Bob Annoni, President of the Sales Training Institute of Louisiana, brings an exceptional combination of skills, experience and a solid track record of successes to his clients. He has 24 years of exceptional sales performance, 11 years of sales training experience and 7 years experience building and managing a successful sales team, 20 of those years with a Fortune 500 company.

Bob has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Marketing, a Licensed Practitioner Certification in NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) and ISO 9002 type Certification.

Bernard Aschwanden, Director of Technology and Pu blishing Architecture with Bright Path Solutions, is a recognized publishing technologies expert. He is an Adobe Certified Expert, a Certified Technical Trainer and the author of numerous articles on XML-based publishing and single sourcing.

He presents at conferences and events across Europe and North America. A dynamic and entertaining speaker, he tailors his presentations to the audience and welcomes participation. He is a senior member of the Society for Technical Communication, the incoming President of the Toronto STC and Past President of the Computer Trainers Network. Bernard has helped hundreds of companies implement successful unstructured and DITA-/XML-based publishing solutions.

Rick Bachofner has over 30 years project management experience covering a wide range of projects from application development (SDLC), to conversions and roll-outs, to large scale systems and network conversions and migrations. He is retired from IBM Corporation where he worked in operating systems development in both the Endicott and Poughkeepsie laboratories from 1967 through 1975. Mr. Bachofner then transferred to the marketing division where he was a Systems Engineer from 1975 through 1993. Mr. Bachofner was a Consulting Systems Engineer for the State of Indiana account when he transitioned to retirement in 1993.

In May 1993, Mr. Bachofner founded Bachofner Consulting, Inc. where he serves as both President of the firm as well as a project management consultant. Since 1993, he has managed multiple projects for IBM Thailand, State of Indiana, and SAIC/Entergy.

Mr. Bachofner has a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and PMP certification.

Rahel Anne Bailie is a managing partner with the multidisciplinary Strategy A Consulting Group, a Vancouver, BC consultancy that focuses on the interrelated areas of content management, content development, and human performance management. Rahel brings substantial business and communication experience to her projects, where she and the team concentrate on the requirements and content analysis phases and the associated change management, and assist with preparation for vendor selection.

Rahel is also a principal of Intentional Design Inc. She has many years of experience in the content development and user experience environments, and her perspectives are informed by her experience and studies. A self-identified geek, Rahel is drawn to technology like a moth to flame, and embraces technologies that serve to improve the performance of communication products and the processes to create and maintain them.

Rahel sits on the Management Committee of the international Content Management Professionals Association, and is a founder of the Canada West CM Pros chapter of CM Pros. She is an Associate Fellow of the STC, and holds memberships in UPA and IAI.

Mollye Barrett is the former Director of Content Management at Ken Cook Co. in Milwaukee. Her work includes selecting and implementing an XML Content Management System. In addition, she counsels external and internal clients in best practices for managing all types of written and illustrated information.

Mollye has been a professional writer for over 25 years with experience as a technical writer and publications manager, and a content management and technical communication consultant. She is currently the CMPros Communications Director, Immediate Past President of the Wisconsin Chapter of STC and Assistant Manager of the STC Consulting and Independent Contracting SIG.

Col. Jeffrey A. Bedey is Commander of the Hurricane Protection Office (HPO) in New Orleans, La., a position he assumed on June 1, 2006.

Col. Bedey oversees one of the most massive civil works projects in U.S. history: construction of the federal flood protection system that protects the city of New Orleans and southeast Louisiana. The major focus of this multi-billion dollar project is the rebuilding of flood-control structures damaged during Hurricane Katrina and the construction of new structures and pump stations to protect the area in the future.

Before his assignment to New Orleans, Bedey was the Omaha District Commander and District Engineer, a position he held since July 2004. Prior to his position in Omaha, he was assigned to Quaid-I-Azam University in Islamabad, Pakistan, where he earned a master's degree in defense and strategic studies. Bedey also earned a Master of Science degree in construction management from Colorado State University in December 1991 and a Bachelor of Science degree in construction engineering from Montana State University in March 1983.

Bedey's awards and decorations include the Meritorious Service Medal with Six Oak Leaf Clusters, the Army Commendation Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters, the Army Achievement Medal and a Humanitarian Service Medal.

