This year an exciting, eclectic group of translation, business, and communication professionals come together in Chattanooga to discuss practical communication in a global economy. Among our speakers are translation project managers, Simplified English gurus, quality assurance specialists, content managers, usability testers, and medical communicators. Add to that list managers of virtual teams and experts in Wikis, Blogs, and social networks, and there's not a translation problem in the world our speakers can't solve. Additionally we have some well-known general communications speakers who will help participants with career development, communications planning and management, and tools of our trade.

Some may consider our conference to a matter of all talk and no play. But when you attend our opening reception or float down the river on the Dixieland Dinner Cruise, you'll have a chance to chat with your fellow communicators to determine who is the medievalist, who’s the celebrated toastmaster, and who has explored the most remote island on Earth. Among the distinguished communicators presenting at PCOC 25:

Scott Abel, The Content Wrangler, is a content management strategist who helps organizations improve the ways they author, maintain and deliver their communications assets. His popular website, TheContentWrangler.com, provides articles, interviews, conference listings, and views on and reviews of the tools of the technical communication trade. His talks, Augmenting Your Technical Documentation with User-Generated Content and From Nightclub DJ to Content Management Consultant - Developing a Business Career the Content Wrangler Way, offer conference participants serious and not-so-serious perspectives on the career of technical communication.

Berry Braster is the Director of North American operations for Tedopres, a translation and technical documentation corporation headquartered in the Netherlands. Berry holds a BA in International Marketing Management from the University of Amsterdam, and he has over 10 years of experience in quality assurance, translation management, and controlled languages. He has worked with clients in the aerospace, defense, machinery, medical, semiconductor, and software industries. His topic, How Controlled Authoring Will Improve Readability, Save Translation Costs and Facilitate Structured Authoring, introduces participants to Simplified Technical English.

Sandra Bravo, owner of International Language Solutions, LLC, provides participants with The Secret for Successful Translation Projects. She is certified as an English translator from the National University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and as a Spanish translator by the American Translators Association. A certified localization expert, Sandra has over 20 years of experience as a translator and project manager for companies, government agencies, and organizations. She will focus on strategic partnerships with client, discussing the importance of teamwork to multiple-language projects. Using real-life examples, she will discuss successes and failures that have taught translation professionals valuable lessons in translation management.

MadCap software product manager Sharon Burton will discuss how Blaze software supports production of long printed documents in the MadCap sponsored talk Blaze: How the print publishing world is about to change. In her 16-year career as a technical communicator, Sharon has managed publications and consulted in technical communications, taught communications at the University of California at Riverside, and contibuted newspaper columns to the Los Angeles Times and the Inland Empire Weekly. In her off hours Sharon writes creative nonfiction and performs stand-up comedy.

ArchiText President Hans Fenstermacher will provide writing tips for improving content and cutting localization costs in From World-Weary to World-Ready: Meeting Today's Content Globalization Challenges. Hans will also discuss how to use localization software to make localized content available to global audiences in Decreasing Engineering Time in Localization. Hans is founder of ArchiText, a division of TransPerfect Global Group providing comprehensive translation, localization, and content globalization services. Born in Germany, Hans speaks six languages fluently, and he holds degrees from Princeton University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. He is an STC Associate Fellow and a past president of the Boston Chapter. In 2002 Hans founded the Globalization And Localization Association (GALA) and served as its first Chairman.

Judith Glick-Smith, President and CEO of MentorFactor, Inc., consults with businesses in the areas of conflict and life coaching, corporate mediation, and strategic planning. In Got Conflict? Managing Conflict on Global Teams, Judy explores special problems that can occur in international teams. Judy is an STC Fellow and Past President of STC, a Past President of the Lone Star Community of STC, and a member of the Management SIG. A Ph.D. candidate specializing in Transformative Studies, Judy has extensive experience as a technical writing instructor and conference speaker. She has made numerous presentations at the STC Annual Conference and PCOC. She has published in Enterprise Systems Journal, Intercom, Technical Communication, Best Practices, and The Rockley Report.

