Board

TechCommNZ Executive

Ryan Wilson

President

Hello, My name is Ryan.

I have worked in the Tech area since 2008, when I landed a job in the Harvey Norman Tech Bay.

Over the past 15 years, I have worked my way up through multiple environments and teams across Australia and New Zealand. I’m currently working for the University of Otago in their Christchurch campus.

For the last ten years, I have also been on school/education boards, local and regional.

Working on school boards has been rewarding and drives me to seek new ways to innovate and contribute continuously. I appreciate being around the table and working with and for anyone willing to serve our communities.

My interests, apart from all that, are predominately around IT. I have always been interested in computers, from game testing to spending hours tinkering and fixing computers. I always love to pull something apart to see how it works.

I try to spend most of my free time with family and friends to maintain a healthy work-life balance.

Contact: TechCommNZ President

Noel Anderton

Vice-president, Webinar/Workshop Co-ordinator

Noel’s “technical” career began in 1977 as a radio and communications technician with Civil Aviation, at Christchurch airport. When CAD became corporatized in 1987, he took a role as a maintenance manager at Auckland Airport, with the new Airways Corporation. After working in the fields of Navigation and Landing systems, then Surveillance Radar, he moved to the emerging field of risk and quality management, which led naturally to Information Design and Delivery.

Moving back to Christchurch Radar Centre in 1999, Noel specialised in writing for an engineering and technical audience, transforming their processes from paper-based, to online. Recently, his role has switched to information design for Airways Air Traffic Controllers, taking them on the journey from slow-to-update manuals, to smart delivery at the workface.

A regular at conferences, branch meetings and courses, Noel joined the TechCommNZ Board in October 2019, and is the TechCommNZ Webinar Coordinator

In his spare time, Noel is immersed in Dragon Boat racing, as an (aging) athlete, event organiser, and an International Race Official. Until this virus is under control and our borders open, Noel will have to point his energies toward local activities – which isn’t such a bad thing.

Contact: TechCommNZ Vice-President

Contact TechCommNZ Workshop/Webinar Co-ordinator

Steph Prince

Communications Co-ordinator, Student Outreach Co-ordinator

Steph has a Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics from Massey University, and a Diploma in Editing, Proofreading and Book Publishing from the New Zealand Institute of Business Studies.

She has worked in content writing and publishing roles for 11 years, championing the importance of plain language, writing style, accessibility and branding across her organisation’s communications. She's also a Plain Language Advisor, appointed to take on the responsibilities of the Plain Language Act 2022 for her organisation.

In 2017, Steph won the Plain Language Champion – Best Individual award at the New Zealand Plain Language Awards. Since then she has seriously enjoyed getting to cheerlead and celebrate our clearest communicators through her work as an awards judge from 2021 onwards.

She currently puts together the TechCommWire newsletter and is keen to hear from you if you have any ideas or suggestions.

Outside of work hours, Steph enjoys playing badminton, reading (magic and dragons required), learning New Zealand Sign Language, trying to improve her gluten-free baking skills and spending time with her niblings. She’s a big fan of a chat about space.

Contact: TechCommNZ Comms Co-ordinator

Emma Reynolds

Secretary

Emma’s love of language has led her from studies in French and translation to teaching and research roles in Aotearoa, France, and New Caledonia, and into the world of technical communication and information design.

Like a number of fellow graduates of the Ara GDID programme, she joined the growing ranks of technical communication professionals at Streamliners, where she helped to create and maintain complex documentation for the health sector.

Last year she joined the Information Design team at Airways NZ, where she helps develop and maintain documentation for the different business units at Airways. The Information Design team’s customers are located across the country. They include air traffic controllers who help ensure that planes take off and land safely, and engineers, technicians, electricians, and software engineers who look after the infrastructure that supports air traffic services.

Contact TechCommNZ Secretary

Cassandra Hogan

Business Manager

Cassandra has a strong background in pharmaceuticals, life and business coaching and running large mental health events. She started writing for the medical industry ten years ago with datasheets, training materials and educational resources and has since branched out on her own. She now works with a number of New Zealand and Australian science, agricultural and power generation industries and is currently studying Post Grad Strategic Management.

Cassandra is excited to join the TechCommNZ board and look after the Business Manager role that Roy has looked after exceptionally for so many years!

In her spare time, Cassandra loves exploring new hiking trails and spending time with her family.

Contact TechCommNZ Business Manager

Terry Hall

Board Member

Terry Hall graduated from Canterbury University with a Commerce degree before working at the Patent Office in Lower Hutt for almost ten years as a Trade Mark Examiner. He was extensively involved in the Office''s first computerisation and was a pioneer of using the then-emergent Internet in Trade Mark research. Later he returned to Christchurch and obtained an NZ Diploma of Business & Information Systems. Today he works at CORE Education in testing and documentation for IT systems.