A native of Hamilton, Mont., Bedey graduated from Hamilton High School in 1978. He is married to the former Amy Zibell, also of Hamilton. The couple has three children.

Joe Beery is US Airways' Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer and held this position at the former America West Airlines. In his role he has primary responsibilities that include overseeing all Information Technology (IT)-related acquisitions and services and facilities management. Beery served as vice president in July 2000 and was promoted to Chief Information Officer in 2001. In the first half of 2004, his responsibilities were expanded to include overseeing corporate real estate, properties and facilities, as well as the company's reservations centers located in Phoenix and Reno, Nevada.

Beery joined America West in 1999 as Senior Director of Business Technology Delivery. In this capacity he was responsible for all new software development and the Year 2000 Program.

Prior to joining America West, Beery worked for Motorola Semiconductor in Phoenix, Arizona. During his ten-year tenure, he held various positions in the computer integrated manufacturing group. Beery led the development and installation of a state-of-the-art manufacturing system in Motorola's largest wafer manufacturing facility in 1994. Before leaving, he was responsible for all factory computer operations in Phoenix and Austin, Texas. Previously, he served as a manufacturing and software engineer at NV Philips in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Beery holds a bachelor's degree in business administration and business computer systems from the University of New Mexico.

Lynda brings 25+ years of both software development and project management experience to the Product Development and Management of Octant's Enterprise Management Suite.

Using her vast business experience, Lynda delivers industry-focused software products that enable highly effective information sharing, increased productivity and strong, long-lasting relationships between users of applications and the value businesses receive from these applications.

Nicoletta Bleiel is the Senior Information Developer with ComponentOne. Nicky has more than 12 years experience in technical communication, writing for products in the media, industrial automation, simulation, and pharmaceutical industries. She has worked in the areas of online help and user assistance, Web design, single-sourcing, usability, e-learning, and knowledge management throughout her career.

Nicky is a Society for Technical Communication (STC) Director-At-Large and has presented talks at WritersUA, as well as STC International and Regional Conferences.

Tim Bombosch, PMP has been a project manager and technical communicator for 10 years. He currently manages a wide range of technical communications projects for Lasselle-Ramsay Information Development Services. Tim is an active member of the Society for Technical Communication, where he has been President of the San Francisco Chapter and is currently a board member of the Management Special Interest Group.

Tim is also involved in the Project Management Institute, where he has taught workshops for his local chapter and at the PMI Global Congress. Before his career in technical communications, Tim completed his PhD at Stanford University, where he taught for 10 years.

After several years of technical writing, proposal writing, and project management, Diane Borgwardt found her true calling in managing writers where she can practice writing and management skills. For the past three years, Diane has worked at Pearson Educational Measurement in Iowa City, IA where she manages the proposal writing group. Previously, Diane worked at CA, a business software company, for 11 years. Diane is also a student at Texas Tech University in their online Technical Communication and Rhetoric PhD program.

Diane has spoken at other national and regional conferences including STC's Annual Conference, IEEE's Midwest Solutions Conference, and she is a frequent speaker for local groups including the Eastern Iowa STC chapter.

Well known in southern California, Sharon Burton has been a technical writer and consultant for nearly 10 years. Sharon is a product evangelist for Madcap Software. She also owns Anthrobytes Consulting, a technical writing outsource company.

Sharon was co-chair for the committee that created the Certificate for Technical Writing program for the University of California, Riverside Extension program. She continues advising the assistant dean and teaches for the program.

Sharon is also active in the Society for Technical Communication, starting the new Inland Empire chapter in California in 1998. Under her direction, the chapter grew from 15 to 55 members in 2 years.

Adrianne P. Bush is the Raytheon St. Petersburg Specialty and Integrated Logistics Engineering Manager within Systems Engineering. Adrianne is also an individual contributor for short term assignments as business needs dictate. Her more recent individual contributions have been proposal management, new business, and various Critical Chain Project Management deployments.

