STC Member Forum

I haven't decided whether to attend this year - I have been evaluating it.

I attended the IA Summit in Austin 2 years ago, and found it interesting & useful. Also a good value for the $. Relatively inexpensive compared to other conferences, unless you decide to spring for the tutorials.

It's a different slice of speakers than you typically get at events targeted to technical communicators (although there's begining to be some overlap), and a different focus, coming mostly from the web world. I found it a good place for ideas & inspiration, new ways to think about solving issues related to developing documentation.

There are usually several speakers from Adaptive Path - they are typically excellent.

If you read Boxes & Arrows, you'll recognize a number of names among the speakers.

Sessions I've been eyeing at this year's conference...
--Taxonomy testing & usability
--Comparitive study of user evaluation methods
--Wireframes panel
--several sessions related to content management/reuse of info
--Global taxonomies meet interface design
--lots of others

I'm also tempted by a couple of the tutorials.