:: STC India's PR Blog ::

STC India 10th Annual Conference - Registrations Open!

2008-11-13T14:13:00.001+05:30

Hi,

We are glad to announce that the registrations for STC India's 10th Annual Conference are open! Here is the link to conference website:

http://stc-india.org/conferences/2008/index.htm

Note that some of the pages are still under construction. Please click on the Home, Agenda, and Registration links in the top bar.

Direct link to Agenda:

http://stc-india.org/conferences/2008/agenda/agenda.xls

Direct link to registration form:

http://stc-india.org/conferences/2008/reg/registrationform.pdf

Please let me know if you have any difficulties accessing information from the web pages. As mentioned before, the venue details are:

* Conference, Dec 12 & 13:

Le Meridien
Raja Bahadur Mill Road
Pune, Maharashtra 411001

* Pre-conference, Dec 11:

Hotel President

34/11, Erandwane,
Behind Kohinoor Mangal Karyalaya,
Prabhat Road, Pune 411004

Thanks,

Vasanth
[President - STC India Chapter]

PS: I am sending this announcement on behalf of the conference program committee and the conference program manager, Makarand Pandit.

STC India 10th Annual Conference - Agenda Announced

2008-11-13T08:02:00.000+05:30

Hi,

STC India is happy to announce the agenda for the 10th Annual Conference - the largest gathering of technical communicators in the subcontinent. The conference will be held in Pune on Dec 12 & 13, 2008
(Venue: Le Meridien). The date for pre-conference workshop is Dec 11, 2008 (Venue: Hotel President).

Link to conference agenda:

http://www.twin-india.org/Pune_2008_Conference_Agenda_Fourth_Draft.xls

A few items in the agenda are subject to change. So, this is a draft agenda. You may download the agenda for your reference.

Registration Rates:

* Dec 12, 13: For two day conference (STC members): Rs. 1000/-
* Dec 12, 13: For two day conference (non-members): Rs. 2000/-
* Dec 11: Pre-conference workshop: Rs. 1000/- (for all)

The conference website will be up very soon with detailed information on how to register, recommended hotels for stay, places to see in Pune, and so on. We will keep you posted.

Once again, I would like to thank all our corporate sponsors for supporting this event.

Thanks,
Vasanth
(President - STC India Chapter)

STC India Career Day 2008 (Hyderabad)

2008-03-17T22:25:00.005+05:30

Are you in the field of Technical Writing for the long haul, and want to know more about your profession? Or are you currently looking for a new job opportunity?

Irrespective of your requirements, STC India can help you! STC India is conducting a 'Career Day' in Hyderabad this week (Mar 22, 2008). The following companies are sponsoring the event and looking to recruit technical writers:Citec

Synopsys
Computer Associates
VMWare
Siemens Information Systems Limited
Sasken Communication Networks

You may send a mail to swami@mrmwrites.com if you want to register for the event as a candidate. The venue for the event is:

Auriga Auditorium
The V IT Park
Plot 17, Software Units Layout
Madhapur, Hyderabad - 500082

As a technical writer, you also get to attend interesting sessions in addition to exploring the job opportunities offered by these companies.

9 AM to 9:15 AM: Inaguration of STC India Career Day 2008 - Dr. Denise Kiser

9:15 AM to 10:15 AM: Keynote speech by Dr. Denise Kiser

10:15 AM to 10:30 AM: STC and its Memberships Swaminathan Moorthy

10:30 AM to 10:45 AM: BREAK

10:45 AM to 11:45 AM: Where are we headed? Uday Chava

11:45 AM to 12:05 PM: Company presentation Citec India

12:10 PM to 1:00 PM: Lunch

1:00 PM to 1:20 PM: Company presentation Synopsys

1:20 PM to 1:40 PM: Company presentation Computer Associates

1:40 PM to 2:00 PM: Company presentation VMWare

2:00 PM to 2:20 PM: Company presentation Siemens Information Systems Limited

2:20 PM to 2:40 PM: Break

2:40 PM to 3:00 PM: Sasken Communication Networks

3:00 PM to 5:00 PM Open for public

Speaker Profiles:

Information on Dr. Denise Kiser will be updated soon.

