The post-lunch session was enlivened by an interesting debate on the topic “Are technical writers indispensable to the organization?” Two teams with Shankar Rajanala, Yamini Nafde, Disha Ganapathy (against), Manoj Bokil, Paresh Naik, and Gururaj B.S (for), pitted wits and rhetoric against each other, and their own true convictions. Then, Satish Gokhale of Design Directions regaled the audience with accounts of their pioneering achievements in the field of industrial and medical equipment design. The audience appreciated the radical transformations effected by their engineering know-how and creativity, bonded together by oodles of (un)common sense.

Ms. Bonni Graham, CEO of Manual Labour and the keynote speaker of the conference, spoke about how documentation impacts the bottom line of a company. Mapping technical communicators to the balance sheet, she explained why and how technical communicators should sell what they do to their stakeholders, customers and collaborators alike. “Technical communicators need to stop being prisoners to their own principles, and face up to the hard-nosed business realities of the industry,” Bonni urged.

A panel of senior professionals comprising Gurudutt Kamath, Bonni Graham, Aruna Panangipally, Susan Alexander, and V.Anand, addressed questions from the audience on STC initiatives and the field of technical communication in general. Shortly thereafter, members of the STC India chapter met to discuss the achievements in the past year and to elect the Administrative and the Management Councils for the year ahead.

An eventful day culminated in a grand reception in the from of an evening of fun, entertainment, and social interaction. The talents of Roy Savio, Prasad and the like were lined up exclusively for the benefit of fellow professionals. The dance floor was thrown open soon after the performances, and games and partying held their sway till late into the night.

The second day of the conference saw some excellent and focused presentations from speakers like Peter Yorke, Sakina Bedi, Bonni Graham and Edwin Skau. Peter began the day with his presentation, “Laws of the jungle and how they apply to Technical Communicators". Leading us on an allegorical safari through the untamed Serengeti plains, he drew striking parallels between jungle smarts and winning strategies for technical communicators in the corporate jungle.

Sakina Bedi outlined the various challenges encountered by teachers of the visually challenged, and entreated technical communicators to address the requirements of the millions of the differently abled in India. Sakina introduced us to compensatory strategies such as auditory attendance, auditory blocking, auditory focus field, auditory sequencing, auditory memory, and tactile communication. She dispelled the notion that visually challenged people have a God-given sixth sense that compensates for the loss of vision, pointing out that it is a skill they acquire from using the above strategies.

In her second presentation at the conference, titled “Document to the Question,” Bonni elaborated on a documentation approach based on anticipating and addressing user’s questions. She explained how technical writers relate to other functions in an organization and their impact on those teams. Drawing on her wealth of experience as a writer, a CEO, and a user, she cited real-life examples with a dash of humor to drive home her points.

In his presentation, “Information Modeling or Documentation Planning for Dummies,” Edwin outlined the building blocks and prerequisites for a good information model. He explained how metadata for information models could be extended to provide a sound basis for documentation process, workflow, information validation, single-sourcing strategy, and customizable documentation.

Two workshops were planned in parallel, so that the delegates could choose a workshop of their interest and participate with focused learning objectives. The workshops, conducted by Gururaj B.S. on English Grammar and Shashank Deshpande on Information Design, were designed to address the specific needs of the audience on the topics. The workshops had several relevant exercises to help the participants reinforce their learning.

Soon after the workshops, Frederick Menezes set the stage for an ‘infotaining’ journey into the craft of technical communication. In his quiz on technical communication, Frederick puzzled the audience with intricate questions from various topics in technical communication and extracted maximum participation from the teams and the audience. The team comprising Subash Babu (Hewlett-Packard), Shashibhushan, and Hareesh Kumar K.N. (HCL, Chennai) walked away with the first prize. The team comprising Anuradha, Francis Anthony, and Sanjay Levi (VERITAS Software) won the second prize. Gurudutt Kamath presented the awards to the winners and collected a special award for answering the maximum number of questions from the audience.

This year’s conference had a keen focus on learning. Considering the demand for learning opportunities in the area of instructional design and documentation tools, STC India decided to invite experts from these fields to conduct hands-on training programs prior to the conference. The idea of pre-conference workshops was probably the most successful idea implemented at the conference this year. The workshop on FrameMaker held by Anjali Patil of Parametric Technology Company (PTC) and Sanjay Levi of VERITAS Software was an ideal blend of conceptual informational and hands-on lab experience. V. Anand of NIIT, conducted the workshop on Instructiona Design. He explained about various instructional design models, with special emphasis on the Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation (ADDIE) model. Anand also gave detailed information about instructional design strategies and learning theories.

The employment booth, managed by Ramesh Aiyyangar, at the conference presented skilled technical writers with a bounty of job opportunities. A number of top-notch software companies from various cities were on the lookout for employable talent. Despite the copious response to the employment booth, the dearth of eligible candidates was clearly visible on the faces of the head hunters. The VERITAS team comprising Anuradha Kolhatkar, Francis Anthony, Frederick Menezes, Mira Balani, and Ramesh Aiyyangar produced a conference newsletter on both the days, achieving this accomplishment within stringent deadlines, and with rare precision. The anchors, Makarand Pandit and Sunil Gokhale, synchronized the event with clockwork precision.

As expected, the largest gathering of technical communicators in India turned out to be yet another wonderful experience of learning and networking. Hospitality and friendly ambience were the key factors in the 2003 conference, thanks to the efforts of the conference committee. As Mahatma Gandhi rightly observed, “Pune is a beehive of dedicated workers for a noble cause.” The delegates parted with plans to stay in touch and meet again the next year, at yet another rewarding event.