STC’s Technical Communication Summit is the premier conference for technical communication education and networking.
The annual conference attracts over 600 attendees, industry partners, and sponsors during a 4-day period and brings together like minded individuals to grow in their knowledge of the technical communication field.
The Technical Communication Summit & Expo is an in-person event. All Summit activities will be held at the Hyatt Regency in Atlanta, GA.
Many factors contribute to the decision to be an in-person verses a fully virtual or a hybrid event. First, we received a lot of feedback that people miss the in-person conference experience. Second, the cost of cancelling our contract with the hotel would exceed $300,000. At the beginning of 2020, some hotels and venues were willing to make concessions based on the status of the pandemic. However, with rising vaccination rates and the latest scientific information about COVID, many hotels are now unwilling to waive such terms in contracts.
The STC Summit will offer more than 60 concurrent sessions between Sunday and Wednesday. Creating and formally supporting any fully virtual or hybrid meeting of STC’s size is more complicated than using a laptop and locating a Wi-Fi signal. It involves equipping every in-person session room with microphones, speakers, projectors, screens, video cameras, and computers. In addition, a paid technician and additional staffing resources would be needed to run a virtual platform and operate the equipment in each session room. Internet access, which is managed and controlled by a contracted firm at the venue, must also be purchased to wire each room with sufficient bandwidth to host video streaming. The total cost of making the Summit fully hybrid would more than double the cost of a typical Summit, and those costs would be passed along to attendees via increased registration rates. Beyond cost, bandwidth capabilities at the hotel are simply not sufficient to support a virtual conference of our size and STC does not have the personnel or volunteer resources to run two Summit events (in-person and virtual) concurrently.
STC does provide multiple virtual events throughout the year for those individuals interested in online-only professional development opportunities.
STC is monitoring the guidelines from the State of Georgia, the CDC, as well as the hotel. STC will provide Summit attendees with a comfortable and safe conference environment. This includes how education session rooms are set, how food and beverage items are served, and the cleaning policies of the hotel. The pandemic remains a fluid situation that continues to change, and we appreciate attendee understanding as we adapt to the policies and procedures in response to changing conditions. STC will post updates and send direct communications to all Summit registrants. For full Covid-19 considerations and requirements, please refer to the Policies page.
Individuals from all over the world and from all different backgrounds attend the STC Summit! And it’s not just technical writers who attend—project managers, consultants, content architects, web managers, professors, students, content strategists, communications professionals, content developers, illustrators, usability managers, policy writers, user advocates, and business owners and consultants are just some of the many people you’ll meet at the Summit.
The STC Summit has been one of the more affordable technical communication in-person events for many years. With over 60 education sessions, a comfortable and convenient hotel location, as well as all-inclusive rates for receptions and other social and networking events, the STC Summit is well worth the price of admission. For 2023, we plan to have an equal number of educational sessions and events, as well as some exciting offerings to provide to all attendees, such as catered lunches. Like all associations, STC is faced with economic factors that all event hosts are experiencing because of the pandemic.
For all in-person meetings, the cost per attendee is going up. In fact, it’s up about 25% more this year than it was pre-pandemic, and it’s probably going to continue to rise next year by another 7%. These were among the topline results related to meetings and events of the 2023 Global Business Travel Forecast, released last week by travel management company CWT and the Global Business Travel Association. This is no surprise, as prices on everything from airfare to hotel rates to food and beverage have been soaring as pent-up demand is fueling a return to in-person events.
The forces driving the increases in meeting costs also shouldn’t be much of a surprise due to overall inflation, supply-chain challenges, and staffing shortages across the board. Food and beverage catering prices, always a contentious cost center, has soared along with the general inflation consumers are seeing in their grocery aisles. In fact, the average catering spend per attendee is up 120% for food and 70% for beverage from just two years ago. The report said not to expect these costs to come down much any time soon, citing the ever-increasing attendee expectation that they can have their choice of vegan, vegetarian, keto, etc., special dietary needs or preferences met. Other factors that likely will continue for the foreseeable future is the increasing interest in sustainable food supply chains and the move away from plated meals to self-serve stations.
Hotel average daily room rates also are climbing rapidly to record highs, driven by a surge in leisure travel demand. As group business continues to pick up, expect to see global ADR to rise by 18.5%, compared to 2021 levels, and go up another 8.2% in 2023. While rates in North America and Europe are already up 22% and 31.8%, respectively, the rest of the world should catch up shortly, with global hotel rates eclipsing 2019 levels in 2023, according to the forecast. But don’t think hotels are just getting greedy now that demand is back: Remember that costs, especially for staffing, also have risen dramatically since 2019.
With these facts in mind, we believe we have priced the 2023 Summit at a very competitive rate compared with similar 2022 and 2023 events. We want every attendee to feel as though the event is worth more than they paid. If you are experiencing an economic hardship, please contact summit@stc.org to request accommodation.
All cancellations and/or transfers must be submitted in writing via email to summit@stc.org. Total fees paid are for any conference registration ticket or preconference workshop.
Cancellations received by 30 December 2022 (5:00PM ET) will be receive a 75% refund of total fees.
Cancellations received 31 January 2023 (5:00PM ET) will receive a 50% refund of total fees.
Cancellations received 28 February 2023 (5:00PM ET) will receive a 25% refund of total fees.
No refunds are available after 5:00PM ET on 28 February 2023.
A registration ticket or preconference workshop attendance may be transferred to another person with a $75 USD administrative fee. The fee is due at the time of the transfer request. Transfers must be received by 28 April 2022 (5:00PM ET).
Contact the main STC office at +1 (571) 366-1914 or via email and we will gladly add any workshops to your original registration.
The STC Summit is an excellent place to network and collaborate with other practitioners, students, faculty, and researchers working in technical communication and other related fields. Here are some tips for first-time attendees:
- We encourage attendees to stay at the hotel venue to be close to the action all day! (STC’s room block closes in April.)
- Use the conference app. It is an excellent source of information and a networking tool.
- Plan to attend all the networking events:
- All the education sessions (you already have something in common with the person sitting next to you).
- Say hello to people during the refreshment breaks.
- Attend all receptions included in your registration.
- Participate in an optional local social event.
- Dress to be comfortable, but remember you’ll be in large meeting rooms with air conditioning. Bring a sweater and/or jacket.
For more details, download the First Time Attendee presentation.
- Using the conference mobile app that will be released a few weeks before the Summit you can find out who is attending the Summit before arriving onsite. Plan your daily schedule and reach out to a few people ahead and schedule a time to meet with them during the conference.
- Use the app to find out which companies have people attending the conference – either as speakers, attendees, or industry partners. If you see a company or specialty area of technical communication that you’d like to know more about, you can talk to employees and subject matter experts at the social events or refreshment breaks.
Every session will have a great quantity of information to share – listen and take notes! If you have a question during a presentation, make a note of it and use it as a conversation starter with the speaker. After or during a session, feel free to tweet about it with the hashtag #STCSummit so others can learn tidbits from the sessions, even if they couldn’t attend.
Yes, attendance at the Summit provides 8 CEUs toward CPTC currency. CEUs apply only to those who are certified; they cannot be counted retroactively.
Most likely, you can. We know that the Project Management Institute (PMI) has approved PDUs for both Summit attendees and speakers in the past. Check with the certifying organization to be sure.
Yes, all Summit attendees are required to comply with the STC Summit Code of Conduct.