Adrianne has performed various engineering roles throughout her career at Raytheon. Adrianne's previous engineering role was as the Joint Sensor Networking Specialty Engineering Lead. In this position she led a team of engineers from hardware, systems, and product assurance disciplines to execute design, production, and fielded system support tasks. She also fulfilled the role of lead RMA (Reliability, Maintainability, and Availability) engineer for these programs. Adrianne was the first technology management engineer for the U.S. Navy's Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC) program.

Adrianne began her exposure to electrical engineering and the defense industry in an engineering and installation group (EIG) for the US Air Force. She rotated assignments through all the engineering branches of 1839th Engineering Installation Group at Keesler Air Force Base in Mississippi while obtaining her Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Mississippi State University. She currently resides in Florida with her husband and four children.

Michael Cárdenas is President and Founder of Local Concept, a worldwide leader in the creation of localization solutions for global companies.

Local Concept's mission is to help international companies create products and services that fit into any market, region or culture and do so seamlessly.

Michael has invested more than twenty years in the localization business. While the growth and success of Local Concept may be attributed to his vision, it is his volunteer work, his passion, and sense of humor that makes him a dedicated ambassador for the best in standards and practices in the localization industry.

Mr. Cárdenas is active in the Localization Industry Standards Association (LISA), the Computer and Electronics Marketing Association (CEMA), the San Diego Software Industry Council (SDSIC), and the American Translators Association (ATA) and the Society for Technical Communication.

Mr. Carr recently joined the MCS team as a senior consultant on an identified fast-track directly into Project Management. While at MCS, he has actively focused on the qualities associated with documentation and leadership. Well rounded in all areas associated with Technical Communication projects and processes, he focuses on continuously developing his skills associated with group dynamics, organizational behavior and conflict resolution in a team-oriented environment. He also contributes his education and experiences at the University of North Texas, where he teaches advanced technical writing and editing and organizes reality-based projects to give students real-world and real-time experience writing for business and industry.

Robert lectures to various departments on an array of technical communication topics, such as ethics in technical communication, professional proposals, presentation techniques and information architecture for print and the web. He also implements interactive workshops that facilitate team concepts and develop cognitive thinking methodologies.

Travis Christ serves as US Airways' vice president of sales, marketing and distribution. Previously, he was vice president of marketing for the former America West. In his new position he has the responsibility of overseeing the airline's passenger sales, frequent flyer and partner marketing initiatives, electronic distribution including usairways.com, and vacation package business.

Christ joined America West in 1997 as manager of route planning and scheduling. In that capacity he was responsible for maximizing profitability of the airline network through quantitative analysis of schedules and competitive position.

Prior to joining America West Christ held the position of manager of government affairs and senior analyst of route planning and scheduling with Houston-based Continental Airlines. Christ began his aviation career with Dallas-based American Airlines in 1988 and served in a variety of operational and staff support positions with that airline through 1993.

Christ holds an MBA from The American Graduate School of International Management and a bachelor's degree in economics and public policy from George Washington University.

Dr. Chen is a full professor at the University of Management and Technology. She is also the Founder and President of the Yankee Clipper Group, an international training and consulting firm. She has taught at The George Washington University, the International Space University, and Beijing Medical University. Her areas of expertise include: international business management; project management; public administration; public policy; science and technology policy and management; entrepreneurship; and leadership.

Dr. Chen has served on the Certification Committee of the Project Management Institute. In 2004, she was elected to serve a three-year term on PMI’s Board of Directors. She is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP).

Dwight Davis is the lead Principal Consultant in Project Management, Strategic Business Productivity and Human Performance for the Bank of America account at EDS.

With his unique brand of Texas sized enthusiasm Dwight delivers the right message to his audience. He provides the inspiration to set the bar for peak achievement and the nuts and bolts strategies to make project leadership and teamwork become a successful reality.

Dwight has 27 years in IT, Telecom, and DoD Program Management with Fortune 500 corporations. He is a certified (PMP) Project Manager and is also a certified (CPT) in Human Performance Technology with the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI). He has served as a certified trainer and facilitator for Project Management and People Skills courses and workshops throughout the United States and Canada.

Dwight holds a degree in Electro/Mechanical Engineering (BSEME) and an MBA in Human Resources Management and Organizational Development. He has served on the Dallas PMI Chapter board for 4 years and is currently the Vice President of Applied Project Management. Dwight is also the Past President of the DFW chapter of ISPI and maintains active membership with ASTD and SHRM.

