Wow! What great opportunities at the Summit! Between pre-conference, leadership program, keynote, and the workshops, I have plenty of choices. STC color-coded the Summit Schedule events, making it easy for attendees to quickly identify their interests. And since this attendee loves color, I find the schedule aesthetically pleasing!
Early on, I realized I needed a strategy to review the Schedule. I know that it helps to have an idea of workshops I’d like to attend.
Strategy 1. What are my goals for this Summit?
- Grow my skills.
- Learn about the latest authoring/editing technology.
- Uncover information about creating a consulting tech comm business.
- Reconnect with colleagues and meet new technical communicators.
Strategy 2. What tracks match my goals? Everything!
- Connections: There are several colors for these activities; Business Meeting, Expo Hall, and Reception are places I plan to go to connect.
- Skills and technology: Progressions Sessions in full technicolor! As a technical editor, I gravitate toward aqua, Technical Editing Progression. And the green of Writing Progression catches my eye. What about the periwinkle of Technology and Development? And I’m sure there are other tracks!
- Consulting business: Career and Leadership and Independent Consulting Progression satisfy that goal.
Strategy 3. How do I decide?
- Create a schedule. STC provided online tools. We can add a presentation to our personal schedule. I’m a paper-and-pen person, so I printed an initial copy.
- Working with the hard copy, I highlighted all the workshops I hope to attend, even those that run simultaneously.
- Read the workshop and presenter descriptions.
- About a week before the Summit, re-review the choices and make a tentatively final schedule.
- How do I handle those conflicts? Perhaps I could clone myself? Probably not. I’ll need to decide and may do that on-the-spot. See Strategy 4.
Strategy 4. Leave room for last-minute changes.
While at the Summit, a colleague might suggest a dynamic presenter I may not have considered. Or perhaps, a new friend will suggest I meet a new colleague who is presenting on a related topic, but one I hadn’t considered. I benefit when I’m open to these suggestions.
Time to review the presentation descriptions in this colorful guide!
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Can’t attend the Summit in person? Consider the Virtual Track. The deadline to register for the Virtual Track is Wednesday, May 11, 2016.
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