July/August 2004
Our Special Event
In June, the Berkeley STC chapter had an evening gathering in addition to our regular monthly meeting. Shlomo Perets, founder of the consulting company MicroType, gave a presentation about publishing with Adobe Acrobat. His presentation was well-attended and well-received. We saw many people who don't normally come to chapter meetings, and I have been wondering why.
The Acrobat training session was different from the regular meeting in several ways. For one thing, it followed a different schedule. We held it on a different day of the week. We started later, and did not include a meal. There was a single price for everyone, members and non-members, and of course no distinction between those who came for dinner and those who came for the meeting only.
And as far as I know, Perets was our first guest speaker to be a visitor from another country.
We also publicized the event differently. We called it a "special event." We have two mailing lists, and the announcement went to both of them. (There is overlap between the lists, so I apologize to those people who received all my messages twice.) We passed the word to the Region 8 Director-Sponsor and also to the other five Northern California chapters. We put a notice prominently on the chapter's Web site.
The subject matter--Adobe Acrobat--is a tool that is used by most tech writers, so there was no need to introduce the product. Instead, Shlomo could address more technical issues related to Acrobat.
Three dozen people attended the June event, at least twice the number we have had at regular monthly meetings this year. What made the difference.
If you were one of the attendees--or if you wanted to go but couldn't make it--what drew you? Was the schedule more convenient for you? Did you know Shlomo by reputation? Did you receive the publicity, whereas you don't usually hear about the Berkeley chapter's monthly meetings? Was the topic itself or the expert-level information a deciding factor?
The Berkeley chapter's leadership is trying to find ways to get more members aware of and involved in chapter activities, even as attendees. The answers to these questions will help us make the events we put on of more use to more people. Please e-mail me if you have thoughts to share on the matter.
Joe Devney
President