Dick Eassom is Vice President of Knowledge Management at SM&A, a competition management and program services consulting firm based in Newport Beach, California. He has over 20 years of project management and over 10 years of proposal management experience. Dick has led or contributed to numerous proposals around the world, and is currently the Chief Operating Officer of the Association of Proposal Management Professionals (APMP).

Dick was inducted as an APMP Fellow in 2004, and was chair of the recent 18th Annual APMP International Conference held in Savannah, Georgia. Dick has presented at many conferences, and writes a regular column for the APMP Perspective magazine, providing Microsoft Word solutions for proposal professionals. Before joining SM&A, he held various positions at GEC-Marconi Communications in the United Kingdom, including marketing communications, new product development and field services.

Kay Ethier is an Adobe Certified Expert and Adobe Certified Instructor in FrameMaker 7.x. She is also a WebWorks University certified trainer. At Bright Path Solutions, Ethier helps clients create a variety of documents: online help, user guides, training materials, aircraft maintenance manuals (among other ATA documents), military documents and more. She helps teams deliver their materials in many formats.

Kay has authored several books, including XML Weekend Crash Course, Advanced FrameMaker and XML and FrameMaker. Her newest book is XML: Problem-Design-Solution, co-authored with Mitch Amiano and two additional XML experts.

In addition to her expertise in publishing, Ethier teaches classes for Bright Path Solutions and partner companies. Teaching experience includes XML and related technologies, DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture), structured authoring, content management, HTML, JustSystems XMetaL, Adobe FrameMaker, Structured FrameMaker and Adobe Acrobat.

Milton Frank is a Project Manager, a Process Engineer, and a Facilitator. Milton served 24 years in the U.S. Marine Corps in five occupational specialties: Airborne Radio Operator/Loadmaster, Career Planner, Drill Instructor, Nuclear-Biological-Chemical Defense Officer and Nuclear-Chemical Weapons Employment Officer. Milton is a Vietnam Veteran and has received two Meritorious Service Medals, the Navy Commendation Medal and numerous other awards for managing projects and processes during his Marine Corps years.

Milton completed a Bachelor of Engineering Technology degree at the University of South Florida, a Master of Business Administration degree at the University of New Orleans and later added an MBA concentration in Technology Management. He achieved Project Management Professional Certification in 2003 and was certified as a Navy Lean Six Sigma Green Belt in 2006. He recently completed the syllabus at the Navy's Lean Six Sigma College in Norfolk, VA, and has become certified as a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt through his employment with the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center New Orleans, located on the grounds of University of New Orleans. Milton has been facilitating Process Working Groups for eight years while employing Lean Six Sigma methodologies and coaching software projects to meet the standards of the Software Engineering Institute's Capability Maturity Model (CMM) and Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI).

Peggy Gerace-Roosa has more than 20 years of managerial experience in the Internet, wireless, telco and contact center industries.

Prior to her current position, she was Director of Service Level and Process Management at EarthLink, where she oversaw the implementation of the ITIL service management disciplines.

Before that, she headed up EarthLink's Operations Documentation, and Acquisitions and Integrations departments, and was Director of Operations at Nationwide Paging, Inc.

Peggy is a freelance writer and a frequent guest speaker at several national technical communications, IT service, and project management conferences.

Bonni Graham has spent 16 years as a practicing technical documentor. In 1994, she started Manual Labour, a technical documentation outsource provider. In 2004, she accepted a position as a documentation manager for Scantron Corporation. Bonni also works extensively with STC. A senior member, she has been involved in nearly every Region 8 conference, has been a deputy chair for the Annual Conference, has served as a local- and international-level publications competition judge, and has served as chapter president and newsletter editor. Her most recent STC projects included serving as Director-Sponsor for Region 8 (California, Nevada, Hawaii, Australia and New Zealand).

Bonni also teaches technical communication to engineers for the Engineering Department of University of California, Riverside and to other technical communicators for the Technical Communication Certificate program at University of California, San Diego Extension.

