November 10, 2011

Audio Recording for Non-Engineers

At this session you will learn to create professional-sounding voice recordings even with basic equipment. We will discuss simple environmental acoustics, microphones, recording software, techniques, and tips to fine-tune your audio tracks for release to the world. A list of affordable hardware and software will be provided.

About the Speaker:
Robert Hershenow, a senior member of STC, works as an independent technical communicator and trainer in Roseville. He is also a recording engineer and producer who spent ten years manufacturing professional audio equipment. Years of limited resources and difficult environments prompted him to develop a set of "best practices" for audio recording, which are applicable to tasks that technical communicators are now being called upon to perform.

October 13, 2011

Turn Your Website into a Search Magnet with Effective Content

There are many ways to bring traffic to a website, but the most effective traffic driver is search engine optimization.  But search engine algorithms are getting smarter.  Tricks that were used in the past to get good search placement no longer work, while at the same time, factors like social bookmarking are becoming more important. Join us on October 13 to learn more. Admission is free and all are welcome!

Hosted By: Society for Technical Communication, Sacramento Metro Chapter

Host's Message: Amid the rapid changes, it's becoming clear that the key to getting search traffic is good quality content, appropriately focused and correctly presented. Take this opportunity to learn the best way to draw traffic to your site.

About the Speaker
Bob Nicholson is VP of Technology at LunaGraphica Inc, a Silicon Valley web design and development firm, and CEO at Quintimation Inc, a pre-funding startup. Previous positions have included VP of Engineering at Red Herring Communications, and Director of Engineering roles at Sun Microsystems and Oracle. He is also author of the book "Effective Websites for Artists and Groups." Bob manages Internet marketing and Search Engine Optimization for a wide range of clients at LunaGraphica.

September 22, 2011

Enrich Your Career Using Social Media

Solari President Rich Maggiani spoke about leveraging social media to enhance your professionalism, to cultivate business relationships, and to engage in a web of communication — all designed to boost your career. What is key, however, is to have a plan and goal, and Rich presented a strategy for achieving success.

Click here to see the slides that accompanied his presentation.

June 30, 2011

You Out to Be in Pictures

Would your users learn more easily from video than by reading? Paul Zinn will show you how adding screencast videos to your documentation arsenal can save your users time and frustration. Using Adobe Captivate and other products from the eLearning Suite, you can affordably produce videos that make a difference in customer satisfaction. This presentation will give you tips on choosing the right topics for video, best practices for planning and producing a video, options for localization and accessibility, and ways to measure the effectiveness of your videos.

Presenter:
Paul Zinn is currently an Information Architect at BMC Software, and has spent twenty years as a technical communicator. Over a year and a half and using just the Adobe eLearning Suite and a cheap headset, he produced 46 screencast videos that have made an impact in both the marketing and documentation of BMC products.

January 26, 2011

Trends, Tools, and Technologies in Software User Assistance

Joe Welinske is the president of WritersUA, a company providing training and information for user assistance professionals. Joe has been involved with software documentation development since 1984 and focuses on producing high quality seminars and conferences for the user assistance community.

Joe gave a fabulous, high-energy presentation to the Sacramento STC about Trends in Software User Assistance. The topics ranged from resources Joe personally uses, to trends in mobile device UA, the importance of user interface text, interacting with customers, and the impact of the authoring tool on search engine results.

Joe is clearly on the cutting edge of UA for today’s most in-demand technologies and shared his passion for the topic with one of our largest groups of meeting attendees yet. We had attendees from a variety of different backgrounds, and many were able to share their unique perspectives and experiences with the UA tools and distribution methods Joe discussed.