Read the full writeup on the event by Lynne Wright.

The presentation was held at Star of India Restaurant in Montreal in Montreal on November 29, 2011, and about 20 people were in attendance.

During the evening, Robert covered the following topics:

• Is freelancing right for you?
• Transitioning from employee to freelancer
• Get your accounting ducks lined up
• Consider incorporation
• Some resources to get you started

You can download the audio of the presentation together with the slides.

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Download the Presentation (PDF format, 50 KB)

Download the audio (MP3, 31 MB. Duration: 45 min)

The entire conversation — involving Andy Gural, Radka Losert, Susan Armstrong, and Lynne Wright — was recorded in the spirit of openness and transparency.

It was an open conversation, and a look inside the process that drives STC-Montreal. The discussion is available for you to download below.

Download the audio (MP3, 32 MB. Duration: 33 min)

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The presentation was held at Star of India Restaurant in Montreal in Montreal on October 25, 2011, and about 20 people were in attendance.

Andy spoke for about an hour and a half, including questions and answers. He covered several topics, including:

• It’s best to fully understand the material before you can work out a strategy for expressing it as an effective visual.
• Imagine the infographic as a way to answer a question or to tell a story.
• The adage “a picture is worth a thousand words” is not just hollow rhetoric. It can be much easier to grasp an image than a page of text.

And much more.

You can download the audio of the presentation together with the slides. The audio has been edited for clarity. Some of the Q&A has been edited out as well.

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Download the Presentation (PDF format, 13 MB)

Download the audio (MP3, 35 MB. Duration: 35 min)

Review by Lynne Wright

The quaint Swiss farmhouse ambiance of the venue was a charmingly incongruous backdrop for a pithy and briskly informative guide to creating web content that smoothly delivers viewers to the “conversion” – the sale, download, or request for proposal.

Kirsten Weisenburger, ace copywriter and content strategist, explained how to combine principles of technical and marketing writing, along with an action-oriented structure, to funnel viewers through an easy, logical process that leads them to the end goal.

Download the slides and podcast below.

Key points from the evening’s talk:

• Know your reader. Use the input of the client or product manager to develop one-page portraits of who the target audiences are, and what their needs are. Research what products and brands appeal to them and fit with their lifestyles.
• Research the purchasing process; know what steps are involved in making a sale.
• Use your research to set the tone and feel of the text and graphics, and to map out the consumer’s decision-making process, from the front door to the sale. This will help you structure content and determine what information is required at each step of the conversion process.
• On each page, use content structure and layout to direct the viewer’s attention to where you want it to go. Minimize clutter and use engaging sub-heads to create a visual flow that directs viewers to a clear “call to action”; whether its clicking a Buy Now button, or following links to other pages.
• Keep in mind that people tend to skim web content, and that copy also functions as navigation. Text should be simple, brief, and focused on how the product or service benefits the viewer. A personal, playful tone is universally appealing; densely technical/intellectual content is a turn-off.
• Make it easy for people to get to the “sale”. If you have to include a lot of material, structure it so that top-level content focusses on product benefits and actions that lead to the conversion, with options to drill down into successive levels that provide more detailed information.
• Every on-line experience is basically a quest: the viewer is searching for a particular product, service, or information. Write and structure content to tell a story that follows the narrative of that quest.

Do research to determine what keywords people are searching on; then build those keywords into your content. Google offers a few handy tools:

• Google Keyword Tool
• Google Traffic Estimator

Kirsten defty funneled her audience through an abundance of practical tips and examples of what works and what really, really doesn’t, wrapping things up just in time to make way for a steaming onslaught of fondue and weinerschnitzel.

Converted? Absolutely.

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Download the audio (MP3, 20 MB. Duration: 40min)

Jim spoke for about an hour and a half, including questions and answers. He covered the following topics:

• A discussion of ePub readers
• The physiology of ePub files, and how to create them by hand
• A discussion of commercial tools for production of ePub files
• An overview of the process of selling and distributing ebooks.

You can download the audio of the presentation together with the slides. The audio has been edited to remove the live demonstrations of ePub readers and standalone iPad applications. Some of the Q&A has been edited out as well.

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Download the Presentation (PDF format, 1.8 MB)

Download the audio (MP3, 33 MB. Duration: 42min)

In this podcast, Laura Jaffrey interviews a panel of digital world consultants who are working on the nexus of virtual worlds and business communication. Together, they explore how businesses leverage virtual worlds as a platform for both learning and technical communication, with numerous examples.

Duration: 23 minutes

Download the Podcast

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Direct download (MP3, 21 MB)

The Panel

Kim Kerr, President and Managing Director of the The Red Divas (division of 1366196 Alberta Ltd) has helped organizations like TELUS Mobility, The Absolute Group, and Diamond Management & Technology Consultants, to leverage Facebook, Second Life and other applications. The Red Divas provide consulting, marketing, branding, sales and concierge services for 3D worlds and social networking applications and are the marketing and sales company for B3D, ECMedia, and Proven Corp. Kim has twenty-five years of experience in information computer technology, sales and marketing, social media and 3D virtual worlds, achieving positive results from her commitment to building long term relationships with clients, suppliers and strategic alliances.

Dan O’Shea is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania (B.A), George Washington University (M.S.A) and Fordham University School of Law (J.D.), and is currently advising ECMedia, Inc., Green Grotto Studios, B3D Media, Inc., Proven Corporation Co., Ltd., and The Red Divas on 3D virtual world development and expansion in the education and training market. He has advised the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center on creation of a proposed global online continuing medical education program, Clark College (near Portland, Oregon), where he is developing a new leadership training program, and is currently advising the Akribis Group on international expansion. An arbitrator in private practice, he teaches in graduate programs at the University of Phoenix, the Thunderbird School of Global Management, and Henley-Putnam University.

Marc Girolimetti, Founder of Green Grotto Studios, has created a successful 3D world presence for Playboy Enterprises, Warner Brothers, Digital Influence Group and RatePoint, games for FedEx, product presentations for IntraLinks, a sales tool for Alienware, as well as helping small businesses like The Bluebird Cafe, Mark trucking and Rigging, and 3DPetPortraits. Prior to founding Green Grotto Studios, Marc also worked with Invista, DuPont, BestBuy, Microsoft, EMC, Dell, Adobe, Symantec, Fidelity Investments, The Boston Red Sox Foundation, Aids Action Committee, The Boston Food Project, The Boston Foundation for Sight and The Boston Medical Center. Marc, a graduate of Babson College, is currently teaching a course on Second Life to MBA students at Babson College and will soon be leading undergraduates at Boston University in a course on entrepreneurship.

Music: Twink by A Trillion Barnacle Lapse