Swaminathan Moorthy works as a Systems Engineer with Siemens Information Systems Limited in Bangalore. Swami is also the Membership and Employment Manager for STC India Chapter for the year 2008.

Uday Chava is a Hyderabad-based senior technical writer. In his presentation, Uday speaks on emerging trends in our profession.

STC India Career Day 2008 in Hyderabad

2008-03-14T11:18:00.001+05:30

Are you a technical writer in India looking for a break? STC India is conducting a 'Career Day' in Hyderabad next week (Mar 22, 2008). The following companies are sponsoring the event and looking to recruit technical writers:

Citec
Synopsys
Computer Associates
VMWare
Siemens Information Systems Limited
Sasken Communication Networks

You may send a mail to swami@mrmwrites.com if you want to register for the event as a candidate. The venue for the event is:

Auriga Auditorium
The V IT Park Plot 17,
Software Units Layout
Madhapur, Hyderabad - 500082

As a technical writer, you also get to attend interesting sessions in addition to exploring the job opportunities offered by these companies.

STC Volunteers for 2008 announced

2008-01-18T09:58:00.001+05:30

The names of city representatives and management committee members for 2008 have been announced.

City Representatives

Bangalore: Rajdeep Gupta

Delhi/NCR: Saravanan Manoharan

Hyderabad: Raghavendra T

Pune: Manoj Bokil

Trivandrum: Bobby George Abraham

Chennai: Open

Mumbai: Open

Management Committee Members

Competitions Manager: Samir Gaonkar

Education and Scholarship Manager (Pune): Sumedh Nene

Education and Scholarship Manager (Overall): Subash Babu

Membership and Employment Manager: Swaminathan M

PR and Sponsorship Manager: Gururaj BS

Conference Program Manager (2008 annual conference in Pune): Makarand Pandit

INDUS Newletter

Copy Editors: Vidyut Sonde & Anindita Basu

Publishers: Rajasekhar RV

Coordinator: Akash Dubey

Admin Council for 2008 announced

2008-01-18T08:04:00.000+05:30

The list STC India admin council members for 2008 were announced in the STC India Annual Conference held in Goa.

President: Vasanth Vaidyanathan
Vice President: Michelle Cherian
Secretary: Sankara Rajanala
Treasurer: Manju Shrestha
Immediate Past President: Anupama A

Technical writing conference in Goa

2007-10-18T22:27:00.000+05:30

PRESS RELEASE

Pune, October 17, 2007

The 9th Annual Conference of the India chapter of the Society for Technical Communication (STC) will be held through October 25-27, 2007 at Cidade de Goa in Goa.

STC India’s annual conference is the largest annual learning and networking event for technical writers in India. The conference brings together technical writing professionals from all over the country and also draws several international participants.

“Workshops and presentations at the conference by industry experts will introduce delegates to trends in technologies, processes, tools, and other practices related to technical communication around the world,” said Anupama A, President of the India chapter of STC.

Presentations at the conference will range from working in global documentation teams to being a great documentation manager, from documentation usability to elearning through gaming, from blogging to developing content through a collaborative community. The conference will also include a tools booth that will demonstrate some cutting-edge features of select technical communication tools. The complete conference program is available at http://www.stc-india.org/conferences/2007/confprogram.htm.

“The conference is also the premier forum for delegates to discuss opportunities and challenges in the Indian technical communication scenario today,” said Frederick Menezes, the conference program manager.

For the first time ever, STC India’s annual conference is being held in a location that doesn’t not have a significant presence of technical writers. As most technical writers work for the IT sector, previous conference venues have included Bangalore, Pune, Chennai, and Hyderabad—all IT hubs. “Though Goa doesn’t have a major presence of IT companies, it is the perfect place to combine learning with fun,” said Menezes.

The biggest brand names in IT have supported the conference since its inception. This year’s sponsors include EMC, Computer Associates, Adobe, BEA Systems, Oracle, and Sun Microsystems among others.

At Rs 8 lakh per annum, Pune has highest paid technical writers

2007-08-07T17:24:00.000+05:30

(News item that appeared in the Pune edition of The Indian Express dated July 16, 2007)

Ranjini Raghavan

Pune, July 15: When Gururaj B.S started off his first job in 1997 in Delhi to write an instruction manual for data-entry operators on Linux, he got a monthly salary of Rs 2,500. A decade down the line he is a documentation manager and has a five digit hefty monthly package.

