atw: Momentous: Conference 2009 -- ASTC and PLAIN

Greetings,

I am writing to you as president of the Australian Society for Technical 
Communication NSW Inc.
I want to alert you to something momentous that is going to happen in October 
this year: ASTC(NSW) has joined forces with the Plain English Foundation to 
bring you the seventh international PLAIN conference - 'Raising the Standard'.

PLAIN is the international association 'Plain Language International'

This will also be ASTC's 20th annual conference - an occasion of note in its 
own right.

The conference will see all of the leading international luminaries on plain 
language, clear communication and usability assemble in Sydney.
The main theme, as the title suggests, will be establishing standards for plain 
language.

Folks, the plain truth is that you can't afford to miss this. And it's not 
expensive either. Pricing and registration details follow and if you're 
interested there's some detail about the speakers and topics.

PRICES and REGISTRATION

There is an early bird and it _will_ catch the worm.
But the worm turns on August 7th ...

$400 will buy you entry to the main conference before 07/08
You'll save fifty bucks if you're an ASTC member: $350 buys you entry to the 
main conference if you're a member of ASTC (NSW or Vic) or PLAIN.
Here's my plug: now is a really good time to become a member of ASTC (or renew 
your membership).

After August 7th you'll be paying $495; or $400 if you're an ASTC or PLAIN 
member.
Even so, it's really good value.

Registration is at: 
http://www.plainenglishfoundation.com/Registration/tabid/3273/Default.aspx
To join ASTC (and fight the good fight) go to: 
http://www.astcnsw.org.au/members/join.asp?item=Members


PRESENTERS and TOPICS
There will be a particularly strong international presence, with 40 speakers 
from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Holland, 
Sweden, Portugal, Finland, Malaysia and New Zealand, along with 30 speakers 
from Australia.

The full program will be available later in July but here is a sample.


General program

- Industry-specific seminars: in government, health, law and finance.
- Major developments in the profession: the push towards standards, 
accreditation and professional training.
- Issues in communication: the relationship between plain language, information 
design, usability and technical communication.
- Translation: developing documentation for multilingual and second-language 
audiences.
- Communication and the law: the regulation of communication in South Africa, 
Holland, Sweden, the United States and New Zealand.
- Tools of the trade: practical workshops on form development, document 
evaluation, legal drafting and document design.
- Measuring effective communication: the latest software and methods for 
evaluating readability, usability and document impact.
- Showcasing success: case studies of communication projects in finance, 
government, law and information technology.
- Technical tips and tools: practical sessions on making the most of software 
such as Microsoft Word and Adobe.

Major international speakers
The full program will be available later in July, but some of the international 
speakers include:

Dr Annetta Cheek (USA), who has been at the centre of successful lobbying for 
the upcoming plain language laws in the United States.

Martin Cutts (UK) from the Plain Language Commission, author of 'The Oxford 
Guide to Plain English' and several books on legal language.

Wessel Visser (Netherlands), who will present BureauTaal's 'Texamen' tool, a 
major new online document evaluation system that will soon be available for the 
English language.

Frances Gordon (South Africa) from Simplified Communications, who will talk 
about the challenges of applying the South African credit laws in a 
multilingual environment.

Anne-Marie Hasselrot (Sweden) from the Swedish Ministry of Justice, who will 
outline the Swedish model for clear communication.

Lynda Harris (New Zealand), founder and director of Write Limited, New 
Zealand's leading business-writing company and home of the WriteMark, New 
Zealand's document quality mark.

Sandra Fisher-Martins (Portugal), who speak about the relationship between 
communication disciplines such as a plain language, information design and 
technical communication.

Aino Piehl, researcher and EU language specialist in the Research Institute for 
the Languages of Finland, co-author of two handbooks for writers of official 
texts and a guidebook for officials producing texts for translation.

Christine Mowat (Canada), President of Wordsmith Associates, Canada's largest 
and longest running communication consultancy.

Bill Lutz (United States), author of Doublespeak and former Professor at 
Rutgers University, who is currently running the plain language program for the 
Securities Exchange Commission in the United States.

In addition to these overseas presenters there will be some thirty presenters 
from Australia.
The ASTC has sourced and is fielding a number of speakers to create what 
amounts to a dedicated technical communication stream within the conference. 
There is also a significant component to the conference on writing for 
translation.

Hope to see you there

Bede Sunter
President ASTC(NSW)





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