The market is definitely getting tight for technical communicators. Layoffs are occuring in many industries, such as enterprise software development. During these cycles, true leaders emerge and major changes can occur to shape how we approach and solve issues.
Instead of doing more with less, we need to focus on doing less (only what truly adds value). What does the audience really need? When and where do they need it? What deliverables are no longer needed? Are there other ways to effectively meet user needs, such as supporting a user community forum or a wiki?
True leaders take chances, open communication lines with their teams and their customers, and innovate. Not everything we try will work, but open communication will allow us to respond to issues as they arise and build a partnership with our audience. We need to work smarter and share our ideas and experience with others technical communicators. By sharing our experiences, we can improve technical communication and discover new ways of adding value.
At challenging times, travel and training budgets are often cut. However, investing in our skills is important to help us continue to learn and grow. With these cutbacks, we may need to fund these learning opportunities on our own…and then demonstrate the results to leaders who cut those budgets. I have found that investing in opportunities to learn and share ideas often pays off in unexpected ways.
There are many conferences and seminars available in our industry that provide opportunities for us to discuss ideas and explore various approaches to technical communication. The following list identifies a few 2009 conferences to consider attending (please add your comments about these conferences and others I have forgotten to mention):
- Mar 17-20: Documentation & Training West 2009 (Palm Springs, CA)
- Mar 29 – Apr 1: WritersUA conference (Seattle, WA)
- May 3-6: STC Technical Communication Summit (Atlanta, GA)
- May ??: Australasian Online Documentation and Content Conference, AODC (Melbourne, Australia )
- Sept ??: UA Conference (Europe). The dates and location for 2009 are not yet available.
- Oct 26-28: LavaCon Professional Development Summit (New Orleans, LA)
- Oct 27-30: Documentation & Training East (Waltham, MA)
- Nov 4-6: tekom Conference (Wiesbaden, Germany)
LavaCon (http://lavacon.org) is missing…it will be held October 26–28, 2009 in New Orleans. There’s another conference in February…I don’t remember which one.
These are all good conferences..I’ve been to all of them at least once.
Great catch Char! I added LavaCon to the list with the link you provided (I can’t believe I forgot it). I couldn’t remember when and where the IEEE conferences are. I also didn’t know whether to include the SXSW conference in Austin, Texas.
MadCap Software is also doing a series of free generally tools independent webinars for those who can’t make conferences this year. For more info, see my blog or http://www.madcapsoftware.com/demos/webinars.aspx
We’re also recording them so people who can’t make the date and time can also see the recording when it works for them.
I also missed IEEE PCS and WebWorks RoundUp in the list. For more conferences, see the list on our main page at http://www.useraid.com.