Emma Hamer BASc, is one of three founding managing partners in Strategy A Consulting Group, based in Vancouver, BC. Her field of practice is human performance improvement, both for individuals and for corporations; her passion is systematically removing obstacles to success. Combining the disciplines of organizational development, training and instructional design, and coaching, Emma brings an eclectic mix of talents to her clients' projects.

Introducing and implementing new systems--whatever their complexity--means changing how people contribute to and use the systems. Matching new tasks to the right people with the right critical skills is a key area of concern. Emma provides change and performance management support during all phases of the selection and implementation process, helping management, contributors and users close the gap between intent and actual impact of the changes. Emma is an internationally active speaker and presenter on change and performance management and leadership challenges. She has presented at regional, national and international events and conferences, and has published many articles about content management projects from the human performance and organizational development perspectives, in a wide range of publications, professional journals, blogs, and e-zines.

Johnette Hassell, PhD is president of Electronic Evidence Retrieval, L.L.C., headquartered in New Orleans, Louisiana. She served on the faculty of Tulane University's School of Engineering for 27 years, serving as Department Chair of the Department of Computer Science and Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Recruitment and Retention.

Dr. Hassell has more than 24 years experience as a national consultant in computer forensics and expert witness in areas ranging from telephony to maritime shipping to manfacturing. She has authored textbooks and numerous journal articles, and provides computer forensics training to attorneys and other legal professionals. An expert in e-discovery, she has lectured widely on the consequences of the newly amended Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

After more than 12 years at Science Applications International Corporation, Judith Herr left her position as Director of Communications and Publications to start her own small business, Well Chosen Words.

Judith delivers her unique mix of education, experience and energy to bridging the gap between highly technical subject-matter experts and targeted audiences. Throughout her career, Judy has gained experience and skills through communication-related positions, including Director of Training and Staff Development for a hospital system, Director of Fund-Raising for a non-profit organization and Mass Media Coordinator for the U.S. Public Health Service.

She has traveled extensively and lived for three years in Belgium and three in Malaysia. Judy, an STC Fellow and Manager of the STC Management SIG, believes fervently in the importance and value of "giving back." She leads pro bono community outreach and literacy projects that benefit from her technical communication and management expertise, including recently taking her church group to help families in the Katrina-ravaged Gulf Coast rebuild their homes.

Judy firmly endorses the notion that with the extraordinary capabilities technical communication managers bring, they are fully prepared to succeed in new career directions.

Brian Hertz, Director of Strategic Business Development at SDL International, is a specialist in globalization and localization. Brian develops multilingual solutions for large corporations supporting key strategic business goals in foreign markets.

Brian's background includes multilingual enterprise content management and translation process. Brian has over 15 years experience working with technical documentation and technology. Brian holds degrees in Technical Communication and Mechanical Engineering. Brian is a member of the Localization Industry Standards Association and the Globalization and Localization Association.

He is also an active member of the Metroplex Technology Business Council, the Society for Technical Communication, the International Association of Business Communicators and the American Marketing Association.

Char James-Tanny has more than 25 years of experience as a technical communicator. She speaks frequently around the world on Help topics, cross-browser issues, tool-specific functionality and concepts, and Web 2.0 topics. Author of two books, she co-authored Managing Virtual Teams: Getting the Most from Wikis, Blogs, and Other Collaborative Tools with Brenda Huettner and Kit Brown.

She is currently secretary of the Society for Technical Communication (STC), a 2007 Microsoft Help MVP, and an AuthorIT Certified Consultant.

Timothy L Johnson, PMP is Chief Accomplishment Officer of Carpe Factum, Inc. (Latin for "seize the accomplishment"). He has almost two decades of experience in project and program management, business solutioning, creativity, executive and management coaching, and strategic facilitation. His clients include Harley-Davidson Motorcycles, Wells Fargo, ITA Group, Teva Neuroscience, Principal Financial Group, Marsh, as well as many small businesses and not-for-profit organizations. He is an adjunct professor in the MBA program at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, teaching classes in Project Management, Creativity for Business, and Managing Office Politics. His first book, Race Through the Forest--A Project Management Fable, was published in 2006. His second book, GUST--The "Tale" Wind of Office Politics, was released on April 13, 2007. He is also a contributing writer on www.office-politics.com, an online advice column for office politics situations, as well as www.iowabiz.com, an online resource for small business owners.

