Today I’m comparing the list of program tracks at the STC Summit for 2011 and 2012. Notice the difference in names of tracks. Maybe that’s telling us something about the profession.
Here are last year’s tracks (“Before”):
- Usability and Accessibility
- Managing People, Projects, and Business
- Writing and Editing
- Design, Architecture, and Publishing
- Communication and Interpersonal Skills
- Education and Training
- Professional Development
- Web Technologies
Here are this year tracks (“After”):
- User Experience & Accessibility
- People, Project, and Business Management
- Content Development
- Content Strategy and Design
- Content Delivery
- Education and Training
- Professional Development
- Web Design and Development
- Visual Design
- Social Media
Here’s what I surmise from these track name changes:
- “Usability” has expanded into “User Experience”.
- “Writing and Editing” is gone as a moniker for what we do – now it is “Content Development”.
- “Design, Arch & Publ.” is now broken up into “Content Strategy & Design” and “Content Delivery” and “Web Design & Development”.
- “Comm & Interpersonal Skills” is gone or else subsumed under “Managing”.
- “Web Technologies” (a kind of vague catch-all) has been replaced with “Web Design & Development”, “Visual Design”, and “Social Media”.
Or one could say we’re adding “Visual Design”, and “Social Media” (finally). - The ones that had little or no change (“Some things never change.”) are:
- People, Project & Business Management
- Education & Training
- Professional Development
- Looks like “Content” is the new buzz word – no mention of “Information” or “Architecture”. Looks like a conscious decision. Which is interesting because there is an “Information Design & Architecture” SIG in STC.
- I wonder where ‘editing’ and ‘indexing’ and ‘mar comm’ and ‘process docs’ fits in this scheme?
It would be interesting to look at the SIGs and see how they line up with these tracks; so does biotech writing just fit under “Content Development”?
Besides the tracks there are also what are called additional Institutes (for advanced content) – more forward looking or hip topics that haven’t been around long enough to have a bunch of speakers but which conference attendees might find interesting. In 2011, the Institutes were:
- Content Strategy
- Business Strategy
- User Experience
- Social Media
I can’t find a list of previous STC Summits on the STC website. If anyone knows the names of the program tracks for previous years (well, not too far back – let’s not get carried away), let me know. Leave a comment below or leave me a tweet (@BillAlbing).
Alyssa Fox sent me these other previous year track lists.
In 2006, they were called stems, and were:
- Management
- Professional Development/STC-Related Sessions
- Theory, Research, Education, and Training
- Tools and Technology
- Usability and Information Design
- Writing and Editing
In 2008 and 2009, the track names were:
- Applying Research and Theory to Practice
- Developing and Delivering Content
- Designing and Assessing the User Experience
- Developing Your Skills and Promoting Your Profession
- Managing People, Projects, and Business
- Producing and Publishing Information
So, some additional thoughts:
- Looks like the change from “Writing and Editing” to “Developing Content” may be cyclical. It has happened more than once.
- We have dropped the words “Theory” and “Research” from track names.
- “Producing and Publishing Information” has morphed into “Content Delivery”, “Web Design” and “Social Media”, I think.
- “Tools and Technology” has gone as an item to focus on by itself. We are not just users of tools, I guess. But part of me wonders if we shouldn’t retain something that is just about the “technical” in technical writing.
I’m the Conference Manager for the 2012 STC Summit and I’m happy to provide more information about these changes. Each year, the Conference Manager and the Program Advisory Committee Manager meet to discuss industry trends, other conferences in the technical communication space, and lessons learned from the previous Summit. They also meet with the STC Education and Publication teams to discuss industry trends and hot topic areas. During these discussions, key content areas are identified for the upcoming STC Summit. Then, the Conference Manager and Program Advisory Committee Manager identify the tracks needed to offer content in these areas.
For this year, we did change a few track names and reorganize topics in the design, develop, and deliver areas. We also added a few tracks that were either Institutes (advanced topic areas) in the past, or are important areas related to technical communication that we wanted to include this year. Here were our thoughts:
User Experience & Accessibility – We chose User Experience instead of Usability to cover a wider range of topics. This track often includes both usability and user experience-related sessions.
People, Project, and Business Management – This track is relatively unchanged, except a slight name change for consistency.
Content Development – We changed Writing and Editing to Content Development. This change is to match the phases of the publishing model in which content is designed, developed, and then delivered. All topics related to developing information are in this track, including gathering sources, writing of all types, editing, and more.
Content Strategy and Design – We split Design, Architecture, and Publishing into Content Strategy and Design and Content Delivery. This also allowed us to focus on Content Strategy, which was an Institute in the past and is a hot topic area in our industry.
Content Delivery – After splitting Design, Architecture, and Publishing, we wanted this track to reflect the many ways information is delivered. Publishing is often thought of as printing, so we used the term Delivery to cover all methods.
Education and Training – This track remains the same as previous years, focused on instructional design and education-related topics.
Professional Development – This track remains the same as previous years, focused on your career development.
Web Design and Development – This track is new this year, though some topics from the old Web Technologies track will fit into this track. Web Design and Development is a hot topic area related to technical communication. Trends in that area directly affect how information is designed, developed, and delivered. We should also all be aware of not only the trends in this area but also the job opportunities.
Visual Design – This is a new track this year, but we have had sessions in this area over the years. Visual communication is an important aspect of technical communication and we wanted to make these sessions easier to identify. We also wanted to encourage presenters in this area. As cutbacks continue, many technical communicators are being asked to develop more of their own graphic elements. This track will focus on providing the information we need to be successful.
Social Media – This track has been an Institute the last several years, so we have moved it into the main Summit programming.
As for Communication and Interpersonal Skills, we have included those types of topics in either the Professional Development or the Management tracks. We often saw overlap in these tracks and topics, so we decided to combine them this year.
Content may be a buzz word, but it isn’t new. Information Architecture and Content Strategy are closely related, so we chose to use Content Strategy and Design to cover this area.
Content Development includes all types of writing, from Marketing and Scientific writing to Help and Policy and Procedure writing. Editing and Indexing are also part of developing content, so they are included here as well.
I hope this information has helped address any questions you may have about the track name changes and the processes the Committees use to ensure the Summit offers the latest information members of our industry need.
Thanks, Paul. That’s a great explanation of what the tracks are and why the names were chosen. I hope readers enjoy the reflection back to previous years to see trends in track offerings. I wonder if you could publish the information you mention – “to discuss industry trends, other conferences in the technical communication space, and lessons learned from the previous Summit” – after the Summit program is set. I think it would be interesting. Keep up the great work!