Note: This event is not sponsored by STC-Montreal. Please contact the event organizers for more details.

Helpless Doorknobs & Other Dramatic Considerations

Written by the Playwrights of the QWF Round Table

Atwater Library Auditorium
Thursday, May 20th
7:30 p.m. Admission free.
Doors open at 7:15 p.m.

Quebec Writers Federation
qwf.org

Note: This event is not sponsored by STC-Montreal. Please contact the event organizers for more details.

The American Medical Writer’s Association (AMWA) invites you to Voice of Experience, our next exciting networking meeting on Thursday, May 13th at 7:00 pm.

Members and non-members are both welcome to this roundtable discussion with a panel of experienced freelance medical writers to help new or aspiring writers, or for freelancers who could use a little mentoring to get on track. We will be sharing our tips and best practices to help you reach your goals to become a successful freelance medical writer. Feel free to invite your friends and colleagues who may be interested. Of course employers looking for freelancers or employees are always welcome!

Some of the topics we will discuss:

• Examples of how to structure your freelance business including whether you should set up a formal company (individual, incorporate), collect GST and PST, etc
• Finding clients in Canada or the US by marketing through direct mail or via the internet & social media etc
• How to let clients find you including advertising on AMWA Canada, AMWA.org, other sources.
• Should you set up a website?
• Keeping clients happy and coming back to you
• Any other questions you may have for the panel

Panel composed of: Bruce Wilson, Lara Holmes, Peter MacMillan, and Crystal Kaczkowski

Please RSVP to medicalwriter [at] videotron [dot] ca by 12 pm on Tuesday, May 11th so we know how many chairs to tell the restaurant to set up, but note that you will not necessarily receive a confirmation reply.

We were at this restaurant a few years back and it has its own private room upstairs so will be more conducive for discussion that our last few meetings.

Le Caveau Szechwan
6000, ave. de Monkland
N.D.G.
Montreal, H4A 1G8
Tél. 514.488.2818

(Ask for AMWA reservation)

Crystal Kaczkowski
Freelance Medical Writer/Copywriter
514-585-3077
medicalwriter [at] videotron [dot] ca
www.medwrite.ca

Note: This event is not sponsored by STC-Montreal. Please contact the event organizers for more details.

With the recent launch of Creative Suite 5, Adobe is offering free training to orient users with the new features in CS5.

“Join us for the official launch of Adobe Creative Suit® 5 and see how Adobe is revolutionizing creative workflows to allow publishers, designers and marketers to create, deliver and optimize beautiful high-impact digital experiences across media and devices.

“This half-day seminar will take you on an exciting tour of Creative Suite® 5’s amazing new features, workflow efficiencies and creative enhancements.”

Montréal Seminar
Date: May 12, 2010
Registration: 8:30 AM
Seminar: 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM

Location:
Holiday Inn Montréal Midtown
420 Sherbrooke Ouest
Montréal, Québec H3A 1B4

The seminar will be presented in English. There is no charge to attend this seminar.

Note: This event is not sponsored by STC-Montreal. Please contact the event organizers for more details.

STC-Montreal members can take advantage of discounted rates for workshops at the Editors Association of Canada 2010 national conference: Editing Content and Culture.

The EAC national conference is three days of lectures and workshops from May 28 through May 30, 2010 at the Grande Bibliothèque in downtown Montreal. You can learn valuable stylistic skills and network with other writers, editors, and translators. The EAC is offering discounts on all pre-conference workshops (English and French) held on Friday, May 28, 2010.

Pre-Conference Workshops

The list of pre-conference workshops follows below. See the conference website for full details on the entire conference.

Eight-step Editing (with Elizabeth d’Anjou)

This workshop focuses on one crucial goal: improving readability. It breaks the editorial process down into a series of tasks, each of which makes a text more accessible and appealing to readers. If you’re an editor, whatever your experience level (from novice to expert), this seminar will help you develop a systematic approach and identify functions you may have been performing only intuitively. If you’re a writer, or if you create documents of any kind as part of your work, the eight-step process will give you techniques for improving your own texts. Come and find out why this workshop, created by long-time EAC member Jim Taylor, is a perennial favourite in corporate and government communications departments as well as in EAC branches across the country.