Participants describe Timothy's speaking style as energetic, entertaining, relevant, applicable, informative, and real.

Phylise Banner Klein is an information designer currently working in instructional technology and distance education for the University Without Walls at Skidmore College, where her responsibilities include the direction and implementation of technology initiatives related to Skidmore's adult degree completion program.

Her career in information design with the Federal Reserve in the 1980s allowed for early access to Internet technologies, sparking an interest in hypertext and the integration of technology into teaching and learning.

Throughout her nine-year career at Skidmore, she has worked closely with faculty, staff, students and IT managers to design, develop and deliver technology-based solutions across departments and disciplines. In her current position, she is most passionate about working with faculty to translate their pedagogical approaches into unique online learning environments outside of traditional course management systems.

Working within University Without Walls has offered her the opportunity to experiment with the integration of emerging technologies in order to best serve Skidmore's adult students at a distance, and to create a community of lifelong learners.

She is currently the program manager for the Society for Technical Communication's 54th annual conference, and presents regularly at regional and national technology and communication conferences on the topics of information design, experience design, creative hypertext, Web 2.0 applications, instructional design and GIS technologies.

Her current research focuses on the use of Web 2.0 applications to establish community and visual presence in the online classroom.

R. King Milling is president of Whitney Holding Corporation and the Whitney National Bank in New Orleans, Louisiana and serves on both boards.

In 1962, Mr. Milling earned a Bachelor of Arts from Washington & Lee University, and received his LLB in 1965 from Tulane University in New Orleans.

He started his business career as a legal assistant with the firm of Milling, Saul, Sanders, Benson & Woodward in 1965. He became a partner in the firm in 1968. He retired from Milling, Benson, Woodward, Hillyer, Pierson & Miller in December 1984 to assume his current position at Whitney.

Mr. Milling is a member of the Louisiana State Bar Association, the American Bar Association and the Financial Services Roundtable. He is active in several business and civic organizations. He serves on the boards of LSU Health Sciences Center, Dillard University, Greater New Orleans Education Foundation, and Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana. He is a member of the Tulane Law School Dean's Advisory Board. He is the Chairman of the Governor's Advisory Commission on Coastal Restoration and Conservation, serves on the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, is a director of the Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation and a member of the Louisiana Recovery Authority Support Foundation.

Paul is President of UserAid, which designs and implements innovative communication solutions. UserAid focuses on delivering information when and where users need it. Paul received a B.S. in Computer Science and a B.S. in Mathematics from Pennsylvania State University and has been involved in technical communication for more than 20 years. Paul has designed and implemented embedded help solutions since 1998 and wrote "Designing an Embedded Help Solution" for the Technical Communication journal.

Paul has experience managing information development, usability and graphic design teams across the United States, Bolivia and India. Paul speaks frequently at conferences and events, including WritersUA and Society for Technical Communication (STC) conferences. Paul is currently serving as STC Region 5 Director and he has held many leadership positions in his local STC chapter.

Gabe Munoz was born in Brownsville, Texas in May of 1959. Number eleven in a family of twelve, Gabe learned many life lessons by watching his older brothers and sisters struggle and succeed. Unlike his family which includes a Pharmacist, an Attorney, a former Undersecretary of the United States Treasury, a CEO and a couple of Professors, Gabe married at age 19 and dropped out of college and went straight to work. He then worked in management and in a supervisory capacity for a number of service operations, a furniture manufacture and several types of restaurants during most of his early adulthood.

After 22 years of making money for other people, Gabe opened his first restaurant in Dallas called "J.Pepes." This eventually led him to open a small chain of restaurants by the same name with gross sales in excess of $10 million per year and over 350 employees. After selling his business to "Ninfa's," he enjoyed a short retirement after which he decided to finish what he started 26 years earlier. Gabe went back to school and received his BSEE from the University of Texas at Austin and is now a certified PMP.

Gabe continues to share his life with his wife of 28 years, Myong, and has started a second career. He has successfully managed capital projects for Entergy's transmission business since December 2000.

