From the President

December 2017

Reflecting on my first (nearly) 6 months in this role it’s certainly been a busy and challenging time. I always get a lot back from TechCommNZ and I want to ensure that all our members continue getting value from our organisation. Next year we want to keep the momentum going, continue to attract new members, and promote our industry to organisations and employers.

For this, my first ever Christmas President’s report I wanted to share this...

It’s quite hard to find good technical communicator humour (I wonder what that says about us!). If you have any good jokes, memes, cartoons, or whatever, please share. Don’t forget we have a Facebook page and a Slack account.

A reflection on my first six months as President

Reflecting on my first (nearly) 6 months in this role it’s certainly been a busy and challenging time. I always get a lot back from TechCommNZ and I want to ensure that all our members continue getting value from our organisation. We’ve done a lot this year – including our incredible Collaborate conference in April – and taken on some new challenges as well, from joining iTX 2018 to instigating Student Outreach, to reinstating our Hamilton branch. Next year we want to keep the momentum going, continue to attract new members, and promote our industry to organisations and employers. We’re always on the lookout for new ideas, so if you’re inspired share that inspiration via email, Slack or on our social media pages.

Thanks to all our volunteers, members, sponsors, and business partners

I’d like to say a great big THANK YOU to everyone who has been involved with TechCommNZ this year. Our hardworking Board, workshop organiser Steve Moss, conference team, especially Kaye Churches, branch coordinators, presenters, sponsors, business partners, and of course our members. You are all fantastic and I appreciate everything you do.

Louisa Eades: Winner, Best Plain English Technical Communicator 2017

Congratulations to Louisa Eades from Streamliners on winning the Best Plain English Technical Communicator at the Plain English Awards 2017. What a great achievement Louisa! We’re really proud of you. Well done to all the other winners and finalists.

Salary survey 2017

Our 2017 salary survey is now live. Over 70 responses already! This is a great resource for members and for our organisation so please take 10 minutes to complete it. Everyone who completes the survey before noon on December 20 goes in the draw to win a one of three $100 Prezzy cards.

Collaboration with The Australian Society for Technical Communication (ASTC)

Our Vice President Kaye recently attended ASTC’s conference in Sydney as a TechCommNZ representative and guest of ASTC. Kaye reported the ASTC conference was extremely well planned with some great local and international speakers. Our very own Grant Mackenzie presented a very popular session on creating content with phones.

Kaye and Grant also attended an ASTC committee meeting and started discussions with ASTC around having more collaboration between our organisations. This is a positive step for both organisations; we can look forward to bringing in more overseas presenters and sharing our resources and knowledge. I look forward to updating you on progress next year.

What’s happening in 2018?

While 2018 is not a conference year for us, it still promises to hold a lot of events and excitement. We kick off the year with a fantastic Plain language webinar series, presented by Shelly Davies. Those of you who have heard Shelly speak at our 2017 conference or on other occasions will know this is a something not to be missed. We are really excited to have Shelly bring her energy and skills to our organisation.

Other webinars and workshops are in the pipeline and will be announced early in the New Year.

Of course the other excitement for 2018 is the iTX conference. This is going to be a great event for anyone working in the IT space or in technical communication, project management, or similar areas. TechCommNZ is running a one-day conference stream, and we are planning some awesome speakers. The great thing about this conference is the huge number of streams and you don’t have to make up your mind until the last minute about which presentations you want to attend. I suggest you make plans to go to iTX in July.

So that’s all from me this year. I’m looking forward to a decent break from work, some trips to the beach with the kids, and a regular intake of gin and tonics on the patio. I hope you all have a fantastic summer no matter what your plans are.

Happy Holidays and Meri Kirihimete

Meredith Evans