The Region 7 Conference:
The Roads to New Heights in Calgary

by Valerie M. Ball

I was fortunate to attend the Region 7 Conference in Calgary, which was hosted warmly and capably by the Alberta Chapter, October 2-4. The conference theme of "New Heights: from base camp to summit" was an inherent if unspoken part of each of the forty presentations, the workshops, and the demos. The variety of choices among these offerings, as well as the career paths of the attendees, often reminded me of Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken." Frost, however, speculated only that "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood"; many more roads were possible at the conference, though most probably carry the same soul-searching that Frost found.

However, my first road choice was easy: MAX to PDX.

Aerial Road

My second road gave me an aerial view of the bleached Alberta prairie grass as it rolled down the hills from the Rockies toward a city textured with golden trees. A river reflected the unclouded blue sky as it looped upon itself in oxbows that slowed its eastward journey. October 1 may have been a lingering July day in Portland, but a snowstorm three weeks earlier had pushed Calgary into a warm Indian summer.

Day 1: Thursday, October 1

That warmth was repeated throughout my stay. Accommodations at the Delta Bow Valley Hotel were comfortable; the Garden Patio room on the second floor soon became a second home for all attendees in its function as a hospitality center and the site for receptions, luncheons, and snacks. Food was a reason for gathering, an event that started with registration and a welcome reception that evening. I had traveled to Calgary alone, but other STC members were quick to introduce themselves. As the conference was held in Calgary, many of the participants were Canadians, who were universally outgoing and happy to start new friendships. I made the acquaintance of another Valerie, a name that both of us found easy to remember, and my choice for the first Friday presentation went quickly to someone else whom I had just met.

Day 2: Friday, October 21, 2003

Our road began on Friday with a continental breakfast and an upbeat welcome from Brian O'Malley, the conference manager, who soon deferred to the keynote speaker, Dave Rodney. In step with the conference theme, Dave was very comfortable with base camps and summits: he's a Calgarian who has summited Mount Everest twice. His PowerPoint presentation was a series of dazzling photographs, some of which gave a view looking down at boot toes on a horizontally placed ladder used to "walk" across chasms that plummeted 8,000 feet to Tibet. (He advised not falling into Tibet unless in possession of an entry visa for the People's Republic of China.) Dave is an accomplished motivational speaker, one who inspires without belaboring his listeners; but that many of the technical communicators in the audience seemed equally interested in Dave's "how-to" details of mountain expeditions.

After Dave's talk, we diverged into the five "roads" of the conference: Technology; Writing, Editing, and Translating; Careers and Professional Development; Information Design and Production; and Training and Development. I couldn't attend every presentation, so my conclusions about the conference understandably may not represent every viewpoint. After all, I couldn't take every open road that beckoned!

The Main Road

Although not explicitly stated, the overall tone of many of the presentations and the talk among attendees in the Garden Patio room reminded me of the themes of the presentations offered at WVC's September meeting. Many of those themes from our September meeting addressed the increasing number of changes in technical communication: job titles, expectations from our clients and/or employers, skills and specializations, the out-sourcing of documentation, and our presentations of ourselves and our profession. Many of these changes appear as potholes, frost heaves, detours, or possible falls from cliffs.

However, we at least have a number of roads from which to choose, and one that is especially intriguing is how technological changes have affected the way we work together on communication teams. Two presenters, Amanda Goldrick-Jones and Kathy Legg, respectively shared their findings in separate sessions, "The Harder They Fall: Pitfalls of Online Team Writing Assignments" and "Building Long Distance Writing Teams." They looked at the effects on and the results of teams that meet electronically across distance. In this medium of communication, the technology changes so rapidly that research findings might be outdated and outpaced before hypotheses can be drawn about the dynamics of such teams. Technical communicators may very well be leaders in such teams that are likely to become more common among all professions through the changing methods of conducting business.

To explore more of the roads and summits offered at the conference, go to the proceedings online at www.region7conference.com.

Road Wisdom

I thoroughly enjoyed taking as many roads as possible at the Region 7 Conference, an enjoyment that was amplified by the ready acceptance of my two presentations (topic of my article in the September issue of the Galley E-zine). Conferences are rejuvenating because we share our ideas with other professionals from different backgrounds, we gain knowledge of technological advances, and we expand our methodologies. Such a combination provides a synergism that is best shared by being physically present at the conference itself, and the entire experience is the "affirmation of our profession," a conclusion credited to presenter Kathy Legg of the Manitoba Chapter.

I'm already looking forward to the next Region 7 Conference, by whatever road.

Employed as a technical writer at Rockwell Collins Flight Dynamics, Valerie M. Ball has been a member of WVC since January 2002, served as a technical art judge in the 2002-2003 competition, and won an award of excellence for her trade-journal article, "Risk-Free Runways." In a series of career transitions, she has been a political writer and a university instructor of English in New York, China, Oregon, and Japan. She can be reached at vmball@rockwellcollins.com; her presentations at the Region 7 conference are available at www.region7conference.com.