TechWhirl: Technical Communication Recap for December 13, 2013

[TechWhirl Admin <admin -at- techwhirl -dot- com>]

Yesterday, I had the good fortune to attend a half-day workshop on “sticky”
communications, facilitated by Dan Heath who co-wrote the bestselling
“Switch,” “Made to Stick,” and “Decisive,” with his brother Chip. One of
those ideal workshops that reminded me of some communications basics I
needed to re-engage with, gave me some outstanding new ideas to work with,
and a side order of motivation. Not strictly technical communication or
content management, but applicable on many levels to both my TechWhirl role
and my consulting work. Workshops and conferences that offer all three are
rare indeed, and worth every penny. Sometimes it’s worth getting out of
your regular routine to see what the rest of the world is talking about.



Serendipitously, a thread on content strategy conferences appeared on The
TechWhirl community forum and email discussion list last week. The Intelligent
Content Conference (ICC)
<https://www.eiseverywhere.com/ehome/69264/135697/>comes highly
recommended, for its
broader-than-tech-comm-but-impact-to-tech-comm focus, an impressive roster
of speakers, and unique opportunities to network with folks in all the
areas that we like to cover. Another stroke of good fortune: TechWhirl will
attend the sixth annual ICC event, co-produced by Scott Abel, the Content
Wrangler <http://thecontentwrangler.com/> and Ann Rockley of the Rockley
Group <http://rockley.com/>. Its theme, “Breaking Down Barriers”
particularly appeals to the gang here at TechWhirl, who like to jump into
the deep end of the pool and swim with the content strategists, agile
technical communicators, and enthusiastic customer experience managers.
Best of all we got in under the wire, since the early bird discount ends
next Friday, December 20.



So after you sign up for Intelligent Content, and buy the Kindle version of
Made to Stick, you’ll have plenty of time to relax and catch up on all the
delicious and satisfying content that appeared on TechWhirl this week.
Keith Soltys reviews the new Kindle Paperwhite; Edward Smyda-Homa looks at
the busiest time of the year for useless assistance; Rachel Houghton offers
advice on finding a mentor;and we offer a new poll question on learning,
and a wrap on Tech Writer This Week that includes the trending
#FiveWordTechHorrors<https://twitter.com/search?src=typd&q=%23FiveWordTechHorrors>
.



Look for us in San Jose on February 26-28…. We’ll be the ones with the
swimmie fins and waterproof ipads…





Have a great weekend.

-Connie and the gang at TechWhirl
In Case You Missed it: This Week @ TechWhirl

*New features and articles on http://TechWhirl.com <http://techwhirl.com/>*
*:*


   - Tech Writer This Week for December 12, 2013 | http://bit.ly/1h2ZuZK
   - The Answer Lady: Finding the Right Mentor, by Rachel Houghton |
   http://bit.ly/1iUKi57
   - Tech Comm Poll Question Preferred Ways to Learn | http://bit.ly/J3JSJm
   - Useless Assistance: Unwrapping Yuletide Frustration, by Edward
   Smyda-Homa | http://bit.ly/1bR2MQm
   - Product Review: Kindle Paperwhite, 2nd Generation, By Keith Soltys |
   http://bit.ly/1bR2MQm



*Technical Communication news on http://TechWhirl.com/news
<http://techwhirl.com/news>:*


   - TransPerfect Merges with Vasont Systems | http://ow.ly/2C2dhA
   - KANA Enterprise 13 R2 Unifies Multinational, Multilingual Customer
   Service Channels | http://ow.ly/2BZT60

Social Media and the Chance to Follow TechWhirl:

   - Our Google Plus Page – what’s happening behind the scenes |
   http://goo.gl/SO0R4
   - Will you be our Friend? Please, you know you want to click |
   http://goo.gl/tDrW7
   - Want all this TechWhirl goodness a few characters @ a time |
   http://goo.gl/itjDg
   - Updates from TechWhirl delivered to your email in box |
   http://bit.ly/tjshxU
   - Or, try our RSS feed (great on Flipboard) | http://goo.gl/msLzu

Sponsored Posts

   - EasyDITA: How to link content in
DITA<http://easydita.com/how-to-link-content-in-dita/>
   - MadCap Software: Meet MadCap
Analyzer<http://www.madcapsoftware.com/blog/2013/12/05/meet-madcap-analyzer/>
   - Scriptorium: Minimum viable
content<http://www.scriptorium.com/2013/12/minimum-viable-content/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=minimum-viable-content>
   - Adobe Systems: Lavacon13 Thought Leaders 1) Multiple output, Component
   Management & STC
Benefits<http://blogs.adobe.com/techcomm/2013/11/lavacon13-thought-leaders-1-multiple-output-component-management-stc-benefits.html>

SPONSOR-Luv

We want to send a very special “thank you” to our sponsors for their
support.



*Platinum*: Adobe Systems
Incorporated<http://www.runaware.com/clients/adobe/techsuite/>

*Gold: *ComponentOne Software <http://bit.ly/doc-to-help>, Madcap
Software<http://www.madcapsoftware.com/products/flare/overview.aspx#whatsnew>

*Silver*: Vancouver Island University <http://pr.viu.ca/techcomm/>


-- 


TechWhirl.com
Helping the world explore the art of content and communication

Follow TechWhirl on
Twitter:         @TechWriterToday
Facebook:     facebook.com/techwriterlist
Google+:     plus.ly/TechWhirl


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
New! Doc-to-Help 2013 features the industry's first HTML5 editor for authoring.

Learn more: http://bit.ly/ZeOZeQ

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- 

To unsubscribe send a blank email to
techwr-l-leave -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com


Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.techwhirl.com/email-discussion-groups/ for more resources and info.

Looking for articles on Technical Communications?  Head over to our online magazine at http://techwhirl.com

Looking for the archived Techwr-l email discussions?  Search our public email archives @ http://techwr-l.com/archives