Elizabeth d’Anjou has 18 years’ experience as a freelance editor with a diverse clientele, from trade and educational publishers to government departments to non-profit agencies. She is also an instructor in Ryerson University’s Publishing Certificate program. An expert in plain-language editing and translating jargon into accessible prose, she uses the techniques taught in eight-step editing every day.

Estimating: The Key to Making Money (with Jennifer Latham)

This three-hour workshop for in-house and freelance editors focuses on costing a job, developing a realistic workplan, and preparing fair and accurate estimates. This workshop will help in-house and freelance editors learn the standard practices, tips, and strategies for breaking down a job according to task, costing out each task, tracking your estimating accuracy and including terms and conditions in your contract to avoid “getting burned” by unexpected costs. Bring your calculator and be prepared to do some number crunching.

Jennifer Latham is the past president of the Editors’ Association of Canada. She worked for many years as a full-time freelance editor offering editing, writing, and project management services to government and private sector clients. As for estimating, the bane of every editor’s existence, she almost enjoys writing the estimate more than doing the job. She is happy to report that she has never lost her shirt on an estimate and equally happy to share her tried and true practices for preparing accurate estimates. Jennifer is currently the Director of Editorial Services with the Office of the Auditor General of Canada.

Tour de la question: la révision de A à Z (avec Louise Saint-André)

Ah, la révision : que d’incertitudes, que de questions! Quoi corriger et comment? Où commencer, jusqu’où aller? Combien de temps allouer? Applique-t-on la norme ou suit-on l’usage? Doit-on imposer la nouvelle orthographe? Que penser de la féminisation? Où trouver réponses aux nombreuses questions qui assaillent le réviseur?

Si ces sujets vous intriguent, venez faire le tour de la question. Cet atelier vous renseignera sur les principes de base de la révision, sur les pièges les plus fréquents, sur des ouvrages connus et méconnus. Il vous permettra aussi d’aborder en groupe certains sujets délicats : les rectifications orthographiques, par exemple.

Titulaire d’une maîtrise en éducation, Louise Saint-André exploite une entreprise de révision à Ottawa depuis 1991. Sa clientèle variée, tant publique que privée, lui offre un vaste panorama de la révision. Communicatrice dynamique, elle anime des ateliers de formation en entreprise et au Service de formation professionnelle de l’Université d’Ottawa.

Initiation à la recherche de clients (avec François Gauthier)

En assistant à ce séminaire, vous apprendrez comment vous lancer en affaires, comment dénicher des clients, combien de clients il vous faut, les cinq étapes de l’obtention d’un premier mandat et comment garder vos clients.

Note : M. François Gauthier nous fournira ces informations du point de vue de la profession de traducteur en adaptant quand même sa présentation au contexte de la révision.

François Gauthier a pratiqué comme traducteur, réviseur, réviseur-terminologue et cadre au Bureau de la traduction du gouvernement fédéral où il a notamment participé à la mise en place de Termium en 1977. Il a ensuite été chef de service à l’Office de la langue française, puis a dirigé les services linguistiques de Téléglobe Canada avant de passer au cabinet de traduction Multiscript/La Langagerie comme vice-président marketing et responsable des projets spéciaux. Depuis 1990, il travaille à son compte, servant une diversité de clients pour lesquels il traduit des textes administratifs, techniques et même littéraires. Il est aussi très actif à l’Ordre des traducteurs, terminologues et interprètes agréés du Québec où il est actuellement président du Groupe de travail sur la valorisation des professions et responsable du sondage biennal sur la tarification et les salaires.

Rates

The Quebec/Atlantic-Canada branch of the Editors’ Association of Canada has made its pre-conference seminars on Friday, May 28 available to the STC at its discounted membership rate. The cost for members for full-day seminars including lunch and coffee breaks is $160, instead of $220 for non-members. The cost for half-day seminars including refreshments is $90, instead of $120 for non-members. The pre-conference workshops are fully described on the conference website.

