STC Rochester and the Spectrum Committee are pleased to announce the workshop schedule for Spectrum 2017.
All workshops will be held on Tuesday, March 28th in the Slaughter Building (078) at the Rochester Institute of Technology.
We are excited to bring you the following workshops:
8:30-11:30AM, Tuesday, March 28
1. Neil Perlin, Single Sourcing to the Max with MadCap Flare
New to Flare? Need to publish content to multiple devices, formats, or audiences? Flare’s single sourcing features are tremendously flexible and powerful but they can also be overwhelming. Which ones should you use? When? Can you combine them? How do you avoid overdoing it? Come to this half-day, hands-on workshop for answers AND hands-on practice. We’ll look at:
- Two definitions of single sourcing.
- The three main single sourcing features – variables (everywhere!), snippets, and conditions.
- Supporting features like CSS mediums, conditionalizable styles, responsive output, and parent/child project structures.
- How the Target Editor ties the settings together.
- Best practices for single sourcing with Flare You’ll leave with a solid overview of Flare’s single sourcing features and how to use them to create cutting edge outputs.
2. Liz Fraley and Janice Summers, How to Attract Opportunities to You
Maybe you’re thinking it’s time to branch out on your own, maybe it’s time to move up in your company, or maybe it’s time for something different. No matter which scenario, for someone to hire you or your company, you must be THE solution that fills a NEED. Clearing your vision of who you are and defining your brand allows you laser focus to attract customers. More than your technical resume or CV, the how and what makes you unique.
- How to gain customers by attracting them to you
- How to identify who your customer is (and is not)
- How to identify the keys that distinguish you from others
- How to decide whether to strike out on your own and what it takes to do it
- How to pitch without bragging
- How to create a customer profile
- How to develop a self-inventory
- How to come up with a concrete, shareable plan
In this session we will cover all of the above through exercises to create a foundation for action. Plan your path to independence, to promotion, or to a new field. Come prepared to roll up your sleeves, dig in, and take action. Ask questions about your individual goals and situations.
This session will provide a forum for you to get the answers you seek!
1-4 PM, Tuesday, March 28
Lee Drake and Kathryn Hutton, Using Office365 for collaboration and creation of technical documentation
Lee and OS-Cubed staff will run a workshop in which we’ll explore the various capabilities of Office365 live. We will use an example domain and each attendee will get a 1 month free subscription to Office365 to use to do the Office workshop tasks, and practice what they’ve learned. The workshop will cover the following topics:
- An overview of Office365 features
- The different features of the different license types
- Basic Office365 online and offline tools
- Using Group collaboration in Office365 (hands-on)
- How each tool enhances collaboration (hands-on)
- Collaborative editing (hands-on)
- Sharepoint and version control (hands-on)
- Advanced sharepoint and group features (hands on)
4. Margit Brazda Poirier, Introduction to Grant Writing: How to Find and Get Grants for Your Program
As the technical writing profession evolves, skills such a grant writing become increasingly important in obtaining the funding needed to support programs. This interactive workshop is for those new to grant writing. The focus is on writing grants to support programs, capital projects and operations at nonprofit organizations and businesses (not college grant applications). Participants will learn basic skills needed to find and write compelling foundation, state and federal grants. Topics will include:
- How to find grant opportunities
- Preparing information commonly asked for in grant applications
- Tips for winning grant applications.
Participants are encouraged to bring with them a project idea that is in need of funding. The outcome of this workshop is that each participant will have begun the process of preparing a typical grant application.
