Session Types and Audience Levels

Presentations, Tutorials, Workshops, Foundation, Practitioner, Expert

Presentation (50 minutes)

Practical, solution-focused sessions that are both educational and engaging. A presentation can be a case study, research report, or informational session about a primary topic of interest. The session may include a successful design approach, management effort, or technology implementation.  Presentations should be targeted for one of the audience experience levels.
Accepted presentations are required to submit a corresponding paper for the Summit Proceedings.

Tutorial (50 minutes)

Tutorials are for people seeking step-by-step instruction on how to perform a specific task or set of tasks. Tutorials are often used when teaching a process, workflow, or tool so that learners can hear an explanation of what is occurring while watching a demonstration of the steps taken to accomplish each task. Tutorials should be targeted for one of the audience experience levels.

Preconference Workshop (Half or Full Day)

Preconference workshops are for people seeking a more in-depth learning experience on a  specific topic prior to the Summit education sessions. There are two workshop options:
  1. Half-day workshops are 3.5 hours long. There are both morning and afternoon workshops.
  2. Full-day workshops are 7 hours long, with a break for lunch.
Technology talks should cover:
  1. In what context is it appropriate
  2. How participants can use it
  3. Real world examples

All sessions must be informative and not a commercial or endorsement for a specific product.

All Tool presentations must include:
  1. How the tool applies to technical communication.
  2. Realistic examples of how technical communicators might apply the tool or technology.
  3. Please, no hype or marketing presentations. We encourage vendors who wish to deliver marketing-oriented presentations to contact Stacey (Stacey.ODonnell@stc.org) about a Summit sponsorship package.

Audience Experience Levels

STC Summit attendees span a range of experience levels. Sessions will be tailored to one of the following levels:
  1. Foundation: The content is introductory (for example, “101 level”) and suitable for all skill or knowledge levels. Beginner to three years of experience.
  2. Practitioner: Attendees are proficient with the topic, but will learn new and challenging material. 3 to 7+ years of experience.
  3. Expert: The material is suitable for attendees who have advanced knowledge or job responsibilities (such supervisor or manager). 10+ years of experience.
For the Summit Tracks, see Summit Tracks and Topic Ideas.