Technical Communication

• Chaired the 'Predictions' panel discussion, the closing session of the annual WritersUA Conference in Seattle, USA (March 2010).
• Redesigned and rewrote the Bridgetown-Greenbushes Chamber of Commerce and Industry website (2009; volunteer community project)
• One of three Moderators of the HATT discussion list. HATT (Help Authoring Tools and Techniques) is a global list of some 7000 online Help authors and technical communicators.
• Panel member on STC's inaugural Intercom Editorial Advisory Panel (the only international member of this panel).
• Presented a session on "Techniques for Reviewing a User Interface" at these annual conferences: WritersUA (Seattle, US, 2009; Portland, US, 2008), AODC (Queensland, 2008), and ASTC (NSW) (Sydney, 2008).
• Answered more than 1600 questions posted on the Author-it User Group (2002–2009).
• Judge for the Technical Publications and Online Communications sections of the 2007 STC Competition (Australia Chapter).
• Beta tester for Author-it v5 (2007)
• Presented a session on "Reviewing screen-based content" at the annual AODC Conference in Cairns (May 2006) and at the annual ASTC (NSW) Conference in Sydney (October 2006).
• Presented a session on "Customizing HTML outputs using Author-it" at the annual WritersUA Conference in Palm Springs (April 2006).
• Winner of an Excellence Award and a Merit Award in the Online Communications section of the STC Competition (Australia Chapter) (December 2005). The entries were for software demonstration tutorials, created for BMS Solutions Pty Ltd and Fractal Technologies using Adobe Captivate.
• Coordinator of the Technical Publications judging for the 2005-2006 STC Competition (Australia Chapter).
• Judge for the Technical Publications section of the 2005-2006 STC Competition (Australia Chapter).
• Designed and created the annual survey of Australian technical communicators on behalf of the STC Australia Chapter (Sept 2005).
• Spoke to the Society of Editors (WA), Inc. on "From paper to pixels: Dealing with digital content" in Perth (Sept 2005).
• Presented a session on "Time-saving techniques with Author-it" at the annual WritersUA Conference in Las Vegas; attended other sessions and attained a ProBooster Certificate in Design Strategies for attendance at sessions that focused on this stream (March 2005).
• Winner of an Excellence Award in the Online Communications section of the STC Competition (Australia Chapter) (December 2004). The entry was for online Help, written for Ramesys Global.
• Judge for the Technical Publications section of the 2004-2005 STC Competition (Australia Chapter).
• Attained status of Senior Member of STC (Sept 2004).
• Joint presenter of the "Author-it Tips and Tricks" session at the 51st Annual STC Conference in Baltimore, USA (May 2004).
• AODC Conference (Sydney, April 2004) and STC Conference (Baltimore, May 2004): Attended numerous sessions at these conferences, including pre-conference workshops on "Online Interactivity Techniques" and "Separating Format from Content with CSS".
• Winner of an Excellence Award in the Online Communications section of the STC Competition (Australia Chapter) (December 2003). The entry was for Survey Author online Help, written for Dolphin Software in Darwin.
• Volunteer webmaster for the STC Australia Chapter website (2003-2006).
• Judge for the Technical Publications section of the 2003-2004 STC Competition (Australia Chapter).
• Along with Char James-Tanny, named one of the first Author-it Certified Consultants in the world (May 2003).
• STC Conference (Dallas, May 2003): Attended numerous sessions at this conference, and a full day post-conference workshop on Writing Structured Content. Hosted a table discussion for the Lone Writer group.
• Member of a panel discussion on quoting and getting paid for the Society of Editors (WA) (May 2003)
• Presented information about technical writing to an undergraduate professional writing group at Curtin University (April 2003).
• Presented a session/demonstration on the Author-it help authoring software to the WAustechwriters group (March 2003).
• Beta tester for version 4 of Author-it, and contributed over 300 issue reports to the development team (late 2002).
• On a professional level, contributed to internet discussions on a number of technical writing, Help authoring, and copy editing listservs, and established an informal network of technical writers in Perth during 1999 [WAustechwriters] – currently the Moderator of this discussion list.
• Presented a paper ("Training 101: Learn How to Train") at the 49th Annual STC Conference (Nashville, May 2002) and a similar paper ("Training 101: Logistics for Delivering Face-to-Face Instruction") at the 50th Annual STC Conference (Dallas, May 2003). (Paper, presentation slides, and handouts available from website - http://www.cybertext.com.au/tips_training.htm)
• STC Conference (Nashville, May 2002): Attended numerous sessions at this conference, and a full day post-conference workshop on Project Management. Hosted a table discussion for the Lone Writer group.
• Panel member for a seminar on "What makes a good website?" held by Society of Editors (WA), Inc. and Women in Publishing (WA) in August 2001
• Member of STC (Society for Technical Communication), the Society of Editors (WA), and Women in Publishing (WA).
• Executive committee member of the Lone Writer Special Interest Group of STC, their volunteer webmaster (2000-2006), and the copy editor of their quarterly newsletter (also voluntary) for 2001 and 2002.
• Attended the 48th Annual STC Conference (Chicago, May 2001), and a Post-Conference day on XML, as well as hosted a table discussion for the Lone Writer group.
• In 1999, attended the Australasian Online Documentation Conference, and in 2001, a Women in Publishing (WA) seminar on Marketing.
• Short courses attended: Practical Editing (2000); Grammar Gremlins (2002); Tri-Nations Seminars (2002); RoboHelp training (2002)