Spring is definitely on the way, and with it, TCANZ’s October conference: Communicating Change. September’s newsletter showcases two of the brilliant speakers and workshops that we’ll have for you: Nat Janke-Gilman discusses the shift in thought around safety in the workplace in the aftermath of Pike River; and we present Carol Barnum's user experience tune-up workshop.

We also go into TCANZ’s ties with ICT Connect – connecting with our nascent technical communicators while they’re developing their degrees; and this month’s Let’s Tech Communicate has articles on the improvements made to Google Translate, apps to make the writing process easier, the advantages of being a technical writer, and much more!

Also, the early bird prices for registration to the conference end on the 8 ^th of September, so register now if you haven’t already and take advantage of the lower price while you still can.

Rhiannon Davies, Communications Coordinator

From the President

TCANZ President, Steve Moss, reflects on a successful month, and suggests several new membership grades. Please take a look at these and take a few moments to tell us what you think.

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TCs contributing to safer workplaces

As a nation, we Kiwis think of ourselves as being 10 foot tall and bullet-proof. We’re capable of doing anything we set our minds to, and to the devil with the consequences. However when you’re working in a tiny enclosed space in a wind turbine 70+ metres off the ground in high winds, the Kiwi “she’ll be right mate” attitude towards safety could get you or a colleague either badly injured or killed.

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User Experience (UX) Tune-up with Carol Barnum

It is no exaggeration to say that Carol Barnum is a world leader in user experience and information design. She will be a keynote speaker at the TCANZ conference in October, and is also running a half-day workshop - UX Tune-up.

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ICT-Connect: connecting IT professionals with students

We know anecdotally that many technical communicators - at least in New Zealand - discover their profession by happy accident. For this reason among others, we're delighted to announce TCANZ's involvement in ICT-Connect - a nationwide in-school programme that seeks to inspire and educate young people about their future in IT.

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TCs: "factory" workers or knowledge organizers?

In this month's featured Southern Communicator article, Emma Harding draws your attention to Saul Carliner's three-part essay:Three Approaches to Professionalization in Technical Communication.

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Let's Tech Communicate!

Luke Pivac talks about storyboarding for technical communicators, Google’s improving translator feature, and six ways to improve your tech communication career. This and a whole lot more from around the Net!

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From the bloggers

Have you been keeping up with recent blogs? We are very conference-focused this month, as you might expect, with the committee hard at work preparing the best TCANZ conference ever... Emily Cotlier discusses the importance of a really good photo, and Ray Bishop tells us why he always makes the TCANZ conference a priority.

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