Pune, for the third time in a row, is the city with the highest pay package for technical writers, the average being Rs 8,37,694 lakh per annum.

This and other interesting facts about the profession were revealed at the Regional Conference for Society for Technical Communicators-India, attended by over 100, here on Sunday.

The fourth salary survey of Indian technical communicators released at the conference reported a 55 per cent rise over the past two years. The entry level salaries improved by 65 per cent since 2005. Pune offered the highest pay package, while Hyderabad and Bangalore were runners-up.

Paresh Naik, who conducted the survey, attributed the higher pay packages in Pune to the presence of a greater number of product development companies compared to service IT companies. “Technical writing for products developed in India fetches greater returns as compared to writing for service companies which cater to products abroad,” he observed. He said service companies act like middlemen, an extra link in the profit chain who take their own cut from the profit margins before the money reaches the technical writer. “Though Pune seems to offer higher packages, Bangalore still has the largest number of technical communicators,” he added.

For the survey, Bangalore had the highest number of respondents at 113; Pune came next with 58. While the sample size of the survey is small — only 281 — this is still the only data available on the up to 10,000 strong technical writers in India. The survey was conducted online. Naik added that factors that determine salaries — initiative, skill level and quality of work — could not be reflected in the survey.

The exponential growth of the industry was termed as a mixture of both good and bad news. Naik termed it as “good for individuals but bad for the profession”. As the industry receives at least 53 per cent of its work from outsourcing, growing salaries in India will reduce the cost effectiveness of the industry.

However, Makarand Pandit of Pune-based Technowriters Pvt Ltd said that the industry was still in a transition stage and would stabilise in the next two to three years.

Call for Volunteers

2007-04-05T15:27:00.000+05:30

This year, one of STC India’s initiatives is to promote STC and the profession of technical communication in colleges, universities, and other relevant institutes. The idea is to hold sessions on “A Career in Technical Communication” at various institutes throughout India.

Like most STC activities, this initiative too will be driven by volunteers.

Each volunteer or a group of volunteers would need to contact a college, university department, or institute and work with them to set up a 1-2 hours session. The volunteers will also need to conduct the session.

We (STC India) will provide the PowerPoint deck and other guidelines for the session. We will also provide posters that the institute could use to announce and publicise the session.

Volunteers should preferably have at least 5 years of experience in technical communication and should be confident of speaking in public. While the PowerPoint slides will set the broad outline for the session, speakers would be able to add value to the session from their own experiences.

If you are interested in this initiative, please write to me (fred at stc-india dot org). Do mention the specific institute you want to target (your alma mater would be a good place to start).

I understand that some of you may already be conducting such sessions at various institutes on your own. We would be happy to support you if you want to continue hosting such sessions under the STC India aegis.

You need not be an STC member to support this activity.

Thanks,
Frederick Menezes

Share and grow through STC SIGs

2007-03-26T16:46:00.000+05:30

That is the title of the new advertisement aimed at promoting STC within the technical communication community in India.

See the actual copy of the advertisement.

This is the second ad in STC India's PR campaign that started with the Have you heard about STC? advertisement in February 2007.

The new advertisement will appear on Indian technical communication mailing lists this month.

Writing while you sleep

2007-02-09T13:39:00.000+05:30

(An article on STC India's 2006 conference published in Rough Draft, the newsletter of the the Phoenix chapter of STC.)

By Jill Ginsburg

If you work at a technical writing job or contract from 8 to 5 (8 to 6? 8 to 7?), you may not think too often about the technical writers who work while you sleep. After all, they're 12,000 miles away. But there's a lot is going on...

This year, there were 600, not 450 like last year, and many more than the year before that. They listened, took lots of notes and asked lots of questions, shared techniques and tales, speculated on industry trends and their own careers, kidded each other, competed with each other, and made plans for tomorrow and next year.

The time was December 7-9, 2006, the occasion was the 8th Annual STC India Conference (2006), and the place was Bangalore, major technology center and capital of the southern state of Karnataka.

