs and provide uniform information across venues and customers.

Enhance Your User Experience with Content (Gillenwater)

  • The tech writer is user zero.
  • How a company shifted their UI to meet user, not developer needs.

Low-Cost, Low-Effort Ways to Create Infographics and Visually Appealing Slides (Schrank)

  • Abandon old style formats in favor of cleaner, more user-centered infographics.
  • Avoid confusion, emphasize the most needed information.

Tools Be Damned! Full Speed Ahead (Aschwanden)

  • Tips and shortcuts across several apps, including Google and MS Excel.

Zoom-proof Your Presentations: Delivering Engaging Talks in a Virtual Space (Guren)

  • Help your audience concentrate on content.
  • Avoid distracting behaviors.
  • Pay attention to lighting.

No Money, No Design Skills, No Problem (Parkinson)

  • Free or low-cost resources for illustrations.
  • Handy cheat sheet for building an infographic.

Low-Cost and Low-Effort Ways to Create Infographics and Visually Appealing Slides (Schrank)

  • Excellent basics of building infographics that delight users.
  • Lists of resources. 
  • Review of most-used apps for building infographics and slides.

Kelsey & Ben’s Excellent Adventure: A Mentoring Story (Woelk & Loftin)

  • Informal mentoring led to friendship, growth for both.

Get That Interview! How to Beat the Dreaded Applicant Tracking System (Molisani)

  • Formatting resumes to be read by ‘bots or people.
  • How to make sure your resume includes what the company wants.

Performing a Skills Inventory and Gap Analysis to Land the Perfect Role (V. Berger)

  • Steps to breaking out of a career rut.
  • Explore different ways to recharge or redirect your career.

IDL SIG Summit Events-June 8 & 9

Summit Honors on Tuesday, June 8 at 1 pm EDT

STC Summit Honors Event where the Community of the Year and Most Improved Community were announced. Watch the video and see the exciting announcement at 27:01
https://vimeo.com/event/1028521/videos/555700556/

Open House on Wednesday, June 9 at 12:45 pm EDT

Join the IDL SIG  during the Open House. You don’t need to be registered for the Summit! Drop by and say hi to our volunteers and enter to win a door prize to be drawn at the AGM!  Mark your calendars and join using the Zoom link  https://zoom.us/j/95239076337?pwd=Wi9RTWdwbkEyYllHUllJWTVQaENiQT09. *

Prize drawing for IDL CoP SIG

Volunteer for STC IDL CoP SIG

And looking ahead . . .

STC IDL SIG AGM (Annual General Meeting)
Tue, June 29, 2021 5:00 PM – 6:30 PM EDT

First Fridays at 5: Join the conversation – drinks after work!
Fri, July 02, 2021 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM EDT

 

June 2021 events are AWESOME!

Hey IDL friends – Your buddies in the STC IDL SIG have been pulling together several exciting events for June. We hope you can join us. Many events are open to all, even if you’re not going to the Summit, even if you’re not a SIG member, and even if you’re not a member of STC. Here we go:

Social Event on Monday, June 7 at 7pm EDT

Please join the IDL SIG on Monday night of the Summit (June 7) after the magic show. We are hosting a fun social time from 7 to 8:30 pm (Eastern) where you can network with folks in the IDL SIG and other attendees. This event is free and you can invite your spouse or friends to attend as well (each participant needs their own camera, on a desktop, laptop or phone).
Please register for the event so we can stay in touch with you and send you friendly reminders. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/each-of-us-is-you-nique-idl-cop-sig-summit-social-event-2021-tickets-154919764185

 

Summit Honors on Tuesday, June 8 at 1 pm EDT

We will send out more information about the Honors Event. Watch your inbox and this website for updates.

Open House on Wednesday, June 9 at 12:45 pm EDT

Join the IDL SIG  during the Open House. You don’t need to be registered for the Summit! Drop by and say hi to our volunteers and enter to win a door prize to be drawn at the AGM!  Mark your calendars and join using the Zoom link  https://zoom.us/j/95239076337?pwd=Wi9RTWdwbkEyYllHUllJWTVQaENiQT09. *
* This link is tentative, so be sure to check the IDL SIG website for an update post if it changes

Check out our list of IDL SIG Members to Present at STC Summit, June 7-9, 2021 while you’re at it!

2021 is a great year for #TechComm. Come celebrate with us!