Registration is now open. Register today!

For more information, contact Wendy Gokhool at wendygokhool [at] hotmail [dot] com Note: Those STC members who wish to attend must forward their membership ID numbers with their registration.

Note: This event is not sponsored by STC-Montreal. Please contact the event organizers for more details.

Haiku Creativity with Emiko

Offered by the Quebec Writers’ Federation in partnership with Haiku Canada and the McGill Institute for Learning in Retirement

When: Saturday, May 22, 1:00 p.m. — 4:00 p.m.
Where: Institute for Learning in Retirement 855 Sherbrooke Street West, 10th floor Montreal, Quebec Workshop
Leader: Emiko Miyashita

In this three-hour workshop with Japanese master poet Emiko Miyashita, you will learn about the world’s shortest and most popular poem form while sipping green tea and enjoying traditional Japanese treats. Miyashita, who writes in both Japanese and English, will give a brief introduction on the origins and fundamentals of the form, then guide you in writing your own haiku. This is not just a workshop for poets. Discover how this three-line, Zen-inspired poem can help you as a writer sharpen your focus, generate new and surprising connections, and teach you that when it comes to words, less is definitely more.

Emiko Miyashita was born in Fukushima, Japan in 1954. A graduate of Doshisha University in Kyoto, she began writing haiku seriously in 1993. She is currently a dojin, a leading member of Ten’i (??), Providence, haiku group lead by Dr. Akito Arima, and also a dojin of Shin (?), Morning Sun, haiku group lead by Dr. Akira O-mine. Since 1997, she has travelled frequently to haiku conferences in Canada, the U.K, the U.S. and India. She is an award winning translator of 10 books and has published two collections of her own haiku. She lives in Kawasaki, Japan.

Space in this workshop is limited to 35 participants.

Workshop fee: $35, which includes green tea and sweets.

For more information, or to register: 514-933-0878 or info [at] qwf [dot] org

Note: This event is not sponsored by STC-Montreal. Please contact the event organizers for more details.

Ten for Ten: Perfecting Our Craft

ISC/SCI Conference and Annual General Meeting

May 26–27, 2010 – Dawson College, Montreal

Make your plans now to attend the 2010 ISC / SCI conference and annual general meeting at Dawson College in the vibrant and cosmopolitan city of Montreal. Please visit our Web site for more details as they become available. We hope you can join us this spring!

Highlights of the coming conference

We are very pleased to announce that Michèle Hudon will be the keynote speaker. Michèle, a past-president of ISC, is internationally recognized for her knowledge of information organization and multilingual systems. Her latest book on thesaurus construction was released last year. We look forward to hearing some of her thoughts on words, communication, and indexing.

We also look forward to a panel on ethics, a presentation on the latest revisions to the ISO guidelines for thesaurus construction, a series of presentations on indexing archival images, a session on profit through innovation, and much more.

Keep your eye on this page to catch the details as they are released!

Call for papers

We are still inviting proposals for presentations on a number of topics. Please see the call for papers for more information, and contact conference co-ordinator Christine Jacobs at cmjacobs [at] johnabbott [dot] qc [dot] ca if you are interested in presenting.

Call for volunteers

It’s never too early to volunteer! Please contact Christine Jacobs if you’d like to help out.

Conference discussion group

A discussion group has been set up on Yahoo! to prepare for the 2010 conference. To subscribe, visit the site, or send an e-mail to isc_conf-subscribe [at] yahoogroups [dot] ca.

Make the most of your visit!

Our conference immediately precedes that of the Editors’ Association of Canada (EAC), which will take place in Montreal from May 28–30. As well, the Quebec chapter of CANSCAIP (the Canadian Society of Children’s Authors, Illustrators and Performers) will be holding a one-day conference at Dawson College on May 30.