Getting to Bangalore

In May of last year, I was lucky enough to read STC past president Andrea Ames' May 2006 STC Intercom article about her experiences at the December 2005 STC India Conference in Hyderabad. At the time, I was planning a trip to India's southern states for December 2006, and a little light went on.

My inquiries about the 2006 conference arrived in the capable hands of Saravanan Manoharan, a technical writer from Delhi and a moving force behind technical writing education and conferences in India; Gururaj "Guru" B.S, then president of STC India; Anupama A., the conference program manager (and STC India president for 2007); and Rajdeep Gupta, who moderates the 477-member (at last count) Bangalore Technical Writers Meetup group at http://techwriter.meetup.com/2. I learned that the 2006 conference would be held in Bangalore.

Phoenix STC member Larry Samson put me in touch with Kala Lakshmanan and Anamika Mukherjee, two Bangalore members of the Intel documentation team he was then working with. I registered in advance with a bank draft in rupees, parked my luggage at the hotel that Anamika had located, and chose a yellow-and-black auto-rickshaw for the short ride to the Grand Ashok Hotel, where I found my badge waiting at the registration table. I'm saving it.

Learning and trends: From single sourcing to RSS

Business hotel rates in India are quite high (in both rupees and dollars), and many delegates were from Bangalore, where technical writing opportunities in India are well represented. The opening presentation, by Dr. Naresh Gupta, Adobe senior vice president and head of Adobe's research and development centers in India, focused on FrameMaker and companion publishing products, which have a substantial piece of the Indian market.

Subsequent presentations addressed Microsoft Word security issues, RSS feeds (receiving and generating), single sourcing, open-source documentation, developing documentation in an Agile development environment, content management systems, DITA scalability, and translation issues. Dr. Kiran Thakur, director of the first technical writing certification program in India, at the University of Pune, announced that the Communication and Journalism department is set to expand the current course offerings to a two-year and then possibly a four-year degree.

Throughout the conference, career development was an important focus. In his keynote speech, Geoff Hart from Pointe-Clair, Quebec, an STC Associate Fellow and a respected editor and writer well known on techwr-l, urged technical writers not to be rabbits, hiding in the shadow of the nearest fence or cubicle, but to use their creative and technical skills to demonstrate their expertise to co-workers at all levels. Dr. S. Pradeep, associate professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, gave an elegant presentation on the hand-inhand relationship of technical communication to design and scientific advancement, using as a model the design of a fighter plane.

Planned for participation

The conference sessions were held in two large halls, just across from each other on the park-like hotel grounds, with gathering places for small groups outside. In each presentation hall was a complete sound system and two large projection screens, along with a podium and table in the center for panel discussions, so it was very easy to hear and see all of the presentations. The planners' foresight ensured that everything was ready, in the right place at the right time, from music at the awards presentations to microphones rushed to audience members during question-and-answer sessions. The detailed schedules posted on easels outside each presentation hall were updated regularly, so I could always tell what was going on. There were plenty of seats, even though the attendance was greater than expected.

The 2006 conference was underwritten by broad-based support from technology companies, among them Citec, Adobe, BEA Systems, Oracle, LSI Logic, and Symphony Services. While these companies were recognized in the conference materials, they kept a low profile overall and seemed to me to have made a serious commitment to the success of the conference. The exhibitors' area included several recruiting booths; the technical writing job market in India is good now, and several people I spoke with had improved their careers within the past year or two by taking new jobs.

Between the sessions... talking with Indian writers

One surprise for me was learning about some similarities between the IT work environment in Bangalore and in the US. Contrary to what I'd thought, many IT professionals work a regular five-day schedule, and some can telecommute - a sharp contrast to the schedules of other Indian office workers (many call center employees, for example, work 12-hour shifts, six days a week). It was evident too that writers at many companies are taking advantage of the career options available to them, and there is a growing and diversified freelance technical writing community. Phone services throughout India are excellent and seem fairly priced. Salaries, however, remain pegged to the Indian economy, although international firms are presumed to pay higher salaries.

