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STC-NEC Interchange 2018’s Keynote Speaker: TechCommGeekMom


Nighttime image of Lowell, MA
Well, this will be a first!  I’ve been invited to be the keynote speaker for the STC-New England Chapter’s conference, Interchange, this coming fall–October 26-27, 2018 in Lowell, Massachusetts.  Interchange is one of those regional conferences that I’ve wanted to attend, and to be invited to speak as the keynote? Wow! I’m truly honored.

They first asked me if I was interested actually when I was in the midst of CONDUIT 2018 this past spring. To say the least, I was surprised. Me? Keynote material? Then I thought, hey, why not? I’m sure I can figure out something to talk about in a half hour (I have until October to figure it out now–possibly sooner).  I know that the STC-New England Chapter is hard at work to ensure that this is going to be a really good conference, and worth the trip north in the fall! I’m looking forward to seeing my STC friends from New England, and meeting some new ones.

If you are interesting in checking out this conference, go to the Interchange 2018 website for more details. I hope that I will see you there, and please don’t jeer or heckle me while I speak (although some people I would expect it from. LOL)

In the meantime, plans are already underway for CONDUIT 2019. We haven’t pinned down an exact date yet, but it will be in the first half of April, for sure.  I’m in the midst of seeing if we can find a new venue for our little conference. I’ve visited one place that’s excellent–and most of our board’s first choice–but I have to do due diligence in visiting the other places as well that we’ve chosen as finalists, and then doing some number-crunching to see which is the most economical. There will be some big changes for next year no matter where we go, but we are confident that it will be worth it.

In the meantime, go register for Interchange 2018, and I’ll see you there!

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It’s Time to Mobilize Learning–Just Ask RJ Jacquez

Anyone who knows me and has been with this blog for the long haul knows that I really like what m-learning is all about. Even though I haven’t been able to steer my career in that direction as much as I’d like (or at least, not yet), I’ve always been a big advocate for m-learning and what it can accomplish.  For a while now, I’ve been a great follower of RJ Jacquez, and while he and I don’t talk as much as we used to online anymore, I still consider him my number one mentor on m-learning.  He’s always been a very early supporter of the TechCommGeekMom cause!

RJ recently gave a keynote speech for the 2013 ASTD Houston Conference.  While I would have loved to have attended this event, especially for RJ’s keynote address, I wasn’t able to go. (I do have to work, and I went to the 2013 STC Summit, after all!)  For that reason, I’m so glad that RJ shared his SlideShare file for the keynote address online.

His talk was called, “The Time to Mobilize Learning is Now!” Here is his SlideShare slideshow:

RJ has been a prominent leader in promoting mobile, not just m-learning, for a while now, and even without his accompanying talk to go along with the slides, you can get a fairly clear idea of where he’s going with this. Mobile is change, and in so many ways, we have already started to embrace the changes. We need to adapt in order to move forward. His demonstration of the evolution of how we have come to the point of using mobile as prolifically as we do now, and of all the many benefits of using mobile seem fairly clear from this slideshow.

I’m still a big believer in mobile, and this slideshow reminded me of this. It helped to reinforce again my belief that mobile is an important part of our integrated technology going forward. If we don’t adapt, we fall behind, not just with m-learning–which seems to be leading the way, but also with mobile content itself.

Nice job as always, RJ!

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STC-PMC Presentation of “How Did You Get That Tech Comm Job?”

Last week, I had the privilege of doing my first professional presentation as a fully-fledged technical communicator. The STC-Philly Metro Chapter (STC-PMC) had its annual STC Mid-Atlantic Technical Conference, and the theme this year was, “Sharpening Your Personal Brand.” Let’s face it–if anyone has figured that out over the past year, that’s been me! The STC-PMC was gracious enough to accept my proposal for this conference, and I truly appreciated the opportunity.

The presentation I made was based on my blog post, “What Did You Do To Get That Tech Comm Job?” that I posted here a few months ago, after I accepted my current position. I added some additional information that I hope will be helpful in this SlideShare presentation. Of course, you miss out on the anecdotal information in the process, but you get the main idea here. When you get to the slide that says, “Mobile Learning Revolution”, go to this page instead. I put the Prezi presentation without the voiceover into these slides, which was based on a social media project I did last year, but this link provides the basic voiceover that I did for that section. The idea was that this is a template for how to become immersed in a particular culture in order to get involved via social media. For me, it was m-learning that I pursued, but my rules apply to any topic. This is just an example.

