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Subject:Re: IPCC and SIGDOC From:Michael Priestley <mpriestl -at- CA -dot- IBM -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 20 Aug 1999 14:19:51 -0400
>The International Professional Communications Conference and the
>Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group on
>Documentation are holding their conferences in New Orleans beginning
>Monday, September 7. IPCC runs from 9/7 - 9/10, and SIGDOC runs from
>9/12 - 9/14.
>
>Is anyone familiar with either of these conferences? Can you tell me
>anything about them?
>
>Thanks...
First off, I think you sent this to the newsgroup instead of the mailing
list -
so I
don't know if anyone else saw your note. The newsgroup just shadows the
mailing list - if you want to post to the list, you need to be subscribed
(see
info appended to any post for info).
Now the real reply:
I've been to the SIGDOC one for the last four years. This year I'll be going
to
both.
The conferences tend to be small, with attendance weighted towards
senior-level
writers, managers, and academic types. It's fairly international (not sure
what
the
percentage is, but I'd guess about half the conference attendees are from
outside
the US - eg Canada, Australia, Japan, various European countries...).
Because it's small, it's easier to network, easier to corner people to ask
questions
either on-topic or off-. The quality of the presentations are mixed - which
I
think is usual
for conferences. I'm usually happy if 1/3 of the presentations I see teach
me
something.
I don't take the tutorials, so I don't have an opinion on them.
Check out the conference preliminary programs to see what's on this year,
and
also check
out the affiliations of the presenters to get an idea of the general
background
and mix
of the attendees.
Caveat: I am affiliated with SIGDOC in all sorts of ways. But my conference
attendance
history is considerably longer than my affiliation, so I must have been
going
there for
some reason before I got assimilated.
Michael Priestley
Information Developer
IBM Toronto Lab
mpriestl -at- ca -dot- ibm -dot- com