The conference event that caused the most excitement -- and had the best cheerleaders -- was the annual technical writing quiz, with questions prepared by STC India quizmeister Frederick Menezes (Pune). Writers were asked to compete in teams of three, whether colleagues or people they'd just met, to answer questions about technical writing and language. For the playoffs, there were just three champion teams on one of the conference stages, and the questions were posted on the projection screens so that everyone in the audience had a chance to try to outguess or support their favorite team. Correct answers to some very difficult grammar questions finally earned one team the grand prize.

As a visitor, I was welcomed to meet with Indian technical writers and to join in their social experiences at the conference. There were excellent buffet lunches each day with wonderful desserts, and a banquet and dance on Friday night. Coffee, tea, and cookies were available all day in a courtyard area between the two main conference buildings.

Sarees were much in evidence, but some women wore jeans and cotton shirts and athletic shoes instead of the more traditional sandals. Most men chose sports shirts and slacks or jeans. Another common dress for women was the salwar kameez, a two-piece suit, often cotton or another lightweight fabric, with a long top that has slit sides and fits over a pair of loose pants. This is one item that I'd like to bring back to Phoenix, as it is ideal business dress for our hot summers and stylish as well.

The main thing I've brought back though is the enthusiasm and commitment to professional growth and achievement that I found among our fellow writers in India.

(Jill Ginsburg is a technical writer and a senior member of the Phoenix STC chapter. Until recently, she worked at JDA Software in Scottsdale, Ariz., and is now editing technical and educational publications through her own company, WritePro, Inc. You can contact her at sun_edit at yahoo dot com.)

Have you heard about STC?

2007-02-06T23:12:00.000+05:30

That's the title of an advertisement to be posted on Indian technical writing mailing lists to create awareness about STC within the Indian technical writing community. This advertisement will appear on major mailing lists in February.

See the actual copy of the advertisement.

We plan to release similar awareness-building advertisements in the coming months too.

STC India elects Anupama as President

2007-02-06T20:11:00.000+05:30

PRESS RELEASE

Pune, December 11, 2006

Anupama A. has been elected as the President of the India chapter of the Society for Technical Communication (STC).

STC, the largest organisation of its type in the world, is dedicated to advancing the arts and sciences of technical communication. Its members include technical writers and editors, content developers, documentation specialists, instructional designers, academics, and anyone whose work makes technical information available to those who need it.

STC India has been leading the technical communication community in India since 1999.

Anupama was elected at the Annual Business Meeting of the India chapter held recently at Bangalore on the sidelines of its 8th Annual Conference. Anupama is a Documentation Manager at Pivotal Corporation, Bangalore. She has been associated with STC India since its inception in 1999.

The other office bearers elected at the meeting include Michelle Cherian as Vice President, Vasanth Vaidyanathan as Secretary, and Manju Shrestha as Treasurer. Gururaj B S is the Immediate Past President of the chapter.

More details about STC India are available at www.stc-india.org.

Technical writing conference concludes at Bangalore

2007-02-06T11:44:00.000+05:30

PRESS RELEASE

Pune, December 11, 2006

The 8th Annual Conference of the India chapter of the Society for Technical Communication (STC) recently concluded at The Grand Ashok, Bangalore. The technical writing conference saw an audience of more than 580 delegates from all over the country and abroad. STC India’s Annual Conference is India’s largest annual gathering of technical writers.

Dr. Naresh Gupta, Managing Director, Adobe Systems India was the Chief Guest at the inaugural function. Geoff Hart from Canada (an Associate Fellow of STC) delivered the keynote address.

The conference offered several presentations on different aspects of technical communication, hosted interactive workshops, provided a wealth of networking opportunities, and served as a platform for companies and job seekers to meet. Most of the slides used for the presentations at the conference are available on STC India’s website at
http://www.stc-india.org/conferences/2006/Presentations.

A recurring presentation theme was increasing the value of services provided by technical writing teams and the need to acquire a range of skills to offset the possibility of losing opportunities to other countries. This comes at a time even though the technical communication industry is going through a boom and hiring is at an all time high.

Mary Ann from Pivotal and Wasique Robbani and Amit Chandra from Cadence were adjudged the best speakers at the conference for their respective paper presentations.

Citec, Adobe, BEA Systems, Oracle, LSI Logic, and Symphony Services were the main sponsors of the event.

The conference was hosted under the leadership of STC India president Gururaj B S and conference program manager Anupama A.