The annual conference of the STC India Chapter is held in December every year, which is an ideal time for looking ahead. The presentations and confabulation on the sidelines at these meetings provide invaluable inputs for rumination and planning for the year ahead. Given the overlapping milestones that define our personal life cycles today, we suspect that fewer people spend time in retrospection, introspection, and resolution-making that is traditionally associated with this season. This year’s conference was predictably the best so far (it gets better every year).

One popular grouse was that the topics presented were targeted more at management than at writers. This is not completely true. The purpose of any professional caucus is to establish a common vision, share a dream, and translate war stories into directions for the future. This provides individuals with a better perspective of where they are headed, and how their roles can be re-defined and future-proofed. The conference organisers also organised workshops alongside the main conference that were runaway successes. Besides, activity-level discussions are better addressed at workshops and on mailing lists.

One topic that was not directly addressed at the conference, but could turn out to be a potential bugbear for this industry, is the question of Quality. With more technical communication projects being channelled our way, the demand for skills has a headstart over availability of the same. We also have to contend with a near-total lack of training resources in the technical communication field and the fact that this field is relatively young in India, and that many senior and accomplished writers among us choose to remain insulated from the rest. While many of us would like to dismiss the Quality discussion as a moot point for the rhetorically inclined, I think it is a point worth noting for our own good.

We need stronger focus on non-traditional subjects and topics like critical thinking, concept modelling (mind and argument mapping, pattern language, etc.), cognitive science, and human-machine interaction. We need to develop a stronger need to venture past the What and How, into Why.

This will help us carve out an identity for ourselves as knowledge artisans, architects, and scientists. Our goal is to create an output that insinuates itself into the user experience so well that it is transparent to the point of invisibility. Our goal is to make the user feel like a genius. Our goal is to flatten the learning curve. Our goal is to morph into trainers, professional mentors, and guides in the technical communication and related fields. Our goal is to convert all problems into opportunities and all opportunities into success.

The entire INDUS team wishes all readers of INDUS and our extended professional fraternity a very happy, successful and prosperous New Year!

Edwin Skau and Pawan Nayar