Meryl Natchez has been CEO of TechProse since 1982. Natchez developed TechProse from a single person operation to a corporation with more than 80 employees. An alumna of Harvard University, Natchez has received numerous awards for business development and community service. She is a founder of OPTIC, a nonprofit organization that provides low-income Contra Costa residents with technology, literacy, and life skills to become economically self-sufficient. She has received the San Francisco United Way / Bay Area Works Award for assisting in welfare-to-work efforts, and a Founders' Award from the Open Door Foundation, which promotes technical education at the Junior College Level.

Natchez has taught courses at San Francisco State University, University of California Berkeley Extension and California State University Sacramento. She is an international presenter and has spoken to business and technical audiences in Japan, Munich, Paris and London, as well as across the United States.

Natchez is past President of the Northern California Chapter of the National Association for Computer Consultant Businesses and of the San Francisco Chapter of the Society for Technical Communication. She is the former Chair of the Contra Costa Council Technology Task Force.

Neil Perlin has 28 years experience in technical communication, with 22 in training, consulting and development for online content formats and tools like WinHelp, HTML Help, CE Help, RoboHelp, Flare and many now known only in legend. Neil spent six years at Digital Equipment Corporation, then became a partner in a documentation consulting firm in the late 1980s. In 1990, he formed his own consulting firm, Hyper/Word Services of Tewksbury, MA, and hasn't had a real job since.

Neil writes about online documentation and is a popular speaker for the STC and other professional groups. He is Madcap Certified for Flare, and Adobe Certified for RoboHelp and Captivate. He provides training, consulting and development for online content methodologies like structured writing and single sourcing, related technologies like XML, and related tools like Flare, RoboHelp and Captivate. He can be reached at nperlin@concentric.net and www.hyperword.com.

Michael Priestley is the lead DITA architect for IBM, and co-editor of the OASIS DITA 1.0 Specification and OASIS DITA 1.1 Committee Draft. He is an experienced information architect and XML architect, and has presented and published prolifically on information development processes, information design principles, XML development techniques, and of course DITA.

He is currently supporting new DITA projects and working on DITA 1.2. You can read his blog at
http://dita.xml.org/blog/25.

Jim Romano is the President and CEO of Prisma International, a global business communication firm located in Minneapolis. At Prisma, Jim's work has encompassed most tasks and positions, including translator, project manager, account supervisor, editor, diplomat, peace keeper, coffee maker, plumber and a few others. The common thread running throughout is the commitment to a global view of technical communication that starts with the end user and works backward to figure out how to meet their needs within the client's parameters of budget, schedule and quality.

Jim has been an active STC member since the early 1990s, and has served in the Twin Cities Chapter as Program Manager, Conference Manager, Vice President and President. He also serves on the advisory board of the technical communication program of the University of Wisconsin-Stout, and works closely with their STC student chapter. In addition, he is an active participant in several translation and localization professional organizations (LISA, Upper Midwest Translators and Interpreters Association), as well as associations in the medical regulatory and financial fields, all connected under the umbrella of technical communication.

A resident of Minneapolis, Jim's degrees are in linguistics and languages: a BA and MA from Columbia University, and PhD from the University of Minnesota.

As a professional negotiator, Steven has negotiated multi-million dollar deals, including contracts with several nationally known insurance and health care providers. He also was responsible for managing over 100 sub-contracts for the vendors supporting these deals. His current work involves contracts with city and state governments, municipalities, and school districts in CA and NV.

Steven is a 23-year veteran of the telecommunications industry, where he has worked in many areas and managed 122 staff and 8 managers in support of 63 customer voice and data sites nationwide.

Steven holds a doctorate degree in Business Administration, several certificates from Harvard's School of Law Program in Negotiations, and is a member of the National Contract Management Association and the International Association for Conflict Management.

Frank P. Saladis, PMP, is a Consultant and Instructor / Facilitator within the project management profession and has over 35 years of experience in the IT, Telecom Installation and IT Project Management training environment. He is a senior consultant and trainer for the International Institute For Learning Inc. and has been involved in the development of several project management learning programs.

