Core Dump

I didn't go to the STC Summit in Philadephia this year. I was considering it, because travel costs would have been low, but I got a chance to go to DocTrain West instead. Tom Johnson did go and you can read a series of his posts about the conference on her blog, including this wrap-up post.

If giving the conference a grade, my colleagues and I all agree that it deserves a B-. The tracks had a good variety of topics and speakers, the time slots were well-spaced out, and the conference venue itself had perks — right next to the Reading Terminal Market, in the heart of downtown Philadelphia.

But I didn’t come away with much new learning. I don’t mean to be critical. Perhaps my learning preference isn’t suited to conference style sessions. It’s a hard target — trying to hit the audience’s interests and knowledge level. Time and again I left a session without the high of having learned anything new.

To be fair, you probably get out of the conference what you put into it. And there’s always the value of the social networking that takes place between and after sessions, right? Unless you attend the open jam [karaoke], dance [for married people?], STC annual meeting [snooze], honors banquet [clap clap clap clap clap], and pub crawl [Mormons don't drink], there’s plenty of time to define your own social agenda.

Labels: technical communication