Great Meeting Last Week

It was great meeting with STC Executive Director Susan Burton in Chicago last week. Actually, we held several interesting meetings, including one with Chicago Alliance Liaison Beth Lisberg Najberg. We also met with a group of STC Chicago members at Siemens in Buffalo Grove.

Susan told us about some of the interesting initiatives STC is pursuing this year. She also gave an update on STC's efforts to revisit the current definition of "technical writer" used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Good conversations, all round. Thank you again, Susan, for stopping by to talk shop with us.

Be sure to check out the Winter 2009 issue of Byline for more about Susan's visit to Chicago.

(STC Exec. Dir. Susan Burton addresses members at the STC Chicago chapter meeting in November.)

Twitter for Business

Need more reasons for using Twitter? Check out this recent webcast from O’Reilly Media.

You can join the conversation here: @stcchicago. We’re following @access, @STCHouston and @STCIndiana among others.

Beacon Street Gallery show opening--this Friday

Come see the FAB Studios Collaborative Show this Friday November 14 at the Beacon Street Gallery!

Zoe Spirra from STC Chicago will have a new painting in the show, and 25 other artists will be represented. You'll find the gallery on the 7th floor of the Fine Arts Building located at 410 South Michigan Avenue.

Beacon Street Gallery will have a reception from 5:00-08:00 and studios throughout the building will be open from 4:30-9:30.

For more information, click here.

Shedd Aquarium Featured in At-a-Glance

This month's At-a-Glance photo contest kept you guessing. The cropped version of this photo didn't give you much to go on, but several of you came up with the correct answer. You'll find the name of this month's winner at our website.

STC Chicago member Mike Tillmans donated the photo. He tells us it wasn't the easiest shot to get:

Despite my fear of heights, or because of it, my anniversary present this year was a helicopter ride over Chicago. This is a shot of the Shedd Aquarium as we were flying north along Lake Michigan at about 1200 feet. The picture is more remarkable if you consider it was a small (4-seat) helicopter with no doors, so I was wedged in the back seat with a 15 degree field of vision, holding on to a support and trying to take pictures.

(Aerial view of a portion of Chicago's lakefront. Photo credit: Mike Tillmans.)

Take the Global Transport Challenge

Learn what you can do to save energy and contribute to a greener world by making simple changes to your everyday travel routines.

Take the Global Transport Challenge, which begins on November 13, 2008.

World Usability Day 2008

Transportation is the theme for World Usability Day 2008.

World Usability Day was founded in 2005 as an initiative of the Usability Professionals' Association to ensure that services and products important to human life are easier to access and simpler to use. Each year, on the second Thursday of November, over 225 events are organized in over 40 countries around the world to raise awareness for the general public, and train professionals in the tools and issues central to good usability research, development and practice.

Chicago's event takes place at the IIT Institute of Design. The event is free, but pre-registration is recommended due to limited space. If you go, let us know. Share your comments and analysis here.

FrameMaker Workshop presented by STC Fellow Betsy Maaks

Betsy Maaks knows FrameMaker 8.0 very well, and she enjoys presenting her knowledge to other technical communicators. If you or one of your co-workers could use a good, valuable, and inexpensive one-day introduction to the software, then this would be the workshop to take.

Communication is our 'bag', so to say, and Betsy is a recognized expert in passing technical expertise on to other experts.

Contact Jim Jones, education@stc-chicago.org, for more information about the workshop.