TechCommNZ President Meredith Evans with Steve Moss, Winner of the 2018 Excellence in Technical Communication Award.
Editor’s Note: This article was written by TechCommNZ President Meredith Evans. Enjoy !
In New Zealand, technical communicators are thriving, but there are still many industries and companies that have no idea of what we do or the value we can bring. It’s the role of organisations like TechCommNZ (the Technical Communicators Association of New Zealand) to help change that.
What is TechCommNZ?
TechCommNZ is a professional association for technical communicators, based in New Zealand.
Established in 2007, TechCommNZ strives to represent those involved in any area related to technical communication, information design, editing, proofreading, quality assurance, or documentation. We recognise that our members have a wide variety of roles and responsibilities, with many branching out into related areas such as user experience, business analysis, instructional design, and training.
But we’re not just about promoting the industry and those who work in it. We also provide learning and upskilling opportunities and the ever-important networking and socialising.
What do we do?
TechCommNZ is a New Zealand-wide organisation, but a large proportion of our members live in one of the three main centres: Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and Hamilton. Each of these centres maintains an informal ‘branch’ with activities such as speakers, dinners, and catch-ups. These are usually held outside of working hours, with Christchurch (in the South Island of New Zealand) currently being the most active branch. We also welcome members from outside New Zealand too.
Professional development
A core function of TechCommNZ is to provide professional development for members. We normally facilitate at least two workshops and four webinars each year. Prices to attend are kept as low as possible for members, but non-members are welcome to attend too (at a higher cost!). We’re always on the lookout for interesting topics and presenters, so if you have an idea for a webinar, or even a workshop, get in touch with me by email thepresident@techcomm.nz. Webinars are normally held at a time that suits New Zealand and Australian members (morning Australian Eastern Standard Time) but if you miss the live webinar you can watch it later at a time that suits.
Conference
Over the past few years, TechCommNZ has held a biennial conference, which moves around the three main centres. However, in 2019 we’re very excited to be taking our conference to the Tauranga region, located in the gorgeous Bay of Plenty. We normally have between 60 and 90 delegates at our conferences. In 2018, we took part in a huge information technology conference called ITx. TechCommNZ was proud to host a one-day stream at this conference and present Steve Moss, one of our members, with an Excellence in Technical Communication award at the Gala dinner.
You can read about our 2019 conference here.
How we work
Keeping TechCommNZ thriving takes a bit of work. Our Board consists of nine people from New Zealand, and we meet mostly by Zoom (remote meeting). We try to meet in person at least twice a year. We are mostly a volunteer-run organisation.
I hope you enjoyed reading about our organisation TechCommNZ. If you have questions or just want to chat about technical communication in New Zealand, I’d love to hear from you. You can contact me at thepresident@techcomm.nz or read more about TechCommNZ on our website.
Thank you for reading, we hope you found this article insightful.
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