In The Impact of Technology on Technical Writing Tools: Style Manuals in a Single-Source Environment, Julie Grady discusses her experience developing style manuals that help prepare organizations for content management. She will discuss cases in which style guides have been instrumental in the effective implementation of content management systems. Julie is a technical writer at QSource, a nonprofit health-care quality improvement consultant that is Tennessee’s designated Quality Improvement Organization and External Quality Review Organization. She will use her experience in publications and quality control to generate discussion of ways to redesign a style guide to support effective content management.

Author and consultant Brenda Huettner will present two sessions: Delivering Accessible Technical Information: Communicating Your Message to Everyone and A Technical Communicator’s Guide to Project Management. In both sessions Brenda will focus on virtual teams and the global community of technical communicators. Brenda’s experience includes over 20 years as a writer, editor, trainer, and manager for software and hardware companies. She is an STC Fellow, a Senior Member of IEEE, an active participant in the IEEE Professional Communication Society, and a member of the Usability Professionals Association. Her most recent book is Captivate 3.0: the Definitive Guide, available from Wordware Press. She is also coauthor of Managing Virtual Teams: Getting the Most from Wikis, Blogs, and Other Collaborative Tools.

Charles Lanigan will discuss Collaborative Skills for the Global Knowledge Economy. Included in topics Chuck will discuss are web-based collaborative technologies including Wikis, Blogs, and social-networking sites; cross-cultural communication and organizational dynamics; and assembling and leading virtual teams. Chuck holds a Master’s Degree in Instructional Design and Technology, and he has spent fifteen years in knowledge management positions. He has written for CIO Magazine, and he taught at the Katz Business School Center for Executive Education, Penn State University Outreach, and Carnegie-Mellon University. He is active in professional organizations in the Pittsburgh area, working with the Pittsburgh Regional Knowledge-Management Consortium and serving the Pittsburgh STC as past president and president of the STC WorkQuest board. He brings to PCOC a vast knowledge of the information development workforce and the skills required to function well in the global knowledge economy.

STC Fellow Suzanna Laurent has devoted a large portion of her career to STC development. A former STC President and Region 5 Director-Sponsor, Suzanna managed the STC transition to a new organization that meets the needs of the global community. She has made over 140 presentations at STC conferences, and she has written over 65 articles for STC publications. Among her awards were a Volunteer of the Year award from the international organization in 2006 and Distinguished Chapter Service Award from her Oklahoma chapter, which received the Chapter Achievement Award under her presidency. Her business experience includes developing online help for software applications, developing award-wining course materials for government agencies, and establishing Communications Design Group. Suzanna's presentation, Revealing Your Hidden Value, is a discussion of the value technical communicators bring to businesses competing in the global marketplace.

Helen Moody, co-owner of the Professional Training Company, will present strategies and techniques that can simplify editing. In PowerEditing(tm): Rapid Revision for Busy Writers, based on her upcoming book, she will provide an overview of this accelerated editing process, which uses a simplified levels-of-edit approach. In 16 Tips for Editing Global English, she identifies changes that improve comprehension for readers of English as a foreign language.

Helen applies the lively learning of the humanities to problems faced by science and engineering. Her company's clientele includes national and federal laboratories, research and development organizations, utilities, and manufacturers. Through consulting and training, she helps scientists and engineers write clearly, present effectively, and work together productively.

Before founding her company, Helen taught Technical Writing and English as a Foreign Language at San Jose State University and at UC Berkeley, where she earned her doctorate, in English. Past President of the NM Chapter of the International Society for Performance Improvement, she is also a senior member of STC and president of the NM Kachina Chapter. Her other professional affiliations include the Medieval Academy of America.

Laura Ramsey, STC FEllow and President of Sandpiper Communications, will join Suzanna Laurent to present Gaining the Respect We Deserve. Laura is a former STC board member, Region 7 Director-Sponsor, and Assistant to the President for External Relations. She is also a former president of the Puget Sound Chapter, where she earned the Distinguished Chapter Service Award. An STC member since 1975, Laura views mentoring members and judging in the Society’s competitions as favorite activities. In their talk, Laura and Suzanna will continue to explore the value of technical communicators to the international business community, and they will address personal and professional skills that technical communicators must develop in the current global economy.

