InfoPlus August 2024

Place your advert in future issues of InfoPlus – Full information is inside this PDF

ISTC News
ISTC Community
A bit of non-AI fun
Upcoming events
Training courses
About InfoPlus
Back Page

ISTC News

TCUK 2024

SAVE THE DATE – TCUK 2024: Tuesday 24th September.

As advertised, this year our TCUK event will be held online.

The event will include:

AGM (ISTC members only)
UKTC Awards presentations
Presentations followed by Q&A.

Details of the presentations will be announced soon. We will also let you know when to register for the event with the ISTC office (istc@istc.org.uk).

All are welcome to attend.

Note: We intend to host an in-person conference again in 2025. Plans are in progress already. Our objective is to use the longer lead time to offer a great venue, range of speakers and workshops, and value for money for our best-ever event.

ISTC Annual Survey Results

The results of the ISTC Annual Survey for 2024 are now available within the members area of the ISTC website.

This annual survey covering employment is open to all technical communicators in the UK. The purpose of this survey is to collect data relating to qualifications, experience and pay of technical communicators in the UK.

The findings of the survey will feature in an article in the Autumn issue of the ISTC’s Communicator journal.

If you are not an ISTC member and would like to receive a copy of the survey results, please send an email to istc@istc.org.uk.

IJTC Update

We recently added all the remaining members of ISTC and this has boosted the membership of IJTC.

There are a plethora of articles that are being worked on. A recently published one is by our TechCommNZ member, Freya Morris-Cole, covered the Privacy Practices as a Technical Communicator.

If you haven’t yet signed up, please email istc@istc.org.uk.

ISTC Mentoring Update

All members will have received a recent email from the ISTC announcing that we are closing the current mentoring scheme with immediate effect. In its place, we will be launching a new mentoring programme that will be open to all members of the ISTC, regardless of your membership level. This new mentoring programme will be a 4-month programme that you sign up to either as a mentee or mentor, or both. We are hoping to open the door for entries in September/October with a view to starting the program in November. For more information, please see the email. Our Mentoring page on the ISTC website will be updated in due course.

We are ironing out all the details of the new programme and we value any input you may have to this. Please email mentoring@istc.org.uk with any queries/suggestions you may have before 31st August 2024.

Advertise in InfoPlus

Get your company or products noticed in the TechComms community! We are offering new opportunities for advertising in our monthly InfoPlus newsletter, like the advert for Munster Technical College at the top of the newsletter.

These adverts are banners to be positioned as you choose. Placement examples are included in this PDF, which also contains all the necessary steps and costs involved to place an advert in future editions of InfoPlus.

If you would like to advertise with us please contact Chantel Sankey – istc@istc.org.uk.

ISTC Community

Become more involved in the professional community through the ISTC Area Groups, join us online at one of our monthly ISTC Meets events, and find us on social media (links below). Members (once logged in) also have access to the ISTC Discussion Forums.

Area Groups

If you wish to start your own Area Group, contact istc@istc.org.uk.

Online meet-up with Cambridge Area Group

Open to anyone involved in communication from any location, the Cambridge Area Group hosts a regular, free Zoom meeting. It is the second Thursday of the month at 6pm for approximately 40 minutes. Contact cambridge_areagroup@istc.org.uk
for more information.

London Area Group

Wednesday 21st August is the next London Area Group meetup.

The location is, by default, near the Royal Festival Hall at The Southbank Centre.

We can meet either inside (e.g. in the foyer) or outside (e.g. at the bench outside of the Foyles). Check the exact location in the WhatsApp chat for the group at the time of meeting as it’s decided in the moment, depending on the environment.

ISTC Meets

No meets in August or September 2024

ISTC Meets is taking its bucket and spade on its own summer holiday, so there won’t be any meetings until October. Full details in the October 2024 issue of InfoPlus.

There might be some holiday rock available, but that depends on who gets to choose their favourite flavours first 🙂

For more information on all future ISTC Meets, please visit our website.

Social Media

Community Forums

The forums are available to all members once you have logged into the ISTC website.

A bit of non-AI fun

After my attempt at haiku writing with Microsoft’s CoPilot, I found out that the ISTC President, Linda, is a dab-hand at writing haikus and tries to write a new one every day!

If you have any technical communication related haikus, jokes or poetry, then please send them in for inclusion in a future InfoPlus. We don’t *do* tech comms 24/7!

Linda’s haikus about technical communication:

The message is clear
plain and accurate, no frills;
success of our craft.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Who’d be a writer?
Deadline looms; the words won’t flow;
Keep calm and crack on.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

No AI was used in the creation of these two haiku – Linda Robins, 2024.

Upcoming Events

There are six conferences coming up in August and September this year. Three are in-person and two are online-only and one is hyrbid. All of their details are below:

Growing in Content 2024
Date: August 19th, 21st & 23rd, 2024
Website: https://workingincontent.com/growing
Where can I attend? Online

About:
Day 1: Foundations of Content Design
Day 2: Advanced Strategies
Day 3: Leadership and Future Trends

The first day is free to attend, but the other two days will require tickets to be purchased.

UX Nordic 2024
Date: August 28th–30th, 2024
Website: https://www.uxnordic.com/
Where can I attend? Online / Aarhus, Denmark

About:
UX Nordic 2024 is a conference dedicated to exploring the latest trends, innovations, and best practices in the field of User Experience (UX) design. The conference brings together UX professionals, researchers, and industry leaders from the Nordic region and beyond to share their knowledge, experiences, and insights.

