Technical communicators often take a lead role in shaping the user experience. Social media allows technical communicators to participate in collaborative, open conversations with users. Engaging and interacting with users is easier with social networking sites and tools like Twitter, Facebook, wikis, blogs, and forums. Sessions in this track should explore techniques for delivering information in highly usable and accessible formats, evaluating the usability of documentation, products, and services, and promoting attention to user experience and accessibility at all levels within an organization. Suggested session topics include:

• Using social networking to facilitate user engagement and feedback with products and documentation
• Creating communities around products and documentation
• Socially-enabled customer assistance
• User-centered design techniques for effectively presenting information in different formats and displays, including the Web, mobile devices, and print
• Techniques for ensuring product and documentation usability and accessibility for all audiences, including the young, the elderly, those with low literacy skills, and those with other special needs
• Techniques and methods for conducting usability assessments
• Technology and tools for assessing usability, such as eye-tracking software and tools for tracking and analyzing usability studies
• Legal and social issues around usability and accessibility
• Research studies and results in readability and usability studies
• Techniques for increasing awareness of and devoting resources to user experience and accessibility efforts
• Options and approaches for technical communicators to contribute to usability and user-centered design efforts within an organization.

For more information about this track, consult the track manager

Management of people and projects are crucial skills and logical career paths for many technical communicators. Proposals in this track should address techniques, methods, and best practices for effective management of people and projects. In addition, proposals in this track should address needs of business owners and leaders. Suggested session topics include:

• Effective management of people and teams
• Project management practices and techniques
• Staffing and hiring
• Management of virtual teams
• Management of people and projects in the face of challenging circumstances
• Technology aids for people and project management
• Managing “upward”; meeting the needs and expectations of upper management
• Building business cases to justify new projects or initiatives
• Techniques for positioning technical communication as a revenue center, instead of a cost center
• Owning and managing a technical communication company

For more information about this track, consult the track manager.

Writing, editing, and visual communication are the technical communicator's core competencies. Sessions in this track should present best practices for developing clear and effective communication, provide practical information on using different media to communicate information, and address issues in writing for diverse audiences. Following content design and development, delivering that content when and where needed is critical. This track also explores issues in delivering existing content, with particular emphasis on systems and solutions for organization-wide publishing. Suggested session topics include:

• Using non-textual communication of technical content, including graphics, audio, video, and animation
• Integrating text and graphics
• Concepts, considerations, and issues in visual design and development
• Modular writing and writing for reuse
• Considerations and techniques when writing for internationalization and localization
•  Working effectively with subject matter experts
• Developing content for specialized fields, including, but not limited to, journalism, marketing and human relations, business, government, technology, medical, scientific, and legal fields
• Writing for the Web and for small-screen devices
• Creating indexes and other navigation aids
• Techniques for creating effective user assistance
• Authoring in structured environments
• Single-source publishing in multiple delivery formats
• Methodologies and solutions for publishing content from content management systems
• Comparing delivery technologies, processes, and formats
• Issues in structured publishing and deployment
• XML-based publishing
• Using industry-standard publishing architectures, such as DITA
• Accommodating localization workflows in the publishing process

For more information about this track, consult the track manager

Developing a comprehensive content strategy and selecting the appropriate design and architecture can improve the efficiency, usability, and quality of an organization's technical content. This track explores issues in information design and system architectures for publishing, with particular emphasis on systems and solutions for organization-wide content strategy. Suggested session topics include:

• Page design and layout
• Single-source authoring for multiple delivery formats, multiple purposes, and multiple audiences
• Methodologies and solutions for content management
• Issues in structured authoring, including migration and design
• Moving unstructured content to structure
• Conducting audience analysis
• Collaboration and content lifecycle considerations
• Designing for retrieval/findability

For more information about this track, consult the track manager

New tools, technologies, and approaches are blurring the boundaries of technical communication and training. Sessions in this track should educate technical communicators on the tools and techniques of education and training, expose opportunities for synergy and collaboration, and enlighten conventional technical communicators about alternative approaches for delivering information. Suggested session topics include:

• Tools and techniques for all phases of the training content lifecycle, including content authoring, learning management, and delivery
• Best practices and new developments in education and training
• Opportunities for synergy and collaboration between technical communication and training professionals.

For more information about this track, consult the track manager.

Your career is a personal asset worthy of attention, planning, and management. Sessions in this track will help you maximize your value within an organization, identify opportunities for professional growth, and expand your career options. Suggested session topics include:

• Techniques for using technical communication skills to transfer to other roles inside your organization
• Resources and tools available to assist in career growth
• Professional development on a budget
• Determining which skills to acquire and hone for increased marketability

For more information about this track, consult the track manager.

The Internet has had a transformative effect on the delivery of technical information and user assistance. Social media and technologies to facilitate community-driven content, such as wikis, also impact our approaches to web design and development. Sessions in this track will explore the underlying technologies and design principles that make Web content delivery effective. Possible topics include:

• Languages for implementation markup and styling, including HTML, XML, CSS, and XSLT
• Languages for interactivity, including JavaScript, AJAX
• Socially-enabled web content
• Integrating text and graphics
• Web page design and layout
• Using wikis to manage collective knowledge
• Web-based delivery formats for content and user assistance
• Web-enabled techniques for delivering information, including social networking, Web-based video, and other approaches

For more information about this track, consult the track manager.

These half-day pre-conference workshops (5 May 2013) are for people seeking a shorter learning experience than the 2-day certificate sessions. You are invited to submit proposals that complement the tracks offered in the conference program.

Tutorials (lecture and discussion for in-depth exploration of a topic with limited hands-on activity) or workshops (lecture and discussion with significant hands-on activities) plans may be submitted.

For more information contact Lloyd Tucker, Deputy Executive Director STC
Lloyd.tucker@stc.org

These two-day pre-conference certificate sessions (4-5 May 2013) are for attendees seeking to explore a subject in-depth over the course of the conference. Participants who complete the program earn a certificate of attendance and are expected to attend several topic-related conference sessions selected by the speaker. This combination of seminars and sessions is intended to help develop skills and expose the attendee to the broad range of thinking in the subject area.

For more information contact Lloyd Tucker, Deputy Executive Director STC
Lloyd.tucker@stc.org