Event report by Kevin Journeaux...

Overview of the conference
As the conference runs for two days, there is far more bonding. People get to know each other much better and develop a strong sense of cohesion. This should not be under-estimated. itl (the host for the event in Munich - http://www.itl.de/) is a superb sponsor; they gave us all going away pressies including a mug, t-shirt and chocolate. They supplied space, staff, and support (photocopies, burnt CD-Rs for everyone...).

For more information about the conference, see http://www.stc-transalpine.org/tac/

Structured FrameMaker
If you work in an environment where you are using structured documentation, based on a DTD, this speaker explains how to use FrameMaker V7.1 to enforce the use of a DTD, and reduce editing/compliance-checking costs.

Thomas Bergerhoff, consultant at itl, will tell us about the special user interface that enforces structured documents. With this feature of the latest FrameMaker version, DTDs become part of the process, instead of being an afterthought that requires a lot of extra fitting after the fact.

The presentation will concentrate on the methods and benefits of using a structured editing environment, rather than on the specifics of the FrameMaker version, so all of us may learn something useful.

The Picture Trap: Image Management in Multilingual Documentation
If you do localization in many languages, and you need to keep track of say 60 screenshots in 10 languages, this speaker has put together software to make this much easier.

Nick Rosenthal, managing director of Salford Translations Ltd, will tell us about the problems involved in managing the image materials in multilingual documents. Management is straightforward for one foreign language with five screen shots. But what about a project involving ten to fifteen languages, with three manuals for each language (QSG, User Guide, Network Guide), and fifty different localized graphics in each manual? At that point, some form of formalized management is needed. The presentation will show how Nick's company wrestled with the problem and finally produced a software tool to help address this aspect of localization (SQL server back-end, web-based front-end). Rather than trying to sell his product, Nick will enable us to learn from the mistakes that were made on the road toward his solution.

Anatomy of a Flash Training Movie
This speaker chose a very ambitious presentation, thus showing that Flash requires both skill and time for success.

James Palik, senior member of our chapter and documentation specialist at Hewlett-Packard in their European headquarters in Böblingen, Germany, has been working on training movies over the past year or so. He will not only tell us how a Flash movie is produced, but actually produce a full-featured Flash movie on the spot, thereby showing how easy you can bring motion and sound into the sometimes quite deadlooking world of technical documentation.

Dinner
A very good restaurant in the outskirts of Munich near a forest.

Friends, food and lots of fun - the traditional STC-TAC dinners are not to be missed. The venue will be announced at the meeting. The dinner is pre-paid at the registration desk, so that we will not have to ask for a split bill at the restaurant. If you are bringing a guest along (who is not taking part in the conference), you should indicate this on your registration form, as we need to reserve a large enough room. Please indicate any dietary requirements on the registration form.

Marketing Your Skills
A very good speaker I would recommend to present for us. She'll help you make your positioning statement to win accounts and influence people.

Susan Schaefer, is an expert in PR and was president of the PRSA (the "STC" for PR people) in Minnesota. She will tell us about the kind of communication that we need to do, but usually don't do very well: communicating our skills and value to potential customers, or to the management of our employer (who should really give us all a raise). How do you bring a message that involves some political or monetary issues? Susan has worked for many companies that had such politically charged communications to do, such as waste removal industries preparing a new landfill site, architectural firms telling people why their neighborhood will be forever changed, etc. No doubt her insights in communication will help us further our own careers.

Efficient Creation of Individualized Operating Manuals
Highly-flexible manufacturing has bred the need for manuals adapted to the configuration of every item produced. In this case, manuals for under-water pumps in 11 languages. A very good presentation for documentation in a flexible manufacturing environment.

Michael Müller-Hillebrand works in the field of pre-press and documentation since 1988. He acquired detailed knowledge of WebWorks Publisher and FrameScript. Over the last years his focus expanded to include XML/XSL-based publishing. Michael's presentation shows how a medium-sized supplier of pumps and machinery equipment implemented a solution to create individualized operating manuals for every shipping product. Printing happens just-in-time if a machine is ready for shipment. The solution uses a browser-based front-end and FrameMaker documents as the sources for the individually configured and updated manuals.

Using Simplified English in Practice
This presentation was similar to our recent conference about simplified English.

Frans Wijma works for Tedopres, a Netherlands-based multinational company that originally did translation but has expanded their work area to include various kinds of support for technical writing and localization. One of the tools developed at Tedopres is HyperSE, a simplified English checker that works with the user-defined terminology database HyperTerm. Frans Wijma will show us how simplified English really works in practice, and what advantages we can expect in real life.

Panel: Marketing Your Profession
Jang asked if I would be a member of the panel, so I accepted! This was a difficult subject, as we have no advertising power, so it's about branding and positioning. Showing your advantages over brand ‘B' so to speak. Keep your boss, internal, and external customers happy.

While the global economy seems to take a turn for the better, this does not automatically lead to new jobs and benefits. Cost reduction is still on the agenda of most development and production companies, in all fields. We need to show where our added value lies, and the experts we have available at this 12th STC-TAC conference can probably answer most of our questions about how to achieve that goal.

Champagne Reception and Chocolate Raffle
I WON, I WON!!! Chocolate that is. With only 5 Euros of tickets. The raffle brought in like 185 Euros - not bad for donated chocolate.

No STC-TAC conference would be complete without a champagne reception and a chocolate raffle. These have always been, and will probably always be, the events that mark the end of yet another successful STC-TransAlpine conference.

This wrapped-up the Munich conference.