You'll Love Philadelphia!

But you'll really love the Technical Communication Summit!

Why go to the Summit?

Listen to what Ron May (this month's profiled member) has to say about the benefits of conference attendance:

My main motivation for attending has been the sessions. For example:

• I attended one session that changed the way I use Microsoft Word. The session was titled "Preventing Corruption in Microsoft Word Documents." Among other topics, this session spoke to the issue of how to prevent problems with autonumbering in long documents (a vexing problem).
• It has also been very helpful to speak directly to the Help Authoring Tool vendors that attend the conference. Many times these vendors will offer demo sessions.
• Meeting other technical writers from across the county can be fun. As you may recall from my profile, I enjoy motorcycles. At the Dallas session I talked at length with one of the tech writers at Honda who works on the team that writes the user manual for the Honda Gold Wing motorcycle.
• There is also quite an international presence at the annual conference. I have met writers from Germany, Finland and Israel.

Where in Philadelphia will you stay?

The official conference hotel for the Technical Communication Summit (June 1–4) is the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown. STC encourages attendees to reserve rooms at the official hotel, which is connected via skywalk to the convention center where most activities and events will take place (several events are scheduled in the Marriott). The hotel has designated a block of rooms at lower rates during the conference available on a first-come basis. Other hotels are available several blocks away at higher room rates; however, there is no sponsored transportation available.

For each conference planned, STC negotiates a lower room rate and guarantees a set number of rooms will be reserved by attendees within the room block. This ensures an adequate number of rooms at the lower negotiated rate and discourages the host hotel from increasing room rates in response to a surge of reservations. If the room block is not fulfilled, STC must pay for unsold rooms within the block. Attendees who stay at hotels other than the official hotel are not counted toward meeting the room block obligation.

Filling the room block at the official conference hotel helps STC when negotiating room rates for future events. Hotels share room block information, as well as statistics about STC’s purchases of food and beverage, meeting rooms, and other revenue-generating activities.

Book by May 5 to take advantage of the rooms blocked at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown. Members who make reservations at the host hotel will automatically be entered to win a selection of prizes, such as: complimentary room nights during the conference, restaurant certificates, or STC merchandise. Reservations may be made by calling +1 800-266-9432 or online on the STC Web site. The cost for a single room is $218 (USD) or double room $228 (USD) per day plus tax. Additional people in the room are U.S. $20 each.

© 2008 STC