STC Summit 2016: Full Schedule

8:30am PDT

Doc is Dead! How Walkthroughs Changed Salesforce's Content Strategy

Customers no longer have the patience to read online help or user guides. To help customers better understand why they should use a variety of features, and renew their subscription-based apps, Salesforce conducted research to determine the content types that engaged customers most. The result—Salesforce changed its content strategy. In this session, you’ll learn: what types of interactive content we’re creating at Salesforce, why Salesforce moved to interactive content over documentation, and how a large company changed its content strategy and how customers responded.

Speakers

Gavin Austin

Principal Technical Writer, Salesforce

Gavin Austin is a Principal Technical Writer at Salesforce, where he writes everything from UI text to API developer guides. He has delivered a number of highly-rated presentations at LavaCon, WritersUA, STC Summit, Agile 2013, Intelligent Content Conference, Content Management Strategies/DITA... Read More →

stc16 austin pptx

Monday May 16, 2016 8:30am - 9:15am PDT
Platinum 3

Technology & Development, Presentation (45 minutes)

Tags Content Strategy, interactive online help.

9:45am PDT

How to Write Contracts and Statements of Work

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If you are an independent contractor, you are paid for your services by either an hourly rate or a fixed amount of money. Companies often ask you to sign their contracting agreements, but do you ask them to sign yours? Attend this session to learn what is a letter of agreement (LOA), statement of work (SOW), and other contracting terms. We'll also cover documenting what you are going to do and not going to do, managing change requests, and setting payment terms that favor you. Find out from Jack the hard-won lessons learned from over 20 years of buying and selling corporate services.

Speakers

Jack Molisani

President, ProSpring Staffing

Jack Molisani is the president of ProSpring Technical Staffing, an employment agency specializing in technical writers and other content professionals: http://ProspringStaffing.com He's the author of Be The Captain of Your Career: A New Approach to Career Planning and Advancement... Read More →

How to write SOWs and Contracts 2016 pdf

Monday May 16, 2016 9:45am - 10:30am PDT
Platinum 3

Career & Leadership, Presentation (45 minutes)

Tags Business, Freelancing, Independent Consulting

1:00pm PDT

REST API Documentation Best Practices

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If you work in software and haven’t documented a REST API, you may be asked to do so soon. REST APIs are growing quickly, with enterprise and finance as fast-growing categories. The job market for writers who know REST API is growing, and technical communicators can increase their marketability and value to their company by learning more about them. Come to this session to get a head start and be better prepared for what you need to know!

REST API Documentation Best Practices pdf

Monday May 16, 2016 1:00pm - 1:45pm PDT
Platinum 3

Technology & Development, Presentation (45 minutes)

Tags Coding, Overview, Software, Technique

2:15pm PDT

Collaborating and Contributing in GitHub

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GitHub is a popular Web-based repository for software projects (both code and documentation) and a large open source community that makes both collaboration and source control more efficient. In this session, we will learn how to set up a GitHub repository and write documentation in Markdown, plus learn about Git basics such as merges, forks, branches, and commits. We’ll also explore the social aspects of GitHub and other features (like wikis), and discuss how you can collaborate with developers to improve projects. With a live demo we will cover three ways to document projects stored in GitHub and discuss GitHub benefits.

Speakers

Nicky Bleiel

Watson Information Developer, IBM Watson

Nicky Bleiel is a Watson Information Developer at IBM. She is a Past President and Associate Fellow of STC. Nicky has over 20 years of experience writing and designing content for software products in the cognitive computing, tech pubs, media sales, industrial automation, simulation... Read More →

Collaborating in GitHub Bleiel STCSUMMIT2016 pdf

Monday May 16, 2016 2:15pm - 3:00pm PDT
Platinum 3

Technology & Development, Presentation (45 minutes)

Tags Coding, Demonstration, Software, Tools

3:45pm PDT

Communicate More Effectively in Your Global Virtual Teams

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Global virtual teams connect professionals worldwide. These teams act as essential links to the global marketplace but are vulnerable to miscommunication, and few organizations prepare their employees to work successfully in online teams. Dr. Brewer used a survey to gather data on the use of virtual teams by engineering professionals worldwide and more than 70% of the responses came from professionals outside the United States. In this presentation, Dr. Brewer will share the survey results and core teaming concepts to help managers improve their use of virtual teams.

Speakers

Pam Brewer

Associate Professor, Director Master of Science in Technical Communication, Mercer University

Pam researches, presents, and publishes about virtual teaming, international teaming, and online communication strategy. Her first book, Virtual Teams: Engineering Global Success, was published by Wiley in 2015.

