FREE International Consulting Advice!!

[Nancy Hoft <nhoft -at- WORLD-READY -dot- COM>]

Hi Everybody,

I will be teaching a post-conference seminar for the STC Annual
Conference in three weeks.  The seminar is entitled Preparing
World-Ready Information Products.  Because of the number of
attendees (30+), I'm going to try something different and use case
studies to teach the relationship among int'l business strategies,
culture, and technical communication.

I'm writing to find out if any of you work in technical publications
departments or translation firms that would interested in being the
subjects of the two to four case studies I'd like to do as small
group exercises.  In exchange, your technical publications department
will benefit from the collective wisdom of the teams that work on
your case. Hence, FREE international consulting advice!!!!

I also hope to have the teams that work on your case prepare a report
of some kind that we'll share with you for your benefit and
that of the seminar participants.

I'd like you invite you to consider contacting me if your
publications team is struggling with international issues of any
kind.  Your team does not need to be based in the U.S.  I'd prefer
to hear from people who will NOT be at the post-conference seminar.
Note that I will also teach this workshop at the Technical
Communication Institute in Winnipeg, so if you have a case and are
attending the STC seminar, just contact me and maybe I'll add your
case to my Winnipeg course.

FEEL FREE TO FORWARD THIS EMAIL TO ANYONE WHO
MIGHT BE INTERESTED OR OR ANY RELEVANT LIST .

Here are some ideas for the types of situations I'm looking for, but
I'll consider all others:

- Your management wants you to start working with
translators and  thinking about localization/international issues.
However, your publications team is new to international technical
communication and you don't know how to get started.

- Your publications team has experience creating international
technical communication, working with translators and other
partners on international projects.  However, you are currently
having trouble working with your translators, your localization
partners, your subsidiaries, or the international managers in your
company.

- You are a translation firm and are having difficulty working with
the technical publications department at the client company.

- You are an internationalization consultant. Your client, a
technical publications department, isn't taking your advice.

If you are interested, give me a call or send me an email (contact
information is in the signature of this email message). We'll
arrange a time for a telephone interview (and possibly others as
necessary).  I will assume that you will clear your participation in
this project with the appropriate management before contacting me.
I'm under a tight time constraint, so be prepared to help me rather
quickly.

I think the effort will be well worth your time.  I've taught this
seminar about a dozen times all over the U.S. and can only say
that the collective wisdom and experience of the participants has
been extraordinary.  Don't miss out on a great opportunity!

Note that I cannot guarantee that I will choose your case, since I'll
be carefully screening the responses I get for their relevance to my
teaching objectives. I will honor and guarantee all corporate privacy
issues (confidentiality of company and client names).  We can
negotiate other privacy issues as necessary.

Hope to hear from you!

Cheers, Nancy

N A N C Y   H O F T
Ph.D. Student, Rhetoric and Technical Communication
Michigan Technological University
PHONE: +1 906/482.5658  FAX: +1 906/482.0019
SMAIL: 209 W. Douglass Ave, Houghton, MI 49931-2221 USA
EMAIL: nlhoft -at- mtu -dot- edu -or- nhoft -at- world-ready -dot- com
WEB:   http://www.world-ready.com

 TECHWR-L (Technical Communication) List Information: To send a message
to 2500+ readers, e-mail to TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU -dot-  Send commands
   to LISTSERV -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU (e.g. HELP or SIGNOFF TECHWR-L).
  Search the archives at http://www.documentation.com/  or search and
browse the archives at http://listserv.okstate.edu/archives/techwr-l.html