After heading to the annual STC Summit this year, it hit me like a bunch of books falling off the top shelf of a book case. I should regularly talk about technical communication. This blog will mark my foray into talking about TC. The first topic I would like to start off with is the Annual STC Summit.

This year, I went to Sacramento for the conference and it was definitely the best one yet. Some of the most notable aspects of the summit was the use of Twitter, iPads, and smartphones. I was surprised to see so many technical communicators use them and I am happy that the future of our field is set in the use of these devices. When I co-presented with Greg Koch two years ago at the STC 2009 Summit in Atlanta about “The Benefits and Pitfalls of Social Networking Sites” there was very limited wireless internet and laptop use. It was around but not as widely used as I thought it would be.

We knew in 2009 that we had broken some new ground with Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn when we presented, which we had about 60 attendees participate in our early-morning session. The following year, I didn’t have the opportunity to present, however Greg co-presented on Twitter and was on a discussion panel regarding content management systems.

This year, I was very happy to see more attendees using mobile devices like iPads, XOOMs, iPhones, Android devices, and laptops. Every session I went in, I could count the screens. For me, this was amazing.

Also, when I was running late to a session or attending a separate session, I could follow the conversation live on Twitter. When I missed Scott Abel’s first presentation, I was jealous that my tweeps were attending his session and twittering about him. My bad for missing such a great session, I could simply follow along.

Other topics to note, which I will go in-depth on a later post: social media, websites, QR codes, TweetUps, smart devices, and MySTC.