Dr. Donald D. Samulack has had a long and varied career in academic research and pharmaceutical marketing and communications. Don is Vice President of Medical Affairs and Strategic Partnerships for Cactus Communications, Ltd., and he is president of the Mid-south Chapter of STC. His talk, They're Just Waking up in Asia! Cost-effective Tools and Strategies to Coordinate Team Productivity on Both Sides of the Planet, focuses on effectively managing a team of communicators whose geographic differences create physical and cultural barriers to productivity. During the presentation, Don will connect with a communications team in India so that colleagues on his virtual team can provide input. He will emphasize strategies and technologies used to manage medical writing and editing workflows, customer relationships, regionalized Web development, and global branding.

In Style Guides—Who Needs Them, Judy Shenouda will share her experiences writing style and standards guides. She will discuss how matters of style affect the quality of English source documents and translation publications, how to find and customize off-the-shelf resources for international teams, and how to manage style guide distribution. Judy is owner of Shenouda Associates Inc., which provides writing and editorial services, staffing services, and products and presentations to corporate clients. She holds a BA degree in English and Secondary Education and an MA degree in Literacy Journalism. She serves on the advisory board for SUNY Institute of Technology in Utica, New York. A senior member of STC, she is active in the Genesee Valley Chapter of the American Society for Training and Development and Toastmasters International.

Freelance globalization management consultant and trainer Richard Sikes provides an Overview of Translation Technology and a discussion of best practices for cost-effective translation projects in The Gate and the Gait: What Source Language Content Teams Need to Know about the Downstream World. Richard has held senior localization management positions at several industry-leading software publishers. As a freelancer he works with Across Systems and other translation and localization organizations to provide translation and localization services. He holds a B.A. in Fine Arts from the University of California, Irvine, Diplom Betriebswirt FH from the Folkshochschule Heidelberg, and an MBA from the University of Toronto. He presents frequently on a wide variety of topics at Localization World and Gilbane conferences, and his articles appear with regularity in MultiLingual magazine.

Myriam Siftar will discuss preparing documents for translation in Technical Writing With Translation in Mind. Topics include an overview of the translation and localization process, best writing practices to manage language and terminology, considerations in using graphics, tools and work processes, and working with language service providers. Myriam is president and founder of MTM LiguaSoft, a language services company in Philadelphia. She holds a BS in computer science from a leading French engineering school, a master’s degree from the European School of Management in Paris, and an MBA from Drexel University. Her experience includes managing translation and localization of technical documents, websites, e-learning applications, and print materials for companies in the US, Europe, and Latin America.

East Tennessee’s own Cathrine E. Snyder will present a fascinating summary of her experience translating her father’s 1937 diary from Norwegian to global contemporary English. Translating a Tristan da Cunha Diary describes the process of translating the diary of her father, noted sociologist P. A. Munch. The diary documents the Norwegian scientific expedition to study the peaceful volcanic island Tristan da Cunha, the most remote inhabited island in the world today. According to Cathy, her talk is addressed to "a general audience with an interest in unusual places" as well as to writers, editors, and translators. She will discuss lessons learned from translating and publishing the book, and she’ll provide some entertaining insight into remote island culture. Cathy is retired from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and she consults for the FBI on the business architecture of their computer systems. She is a former STC-ETC officer and a member of IEEE.

Kent Taylor characterizes himself as a "recovering pubs director" interested now in process, technology, and quality. Thirty years in information development and delivery have given Kent extensive experience in structured writing, content management, single sourcing, multipurposing, machine translation, and computer assisted learning systems. General Manager of Acrolinx North America, Kent works with technology companies to manage the preparation of accurate content in multiple languages, in a cost-effective and timely manner. His presentations, Creating High Quality Content that Communicates Across Language Barriers and The Case for Sentence-level Reuse: It's What's Between the Tags that Counts, promise to help participants cope with the translation and delivery problems that can affect a multinational organization. If you plan to attend the quality content session, be sure to bring sample documents on a laptop or a memory stick for a complimentary quality analysis.