I was really proud of myself in this respect as well–I presented my entire presentation from my iPad. While other presenters had their laptop computers out, I just connected my iPad to the A/V system in the presentation room using my A/V cable adapter for my iPad, and away I went! It did make it a lot smoother than using my laptop, and definitely lighter! I brought my big 17″ laptop with me, just in case my iPad didn’t work, but I now know I didn’t need it. Hooray! Another victory for mobile! 🙂  Maybe next time, I’ll see if I can present from my iPhone! 😛 I can confidently say that I practice what I preach about using mobile now.

All in all, it was a great experience, and I’d be glad to give the presentation again if someone asked. I met a lot of great people, including many who were Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook names and faces before the conference, as well as people who I hadn’t connected to before.   One thing that helped ease my anxiety in giving my presentation was that the keynote speakers actually touched upon some of the same things as I did–and they’ve been doing this a lot longer than I have! I had to learn things the hard way (on my own). That helped me realize that I’m on the right track, and I’m always happy to share that information with other people.

So, without further ado, please enjoy my slideshow of my presentation below from last week!

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A true test of mobile versus…not.

MP900435893A recent event has made me discover that I will be tested in understanding how my true use of mobile technology will really be in the near future.

How did I come to that discovery?

I recently sent in a proposal to do a presentation, and I was notified over the weekend that the proposal has been accepted! I’m really thrilled for a number of reasons. First, it’s the first time I’ve actually sent in a proposal to do a presentation, so to have it accepted on the first try is pretty good. Second, this presentation will be the first real professional presentation I’ve ever done to a large group. I’ve done presentations, but not on this scale before. Third, it’s going to be for the STC’s Mid-Atlantic Technical Conference, hosted by one of my home chapters, the STCPhiladelphia Metropolitan Chapter, in early March of this year. Less than a month and a half away from this writing! So, it’s going to be nice representing my own chapter, and being able to sleep in my own bed instead of traveling too far to do this! 😉 So, for a number of reasons, you can see that I’m actually very excited and honored to be included, especially considering that I’m still a “young” professional in the technical communications field.

But in receiving this acceptance, I realized that now I have to actually put everything together for this presentation. I have the foundation for it, which is what I forwarded to the conference’s review committee, so that’s not the issue. Now the issue is pulling it all together to be a stellar presentation. I know I can do a presentation, but I need to create some sort of slideshow or PowerPoint content that can be displayed while I actually present.

Now, I know what you are thinking. You are probably thinking, “But TechCommGeekMom, you are a technical communicator. Surely you know how to do, at least, a simple PowerPoint presentation?” Indeed, I do know how to do that, and do it well. I also know some other tools to use as well. That’s not the issue or the problem either. I have a bigger problem to figure out. The problem is whether to create the slideshow in PowerPoint on my laptop, and bring my laptop with me, OR…create the presentation in Keynote on my iPad, and bring my iPad with me. There’s always the third option of creating the presentation for both, and bringing both, but I’d like to avoid doing that, if possible.

On the one hand, using my laptop is a guarantee. We know that a laptop can generally hook up to video/VGA/ HDMI cables that most conference centers use, so that’s not a problem. But I have a BIG laptop–a big 17-inch screen one. It’s a little on the heavy side. I bought it during grad school for the big stuff I had to do, and sometimes still do, with web design, writing large papers, and for the big power-lifting tasks that one needs a laptop.

On the other hand, I am the huge proponent of using mobile devices, and having a means of creating a slideshow on my iPad presents a new option that I haven’t had in the past. I could buy a cable (or two) that could hook up into a conference center‘s video system– I don’t mind the expense of getting the necessary cables to do that–but I don’t want to be left standing with an iPad and a bunch of cables that may not be compatible with the video screen system, thus no presentation other than me and my big mouth. (I could pull that off–just a speech alone, since I remember giving presentations even in my school days before computers were even present in schools, but that’s giving away my age now…) But let’s face it–pictures and words on a screen are much more entertaining than verbal words alone in this day and age. Since I don’t know what this conference center has, I have to second guess what’s there. This is my preference, but this is not guaranteed to work.

So, here’s a crowdsourcing question for anyone who’s reading this, especially if you have done professional presentations on the road. What should I do? Should I plan on bringing the laptop and create a standard PowerPoint formatted presentation? Or, should I plan on practicing what I preach about using mobile devices, namely using my iPad, and create the presentation on that? If I should use the iPad, what extra cables should I purchase? Or, should I just plan on creating it on both, and bringing both?

I especially need the help of those who do presentations on the road often. Who has used an iPad? Who has used only a laptop? What are the advantages and disadvantages in either instance? What has worked best for you?

Let me know what your suggestions are in the comments below. I really would love to get some input on this! Thanks!