He has a background in debating and public speaking that goes back to his days at Canterbury, where he was a member of the Debating Society for several years. While up in Wellington he was part of the Wellington 22 Club team that won the 1993 Premier Reserve Grade Trophy, the second-highest debating grade award in the Wellington area. In his spare time he has for some years run a web site and e-zine supporting controversial figure skating badass Tonya Harding - long before she was trendy, too. And that''s definitely a good way to get into plenty of arguments.

Sarah Bichan

Social Media Co-ordinator

Sarah’s background is in languages, translation, linguistics, and writing. She currently works as a Senior Technical Writer for Streamliners, where she manages the Stronger Schools product – a website which provides guidance to help primary school teachers and other school staff recognise and respond to the wellbeing needs of children in Canterbury (NZ) and South Tyneside (UK).

Sarah also has experience in the communications field, so she’s currently looking after social media for the Board.

Sarah enjoys learning other languages, baking, trying to get her fitness back up to speed, and various creative pursuits.

Freya Morris-Cole

Board member

Freya has always possessed a great thirst for learning, and has a long-list of study in health, languages, politics and digital design (among other subjects!). Most recently, Freya graduated with a Masters in Management (Communications) from Massey University in 2020. Unfortunately, this was just as the COVID-19 lockdowns began.

More fortunately, Freya was immediately brought into roles within the Ministry of Health to assist with governance, deliver information and advice to both the public and senior leaders, as well as create and maintain complex documentation. During their career, Freya was recognised as a cultural and communications champion. This led to their involvement as a moderation panel member for a public service inclusive language glossary, which was subsequently approved for publication by Cabinet as

Te Puka Ārahi i te Reo Tuwhera mō te Ranga Aniwaniwa | the Rainbow inclusive language guide in early 2022.

As the world eased itself back into a semblance of ''normal'', they have since branched out from public service and have started contracting within the technical communications field.

Freya enjoys meeting people, trying new food, dying their hair crazy colours, as well as writing (of course), reading (undoubtedly), gaming (no surprise there surely), but also swimming, traveling and just experiencing the best the world has to offer. Of particular note is their interest in workforce development and community outreach that they will bring to TechCommNZ - something which began when they worked as a Teacher''s Assistant in Japan, then with Student Job Search, and continued into their role as Advisor at the Ministry of Health when seeking to develop future leaders for New Zealand’s Health boards.

While new to the profession, their knowledge and experience meant they had skills which transferred easily into their current work. Even technical concepts were familiar to them, due to their involvement with media content creation and a range of analytical tools. The most difficult subject to learn was income tax!

Jenny Drayton

Board member

Jenny currently works as an information designer for Airways, New Zealand. She was employed to work on the documentation for a ‘once-in-a-generation’ project that replaced the air traffic control system nationwide. Although she is relatively new to the field, her previous experience as an International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) course developer overseas provided useful crossover skills. Jenny is in the process of learning the finer points of information design and begins the Technical Communication Certificate through Simon Fraser University (Canada) in January 2024.

She came home in January 2020 to finish an MA in Applied Linguistics and stayed because of covid. Her thesis was about the langauge that air traffic controllers use in emergencies and from that, she’s written one book chapter and co-written two journal articles and a book chapter.

Jenny now lives in Taupo which is perfect because she loves anything to do with the outdoors and these days most of her time is taken up with waka ama. She has just joined the club committee to help with website development and social media (a learning space for her!). Jenny belongs to toastmasters, as well as a book club that has introduced her to numerous books she may never have read otherwise.

Roy McKone

Board member

Roy has been a self employed technical communicator since the beginning of 1998. Prior to this he has had substantial experience in the IT industry in management, sales, solution design, software development and technical roles. During his career Roy also had to develop a wide range of documentation from technical through to sales proposals.

Combining these various skills and experiences with formal training in Information Mapping, Roy has since been involved in a number of major documentation projects with IBM, Vodafone, NZ Communications (2 Degrees), Placemakers, to name but a few. Roy is now retired and based in Tauranga.

Contact phone number: +64 7 543-3533.

Auckland Branch

Auckland Branch Coordinator

Contact TechCommNZ Auckland Branch Coordination Team

Christchurch Branch

Christchurch Branch Coordination Team

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Wellington Branch

Wellington Branch Coordination Team

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Hamilton Branch

Hamilton Branch Coordination Team

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Bay of Plenty Branch

Bay of Plenty Branch Coordination Team

Contact TechCommNZ Bay of Plenty Branch Coordination Team