From the President
September
Thanks to everyone who contributed a party pitch in August, and congratulations to Jody Winter, who won our draw. We'll be sending Jody one of our The World Needs Way More Technical Writers journals, and presenting some of the best pitches in a future newsletter.
To find out who won the $100 Prezzy Card, take a look at our write-up of the professionalism survey results.
Back to school
TechCommNZ sponsors ICT-Connect, which aims to put ICT industry professionals in front of secondary students and educate them about the interesting and varied opportunities in ICT. Until now, we've been content to limit our involvement to providing modest financial support, but last week I received an SOS from our colleagues at IITP, whose staff coordinate the programme. They needed a speaker for the year 12 class at Christ's College - on Friday. I couldn't say no. I believe in the programme, and I also owe the IITP team, which has been very generous to TechCommNZ - they've given us free exhibition space at their last two conferences.
It did muck up my week, somewhat, but by Friday I had a presentation ready, and off I went. The students listened to my talk, and I learnt a lot from them, so I hope they learnt something from me! I was working on the theory that a small percentage of them would be glad to know they can do tech comm instead of journalism, and the rest might need a technical communicator one day. But I can tell you that Apple users don't get jokes about the Microsoft "blue screen of death"!
I'm more than happy to share my experience, and my presentation (which anyone can easily adapt), with you, if you're interested in getting involved with this excellent initiative. You can register your interest with ICT-Connect here: http://www.ictconnect.org.nz/presenters
Show off your membership of TechCommNZ
Until October, keep paddling the communicanoe,