And with several events taking place in this city of festivals, you can combine your networking and professional development with some leisure time activities. The Montreal Chamber Music Festival (May 6–29) and the Festival TransAmériques (contemporary dance and theatre – May 27–June 12) keep culture on the front burner for more than a month. Montréal Museums Day, which provides free access to approximately 30 museums, is on May 30, while the Anarchist Bookfair runs May 29–30.

Web site: http://www.indexers.ca/

Note: This event is not sponsored by STC-Montreal. Please contact the event organizers for more details.

PWAC Quebec (pwacquebec.wordpress.com) has lots of great social and professional development events in the works, all of which are free for members and either free or very affordable for non-members.

Speaking about money, our next event is all about the bottom line:

Business writing and the business of writing
Date: Saturday, March 20, 2010
Time: 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Place: Marianopolis College, 4873 Westmount Avenue
Cost: free for PWAC members, $20 for non-members (cash only)
Description: Learn to make a living at writing and how to tailor your content to different target groups.
Presenter: Peter Diekmeyer

Space is limited, so to reserve your place, kindly RSVP if you plan to attend.

And join us in April for some butt-kicking basic training:

Freelancer Boot Camp 2010
Date: Saturday, April 24, 2010
Time: noon to 4 p.m.
Place: Marianopolis College, 4873 Westmount Avenue (click here to view on a map)
Cost: free for PWAC members, $20 for non-members (cash only)
Description: Our annual half-day workshop presents a series of speakers discussing topics that are important to freelancers, such as contract and copyright law, personal organization and business planning.
Presenters: To be confirmed

Space is limited, so to reserve your place, kindly RSVP if you plan to attend.

PWAC Quebec chapter
pwacquebec.wordpress.com
pwacquebec [at] gmail [dot] com

Note: This event is not sponsored by STC-Montreal. Please contact the event organizers for more details.

Join us at the STC Toronto’s Management Day on February 26 to learn three ways to work and communicate more effectively.

Be Agile

Learn some common strategies for integrating documentation activities into the software development cycle from Agile development advocate and coach, Michael Sahota. Doing it faster can mean doing it better.

Consider users

Learn about user‐centred development and how information developers can help to define the user experience. Qualicom Innovation’s User Experience Manager, Stephen Chalastra, will describe how interface design, the user experience, and technical communication fit together.
Improve content through reuse

Learn how to improve your content through reuse, and what to consider when shopping for technology to support your content reuse strategy. Pamela Kostur (Parallax Communications), Bryan Lynn (ThirtySix Software), and Jacques Fauteux (Front Runner Training) combine their content reuse expertise to help you plan your foray into reuse.

Get free software and win prizes!

All attendees will receive a free trial copy of SmartDocs Lite, an MS Word add‐in that integrates the power of content reuse in the Word environment, and will be entered to win one of three content reuse packages, including a content reuse consultation, a full SmartDocs license for one year, and SmartDocs training. Other door prizes include Agile and Lean software process consulting.

STC Toronto Management Day is sponsored by Front Runner Training. For more info and to register, visit the STC Toronto website.

Friday, February 26, 8:30 a.m.‐ 4:30 p.m.
Estonian House, Crystal Ballroom
958 Broadview Avenue, Toronto, ON

Note: This event is not sponsored by STC-Montreal. Please contact the event organizers for more details.

The following are a series of workshops presented by the Quebec Writers’ Federation. Click the titles for more information about each workshop and workshop leader.

Eight-Week Evening Workshops

(Workshop fee: $170, $150 for QWF Members)

Starling Voice/Lyric Ear – A Poetry Workshop

Mondays, 6 to 8 p.m., March 1 to April 19
Led by Peter Richardson

Fiction from Start to Finish

Mondays, 8 to 10 p.m., March 1 to April 19
Led by Saleema Nawaz

Tales for Teens: Writing YA Fiction

Tuesdays, 6 to 8 p.m., March 2 to April 20
Led by Monique Polak and Lori Weber

The Art and Craft of Blogging

On-site four Wednesdays, 6 to 8 p.m., March 3, March 10, April 7 & April 21
Led by Dana Bath