IDL SIG Members to Present at STC Summit, June 7-9, 2021

Once again, we hope this list will help you plan your time at the Summit.

The following members of the IDL SIG are presenting at the STC Summit, as shown immediately below. Mark your schedules, and attend to support them!  Also included in this post are topics/presenters that could be of interest to you as a member of the Instructional Design & Learning SIG.

Click here for a printable list of presenters.

Tip: For those who are not able to attend the Summit this year, make note of any topics that you find of interest. Then let the Program Manager know that you’d be sure to sign up if we were able to convince these talented and informative presenters to reprise their presentations for the SIG at a later date.

Presenter(s)

Jun

Start time (EST)

Title

Ben Woelk, Kelsey Loftin 7 1100 Kelsey & Ben’s Excellent Adventure: A Mentoring Story Management, Leadership, and Career Development
Ed Marsh 8 0900 Podcasting for Fun and/or Profit Content Design and Delivery
Kelly Schrank 8 1000 Low-Cost and Low-Effort Ways to Create Infographics and Visually Appealing Slides Tools and Technologies
Sree Pattabiraman 8 1000 Ace Your Video Documentation: A DITA-Centered Approach to Optimize Video Production Content Design and Delivery
Viqui Dill 8 1600 Show Up, Speak Up, Shut Up: How to Be a Good Ally Management, Leadership, and Career Development

IDL-related presentations

Presenter(s)

Jun

Time (EST)

Title

Char James-Tanny 5 1400 Preconference workshop: Make Your Content Usable by (Almost) Everyone: An Introduction to Accessibility (*Additional cost to attend)
Mike Parkinson 5 0900 Preconference workshop: At-A-Glance Infographics

(*Additional cost to attend)

Jennifer Goode 7 0900 Survey Says: Don’t Start a Feud—Write Stronger Surveys Content Design and Delivery
Abigail Bettle-Shaffer 7 1100 What is Ableism, and Why Does It Matter? Management, Leadership, and Career Development
David Dylan Thomas 7 1400 FEATURED SPEAKER SESSION: Design for Cognitive Bias: Using Mental Shortcuts for Good Instead of Evil
Content Design and Delivery, Featured Speaker Session
Mike Parkinson 7 1500 Quick Fixes for Bad Slides
Content Design and Delivery
Lou Prosperi 7 1600 Tell Your Story the Disney Way: Applying Disney Imagineering to Technical Communication
Content Design and Delivery
Leah Guren 8 0900 Zoom-proof Your Presentations: Delivering Engaging Talks in a Virtual Space
Management, Leadership, and Career Development
Bremen Vance, Philip B. Gallagher 8 1100 Teaching with Google Workspace Platforms Tools and Technologies
Candice A. Welhausen, David Caruso 8 1400 FEATURED SPEAKER SESSION: Pandemics, Public Health, and Strategies for Conveying Information About Risk Content Design and Delivery, Featured Speaker Session
Michael Levitt 8 1500 Burnout Proof Your Communications Management, Leadership, and Career Development
Ray Davis 8 1600 Adobe Photoshop’s Data-Driven Images Tools and Technologies
Mark Kleinsmith, Steven Morgan 8 1600 Develop Engaging, Interactive Online Training Sessions Content Design and Delivery
Mike Parkinson 9 1000 No Money, No Design Skills, No Problem Content Design and Delivery
Roberta (Bobbi) Werner 9 1000 From Contributor to Manager: What Got Me Here Won’t Get Me There Management, Leadership, and Career Development
John Garison 9 1100 Building and Sustaining a Career in Technical Communication Management, Leadership, and Career Development
Bremen Vance, Samantha Cosgrove 9 1100 Aligning Content with Reality: Practitioner Perspectives on Textbook Keywords Management, Leadership, and Career Development

IDL SIG Receives Bronze Community Award

We are excited that we have received the Bronze Community Award for our community’s activities in 2020. The citation on the certificate reads:

For your impressive educational programming for your SIG and at the STC Summit, creative inclusion of students through your competition, and effective communication via your social media outlets and newsletter.

On Wednesday, 19 May, from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. EDT., our community will be recognized during the 2021 STC Summit Leadership Program.

IDL SIG members can attend the virtual STC Summit Honors Event on Tuesday, 8 June, from noon to 1:00 p.m. EDT, where the Community of the Year and Most Improved Community will be announced. You can view the details for the 2021 STC Summit here.