Communicate More Effectively in GVTs Brewer2 pptx

Monday May 16, 2016 3:45pm - 4:30pm PDT
Platinum 3

Career & Leadership, Presentation (45 minutes)

Tags Collaboration, International, Teams

8:30am PDT

Self-Publishing for Print and eBook Distribution

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Self-publishing has revolutionized traditional publishing, making it possible for anyone to publish a book or eBook. The same technology that will let you publish a memoir of your kindergarten years will also let you publish more down-to-earth content, including your technical documentation. Join this session to learn how to distribute and sell content in print and eBook form through retailers such as Amazon. We will include a survey of the most common print-on-demand and eBook distributors, incuding the pros and cons of each. This talk is relevant for anyone who is interested in self-publishing non-work-related content.

Speakers

Richard Hamilton

Publisher, XML Press

Richard Hamilton is Founder and CEO of XML Press. He began his career at Bell Laboratories developing computer software and has worked at AT&T, Unix System Laboratories, Novell, and Hewlett-Packard in jobs ranging from software development to product management to documentation management. In... Read More →

WC SelfPublishingforPrintandEbookDistribution Hamilton slides pdf

Tuesday May 17, 2016 8:30am - 9:15am PDT
Platinum 3

Writing & Communication, Presentation (45 minutes)

Tags Publishing, Technique

9:45am PDT

Use Your Content to Create Killer Courseware

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What is effective content delivery? Standard print, help systems, and online classes can provide answers to specific questions, but fall short when compared to the depth and ROI that online courses provide for specific training needs. In this session, Matt will discuss why he is moving away from traditional authoring and training formats and toward online courses. He'll review two online courses he developed and compare the relative depth of online classes and online courses. To show their effectiveness, he will compare the online courses against similar content available in book, help, and live training courses. Matt will then share his method for successfully modeling course content, including the details of his migration to a courseware provider.

Speakers

Matt Sullivan

Founder, Tech Comm Tools

I help folks deliver content to their audience, ranging from PDF to mobile, and from text/graphics to interactive/video. I love to talk about courseware, video, and mobile delivery. If you love that stuff as well, introduce yourself & let's chat! Talk to me about anything... Read More →

Tuesday May 17, 2016 9:45am - 10:30am PDT
Platinum 3

Strategy & Trends, Presentation (45 minutes)

Tags Courseware, Online Training, Use Case

1:00pm PDT

Writing Technical Docs like a Hacker with Jekyll

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Jekyll is a popular open source tool that can be used for documentation that includes conditional filtering, single sourcing, PDF and HTML output, a robust TOC, search, context-sensitive help, collaboration, SME review, and more. With it you write primarily in Markdown, but can also use HTML or JavaScript in your content. Jekyll's architecture is flexible and customizable, utilizing your web development skills. If you work in a developer-centric shop, enjoy the freedom to code, and would like to replace proprietary help authoring tools, join us in this session to learn how Jekyll might be the solution for you.

Speakers

Tom Johnson

Technical Writer, Amazon Lab126

I currently work as a technical writer for developer documentation products at Amazon in Sunnyvale, California. I write regularly at http://idratherbewriting.com. Here are a few things I'm interested in related to #techcomm: API documentation, visual communication, findability, Jekyll... Read More →

slides html

Tuesday May 17, 2016 1:00pm - 1:45pm PDT
Platinum 3

Technology & Development, Presentation (45 minutes)

Tags Programming, Software, Technique, Tools

2:15pm PDT

Up with Markdown!

Feedback Survey

Technical writers are often asked to quickly produce small sections of content for various media. Instead of using large and complex authoring tools for quick authoring tasks, you can harness the power of simplified-notation markdown to quickly and easily produce content chunks that can be exported as HTML and integrated into virtually any parent document. It's fast, easy, and even kind of fun! Join us to learn what markdown is, how simplified syntax works, the available tools, and how markdown can help you be more productive.

Speakers

Dave Gash

Tuesday May 17, 2016 2:15pm - 3:00pm PDT
Platinum 3

Technology & Development, Presentation (45 minutes)

Tags Software, Technique, Tools

3:45pm PDT

Closing the Deal: Getting that Freelance Project

Feedback Survey

Do you have lots of prospects but not enough work? You’re not alone. Many of us went independent because of our strong communication skills, and realized in hindsight that we weren’t as strong in business skills. We’ve all struggled with the frustration of the prospective client that drops off the face of the earth after seemingly positive negotiations. What went wrong? In this session, Alisa will discuss different ways to identify solid prospects, ask for what you need, and close the deal with prospective clients without feeling like a used car salesman. She will also cover converting prospects into paying clients and how to identify the clients to avoid.

Speakers

Alisa Bonsignore

Writer & Strategist, Clarifying Complex Ideas

I spend my days clarifying complex ideas, translating technical and clinical information into understandable language tailored to the needs of healthcare, network security and healthcare IT clients around the globe. I'd love to talk to you about your freelancing challenges, how to... Read More →

Tuesday May 17, 2016 3:45pm - 4:30pm PDT
Platinum 3

Career & Leadership, Presentation (45 minutes)

Tags Freelancing, Independent Consulting, Marketing