Have I Got a Story for You: The Craft of Writing Short Fiction

Wednesdays, 8 to 10 p.m., March 3 to April 21
Led by Neale McDevitt

Drawing from Life: Memoir and Personal Essays

Thursdays, 6 to 8 p.m., March 11 to April 29
Led by Robyn Sarah

Creative Non-Fiction: The Art of Fact

Thursdays, 8 to 10 p.m., March 4 to April 22
Led by Elaine Kalman Naves

Intensive Workshops

See each workshop for fee

Non-Linear Narratives & Multi-Media Poetics: An Introduction to Electronic Literature

Saturday, March 6 and Saturday March 13, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Led by J. R. Carpenter
Workshop fee: $140

Projecting on the Audience’s Imagination—A Spoken Word Workshop

Saturday, April 10, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday April 17, 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. with an evening performance
Led by Ian Ferrier

Workshop fee: $140

Writing for New Media

Saturday, April 24, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Led by Sam Wendel

Please contact the QWF office to register or for more information.

www.qwf.org

Note: This event is not sponsored by STC-Montreal. Please contact the event organizers for more details.

Maya Assouad, marketing manager for Véhicule Press, will discuss the benefits of marketing on the web at the next event hosted by the Association of English-language Publishers of Quebec.

Is your website doing its job? How can you use your website to its best advantage? Are you finding or creating new ways to market your books using new technology? Do you use social network websites (such as Facebook and Twitter) to market your books? Find out how to combine tradition with innovation and smoothly incorporate new marketing practices.

Schmoozing and coffee from 5 pm on; presentation will begin at 5:30.

Please RSVP aelaq [at] bellnet [dot] ca

Monday, February 22, 2010
5:00 to 7:00 pm
Atwater Library Auditorium
1200 Atwater, Westmount

AELAQ members free
Non-members $10

Note: This event is not sponsored by STC-Montreal. Please contact the event organizers for more details.

For the first time, we will be broadcasting the Israeli FrameMaker User Group meeting (#27), for the benefit of members who are unable to attend in person, and in order to open the event to other users world-wide.

Topics:

• Language-Related Aspects of FrameMaker (brief overview) — Shlomo Perets.
• Localization of FrameMaker Source Files  — Marva Roth, Net-Translators.com. Tips from a translation company on how to make your FrameMaker easier to localize, best practices and pitfalls.

Starting time: 12pm EST, 5pm UTC, 7pm Israel
Duration: approximately 75 minutes

To register, please visit
https://student.gototraining.com/4b34y/register/2503139699677230336

Shlomo Perets, www.microtype.com

Note: This event is not sponsored by STC-Montreal. Please contact the event organizers for more details.

The American Medical Writers Association invites you to an open roundtable discussion – Professional Uses of Social Media (6:30-8:30 pm, Thursday, January 28, Stash Café, Old Montreal)

How many remember the good old CompuServe, AOL, Prodigy or other proprietary dial-up days? 9600-baud modems? Audio couplers? Those ISP services are the rudimentary forms of the social media we use and mostly take for granted today. The AMWA Canada chapter hosts a moderated discussion of some social networking tools/environments in current use.

Especially useful for medical writers are AMWA’s own listserves, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. We’ll also mention the free, self-administered network creation tools Ning and Yahoo Groups.

Bring your own experiences, tips and ideas to share with other medical writers on successfully using social media to enhance your professional context and generate business. Discussion will be moderated by AMWA member Everett Larsen, who also serves as President of STC Montreal.

Where? Our favourite Polish restaurant…

200 Rue Saint-Paul O
Montreal, QC H2Y 1Z9
(514) 845-6611
www.stashcafe.com

Please RSVP to medicalwriter [at] videotron [dot] ca by 5pm, Wednesday, January 27th so I can let the restaurant know how many people to expect.

Any technical questions about the content to be covered should be addressed to Everett Larsen at larsene [at] primelink1 [dot] net.