Convex Ideas
Date: September 9th – 11^th, 2024
Website: https://ideas.infomanagementcenter.com/
Where can I attend? Online only

About:
ConVEx IDEAS is a three-day industry conference that you can attend virtually from the comfort of your own office.

NORDIC TechKomm Copenhagen
Date: September 18^th-19^th.
Website: https://dk.nordic-techkomm.com/program
Where can I attend: Copenhagen, Denmark
(If you can get there on the 17^th there’s also the possibility of a sightseeing tour of Copenhagen)

About:
At NORDIC TechKomm, international experts will convene in Copenhagen to discuss trends and current topics in the field of technical communication.

The focus is on Level up your technical communication. Here, all professionals with an advanced level of knowledge in TC come together – technical writers, information developers, technical communication managers and content architects.

Write The Docs (Atlantic)
Date: September 22^nd – 24^th
Where can I attend? Online only conference.
Website: https://www.writethedocs.org/conf/atlantic/2024/

About:
Write the Docs is a global community of people who care about documentation: Programmers, Tech Writers, Customer Support, Designers, Project Managers, Developer Advocates, and anyone else who wants people to have a great experience with software.

We invite you to our Atlantic conference to join 300 other attendees to explore the art and science of documentation!

Abortext ALD World Users Meeting 2024
Date: September 24^th – 25thj
Where can I attend? Cologne, Germany
Website: https://www.tformat.com/arbortext-ald-world-users-meeting-2024/

About:
After a break of some years, we are organising another of our well-known user meetings together with our long term German partner DATACOPY publishing solutions GMBH. This event is focused at users of the Arbortext Layout Developer (ALD) software (formerly named APP & 3B2), for both current and former users or those who plan to use it.

The focus is on the requirements of publishers, printers and publishing service providers. We will also cover the Arbortext Layout Editor, Publishing Engine, XML Editor, and Styler products, as the integrated product suite.

Training Courses

Accredited courses have been reviewed by a professional panel of experienced ISTC members. A course listed as “ISTC Accredited” means that the panel believes the course meets its stated objectives and is suitable for its intended audience.

Course providers have to apply for renewal of accreditation every 2 years, which helps to ensure the courses reflect current best practice.

Armada

The Armada course (run over 5 days) is available either online or via an in-person classroom-based course. The next two dates are:

Reading – Classroom-based & Online – 2nd-6th December 2024
Bristol – Classroom-based & Online – 23rd-27th September 2024

There are also classses available at their Birmingham / Bromsgrove, Cardiff, Manchester, Milton Keynes, Nottingham and Sheffield Training Centres. These would need to be arranged upon request.

For further details, see www.armada.co.uk/course/tatp.

Cherryleaf

The Cherryleaf courses are available online and can be booked for single tech comm people or as a group.

Technical Writer – Induction Course: https://cherryleaf.teachable.com/p/technical-writer-induction-course

Using Generative AI in Technical Writing: https://cherryleaf.teachable.com/p/using-generative-ai

ESTON Technical/Commercial Authorship

This course run by Eston is online-only and is available any time. A discount is offered to ISTC members.

ESTON Technical/Commercial Authorship (Premier)

TCTrainNet – tekom Certificate training in Technical Communication

There are two accredited courses available from TCTrain and the dates they are run on are:

Professional Course – September 23rd 2024 and November 18th 2024
Expert Course – October 21st 2024

TCTrainNet

About InfoPlus

InfoPlus is your go-to source for staying informed about our profession, featuring news not only from the ISTC but also from across the technical communication community.

This complimentary newsletter is emailed to approximately 1500 individuals.

Subscribe to InfoPlus here, you can unsubscribe at any time from within the email sent out each month.

For advertising enquiries, contact istc@istc.org.uk.

Submitting content

If you have noteworthy information to share with your peers, please send it my way at newsletter.editor@istc.org.uk. We want to ensure that your news reaches as many people as possible.

Published and distributed on the first working day of each month, InfoPlus occasionally experiences slight delays until the first week of the month. Keep this in mind when submitting time-sensitive information.

Please get the information for the September 2024 edition to newsletter.editor@istc.org.uk by Monday 19th August 2024.

About our publishers

InfoPlus, the Monthly Newsletter from the Institute of Scientific and Technical Communicators (ISTC), is a valuable resource for the largest UK body representing scientific and technical communicators. Whether you are involved in technical writing, technical illustration, or other forms of communicating technical information, ISTC is the professional association dedicated to supporting your career.

Explore the benefits of ISTC membership and find out how to join.

Back Page

In the old PDF versions of InfoPlus, there was always a “fun” bit tucked away in the Back Page section.

Russell King sent in these for this month’s issue.

Orthodox – what a technical writer does.
Discontent – how a technical writer assumes that their audience behaves.
Unorthodox – what happens when a company deems a technical writer as being a ‘nice-to-have’.
Malcontent – how a technical writer behaves on finding out that their employer deems them a ‘nice-to-have’.
Orthodoxy – highly successful technical communication company founded by the technical writer whose former employer deemed them to be a ‘nice-to-have’.
Pronoun – someone who spurns the use of verbs and adjectives in their daily discourse.
Adverb – potential therapy for treatment of Pronoun.
Imperfect Tense – shop that sells defective camping equipment.

If you’ve some suggestions to include in this section, you can send them to newsletter.editor@istc.org.uk by Monday 19th August 2024. I’ll do my best to include the best (or worst) accordingly 🙂

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