Before the 2019 November on-campus meeting, the TCLoc Team took a trip to Stuttgart for the annual tcworld conference, joining our past, present, and future TCLoc students at this inspiring event.
The tcworld Conference
The tcworld conference is organized by tekom Europe, the largest technical communication association in Europe with over 9,500 members. It takes place in Stuttgart, Germany, every year. The tcworld conference is the largest international event for technical communication in the world, boasting over 4,500 participants as well as over 250 presentations and workshops (in English and in German). Presentation topics cover everything related to technical communication from visual communication and user experience to augmented reality and artificial intelligence.
Speakers at the tcworld conference are all experts in their field and we were happy to see that some of them are also part of our team of instructors. TCLoc’s new instructor for software documentation, Konrad Brust, gave a short, insightful talk about the localization of video games. Shumin Chen hosted a workshop on Simplified Technical English (STE), the subject she teaches for TCLoc. Jordan Stanchev hosted two workshops, “Building Your First Taxonomy for Classification of Software Documentation” and “Visualize It! Creating Graphics and Images in Software Documentation.” TCLoc’s instructor of terminology management, François Massion, gave a presentation on terminology in the age of artificial intelligence. Also, Kirk St.Amant, TCLoc’s usability and user experience design instructor, presented “The Psychology of the User Experience—Approaches to User Testing and Product Design,” which proved to be a conference favorite.
In addition to the numerous presentations at the conference, the tekom fair is also a key point of interest, hosting around 150 software manufacturers and service providers. It is the only trade fair for technical communication worldwide. The conference also welcomes universities that offer bachelor’s and master’s degrees related to technical communication, setting up booths for them to present their programs. This provides the invaluable opportunity for students and educators alike to stay abreast of the most recent developments, standards, and technology in technical communication and related fields. TCLoc, an online master’s program at the University of Strasbourg, is always in attendance.
TCLoc and tekom: Bridging the Gap
This is why the TCLoc Team looks forward to this event every year: tekom and TCLoc have the common goal of bridging the gap between education and industry. tekom organizes this annual event in order to promote and facilitate the exchanging of ideas, research, and technology, thereby driving the industry towards excellence. Conversation and sharing within the industry is necessary to create and maintain standardized best practices in technical communication and related fields. Likewise, communication between industry and education is essential for the proper training and certification of technical communicators.
TCLoc’s founder and program director, Renate de la Paix, also recognized the importance of this, motivating her to create TCLoc, which is the only online master’s program that combines a degree in technical communication and localization with the tekom certification (offered in the technical communication module, which is identical to the TCTrainNet course -professional level- offered by tekom). Graduates of the program are therefore well-equipped with practical knowledge of technical communication as well as its related fields and tools. The program (including the TCTrainNet course) is constantly being updated to stay on top of new developments and technologies in this ever-evolving industry. It’s partnerships like TCLoc and tekom that promote high quality standards in education and the workplace.
Have you been to the tcworld conference? What did you think? Let us know in the comments below and join us next year at the tcworld conference in Stuttgart, Germany, November 3-5, 2020.
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