Mr. Saladis has held the position of Project Manager for AT&T Business Communications Systems, National Project Manager for AT&T Solutions Information Technology Services and was a member of Cisco Systems Professional Services Project Management Advocacy Organization. His responsibilities included the development of Project Management Offices (PMO) and the development of internal training programs addressing project management skills and techniques. He is a Project Management Professional and has been a featured presenter at the Project Management Institute ® Annual Symposiums, Project World, PMI World Congress, CMMA, and many PMI Chapter professional development programs.

Mr. Saladis is the originator of International Project Management Day and has written numerous leadership and project management related articles. Mr. Saladis is also the author of the Project Management Workbook and PMP ® / CAPM ® Exam Study Guide that supplements Dr. Harold Kerzner's textbook Project Management, A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling and Controlling.

He is a member of the International Executive
Guild and the NRCC Business Advisory Council. He has also held the position of Vice President of Education for the Global Communications Technology Specific Interest Group of PMI ® and holds a Masters Certificate in Commercial Project Management from the George Washington University.

Amber Swope is a Principal Consultant in our Content Lifecycle Solutions practice, where she applies her information architecture and DITA experience to help JustSystems clients address their business challenges.

Amber is an experienced information architect with almost 20 years in the information development field. She has supported teams through the full information development lifecycle from identifying use cases to deliverable publication. Her experience includes architecting and developing information for companies of various sizes, from a 17-person startup to IBM, as well as managing teams and projects. At IBM, she led the first HTML to DITA migration project for the Rational division and implemented DITA in a production environment. Amber is a member of the OASIS DITA Technical Committee and participating on the Learning and Training Specialization subcommittee.

Amber has authored numerous papers and articles on information design, development and architecture, and has presented at leading industry conferences. Amber holds a Master's in Technical and Professional Writing and a Certificate in Computer Technical Writing from Northeastern University.

Jamie Wagner is the lead technical writer for The Write Stuff and Endeavor Consulting in Seattle. Jamie writes and edits content, develops and delivers training materials, and manages technical communication projects.

Before joining The Write Stuff, she was a senior information developer for a consulting firm specializing in creating English content for localization. Jamie was also a senior technical writer for a major localization firm, and during her tenure there she co-piloted an XML-based content management system for a Fortune 100 technology firm.

Jamie has a Master of Arts degree in Technical Communication and a Bachelor of Science degree in Journalism. She is a senior member of STC and co-chairs a committee for the Puget Sound chapter of STC.

Joe Welinske is the president of WritersUA, formerly known as WinWriters. WritersUA is a company devoted to providing training and information for user assistance professionals. The WritersUA/WinWriters Conference draws hundreds of attendees each year from around the world to share the latest in user assistance design and implementation. The free content on the WritersUA web site attracts over 20,000 visitors each month.

Joe has been involved with software documentation development since 1984. Together with Scott Boggan and David Farkas, Joe authored two editions of the popular and pioneering book Developing Online Help for Windows. He has also taught at the University of Washington, Bellevue Community College, and UC Santa Cruz.

Joe received a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Illinois in 1981, and a M.S. in Adult Instructional Management from Loyola University in 1987.

Laura is a senior consultant at Project Management Methodologies (PMM). She also teaches for Boston University's Corporate Education Center's Management Development Program.

Laura's 24 years of experience in project management include 12 years with the Lockheed Martin, with planning and scheduling experience on projects at Vandenberg AFB, Denver and New Orleans.

She received her Bachelor of Science from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, in 1977, and did some graduate work in Organizational Behavior with a concentration in Manufacturing Environments through the National Technological University. She received her Certification in Production and Inventory Management (CPIM) in 1991 through the American Production and Inventory Control Society (APICS).

Laura earned her Project Management Professional (PMP) certification in 1999. She also is MOUS certified in Microsoft Project 2000.

Martina Wood is the Deputy Account Manager for ACS, Inc., the fiscal agent for the Department of Medicaid for the State of Mississippi.

Martina Wood's varied career has included leading the first SAP Web Portal implementation,
managing the state-wide implementation of electronic voting machines for Mississippi, and working in a PMO to ensure the success of multi-million dollar system projects.

Martina brings with her 10+ years of project management experience with applications that support human resources, logistics, supply chain
management and fiscal agent operations.