John Vernon Hedtke - Public Speaking

Public Speaking

I am a lively and experienced public speaker. I am available for speaking at a wide variety of professional events. Some of the topics I have spoken on include the following:

Publishing

"Hey, Kids! Become an Author at Home in Your Spare Time and Earn Big Bucks!" One of my favorite speaking topics! How you can write non-fiction books. Covers how to find a publisher, how to pick topics (you don't need a topic before contacting a publisher), basic contracts, royalties and advances, and the book-writing process itself.
Writing Effective Book Proposals One of the most important parts of selling a book idea to a publisher is to have a good proposal. This topic tells you how.
Publishing a Third-Party Book: How to Drive the Publishing Process and Get a Book about Your Company's Products This topic is aimed primarily at companies who want to get additional marketing presence for their products.
Co-Authoring without Homicide Writing something by yourself is not too difficult, but writing something with another person can involve enormous amounts of friction. This topic tells you how to avoid killing each other in the process.

Writing and Freelancing

Captive versus Freelance: Making an Informed Decision Not everyone's cut out for being an employee... but neither is everyone going to make a good contractor, either. This topic identifies the advantages and disadvantages of each of type of employment.
Setting Up a Home Office What do you need for a good home office? Some things may surprise you.
Time Management None of us has "enough" time, so it behooves us to manage our time effectively.
Writing for Periodicals One of the most popular kinds of writing moonlighting is doing magazine articles. Learn how to approach magazines, get assignments, and get more work.
Enhancing Your Creativity No matter what kind of writing you like to do, you will benefit from being more creative.
Creating Documentation Plans "Proper prior planning prevents poor performance." Creating a good documentation plan will help you identify what you're going to do and can be a valuable political document if the project shifts from under you.
Pre-emptive Project Planning It's not the projects we know about that are the problems, it's the ones that surprise us that cause us the most grief. Here's how to track the projects that don't exist yet while looking really organized in the process.

Technical Publications Management

Project Management for Technical Publications Managers There are some basic problems that all Technical Publications managers have to deal with. This topic will show you some simple and effective tools for tracking resources and projects.
Setting Up a Technical Publications Department You're a new manager and your first job is to hire some people and set up a department. Now what? Here's how.
How to Choose a Software Package for Your Company Choosing a software package for use throughout the company is a stressful job. This topic presents a process that will eliminate most of the guesswork.

Other

Understanding and Using MP3 MP3 files are enormously popular. This topic introduces you to MP3 files and shows you to find and use them.
How to Be Immortal A motivational topic, this presentation talks about finding what you need to be doing as part of the Great Work and how to leave your mark on the world.

In addition, I have done a number impromptu presentations on other topics relating to technical writing, publishing, and freelancing. (My topic list is always expanding; please feel free to contact me if you're interested in a topic you don't see on this list.)

I was the keynote speaker at the American Society of Indexers conference in 1998 and have been a featured speaker at local, regional, and international writing conventions for almost 20 years.

Past Presentations

	"How to Hire a Winner," presented at the IPCC conference in Seattle, 1987.
	"Technical Books: A Different Kind of Freelancing," presented at the Puget Sound chapter of STC meeting, October 1988.
	"Freelancing," presented at the Puget Sound chapter of STC meeting, April 1990.
	"Time Management for Consultants," presented at the Independent Computer Consultants Association (ICCA) meeting in Seattle, April 1991.
	"Introduction to Microsoft Windows," a half-day seminar for the Puget Sound chapter of STC, April 1992.
	"Captive vs. Freelance: Making an Informed Choice, Setting Up a Home Office, Getting Contracts and Setting Rates," an all-day seminar for the Puget Sound chapter of STC, October 1994.
	"Writing for Periodicals," presented at the Puget Sound chapter of STC meeting, March-April 1996.
	Several progressions presented at the STC annual conference, 1996.
	Presentations on publishing, project management, how to be a freelancer, and creating a book proposal, at the Practical Conference on Communications (PCOC), 1996, Knoxville, TN.
	Several presentations and progressions on publishing and project management presented at the STC annual conference, 1997.
	Presentations on publishing and freelancing at the Practical Conference on Communications (PCOC), 1997, Knoxville, TN.
	"Captive vs. Freelance: Making an Informed Choice," "Writing for Periodicals," "Pre-emptive Project Planning," and "Hey, Kids! Become an Author at Home in Your Spare Time and Earn Big Bucks!" presented at the Region 8 conference, 1997, Santa Barbara, CA.
	Panelist on the Consulting and Independent Contracting panel and on Training and Educational Options at the STC annual conference, 1998.
	Keynote speaker at the American Society of Indexers annual conference, 1998, Seattle.
	"Hey, Kids! Become an Author at Home in Your Spare Time and Earn Big Bucks!" presented at the Puget Sound chapter of STC meeting, November 1998.
	"Hey, Kids! Become an Author at Home in Your Spare Time and Earn Big Bucks!" presented at the Tri-Cities (Pasco/Kennewick/Richland, WA) chapter of STC meeting, March 1999.
	Emerging Technology SIG workshop presented at the STC annual conference, 1999.
	"Creating Effective Documentation Plans," presented at the Puget Sound chapter of STC meeting, June 1999.
	Panel on publishing (with two other authors) presented at the Tri-Cities (Pasco/Kennewick/Richland, WA) chapter of STC meeting, March 2000.
	Keynote speaker at the SoCal (STC) Unified Awards Competition banquet, April 15, 2000, San Diego, CA.
	"Pre-emptive Project Planning," presented at the Intermountain chapter (Salt Lake City) of STC meeting, April 19, 2000.
	Presentation on the basics of technical communicating and career options for TC grads at the Univ. of Washington's Technical Communication Certificate program, May 11, 2000, Seattle.
	Emerging Technology SIG workshop presented at the STC annual conference, 2000.
	"Creating Effective Documentation Plans," presented at the TransAlpine chapter of STC conference, June 9, 2000, Trento, Italy.
	Host for a five-table progression and also discussed how to write non-fiction books at one of the progression tables, presented at the Puget Sound chapter of STC meeting, August 2000.
	"Hey, Kids! Become an Author at Home in Your Spare Time and Earn Big Bucks!" and a presentation on how companies can help their own marketing efforts by creating third-party books presented at the Central Illinois chapter of STC, September 14, 2000.
	"Captive vs. Freelance: Making an Informed Decision," presented at the Los Angeles chapter of STC meeting, September 18, 2000.
	"Pre-emptive Project Planning," presented at the San Fernando Valley chapter of STC meeting, September 19, 2000.
	"Pre-emptive Project Planning," presented at the Pan-Pacific (Region 7/Region 8) conference, October 18, 2000, Honolulu, HI.
	"Free Stuff to Jazz Up Your Web Site," presented at the Southern Arizona (Tucson) chapter of STC meeting, October 26, 2000.
	"Pre-emptive Project Planning," presented at the Lone Star (Dallas) chapter of STC meeting, November 9, 2000.
	"Captive vs. Freelance: Making an Informed Decision" (all-day seminar on the basics of being a captive versus being a freelancer and how to make an informed decision, how to set up a home office, and how to get business), presented at the Oklahoma chapter of STC, November 11, 2000, Oklahoma City, OK.
	"Pre-emptive Project Planning" and a "Share-the-Knowledge" workshop for STC members, presented at the Houston chapter of STC meeting, November 14, 2000.
	"How to Choose Software," presented at Influent.com's XML conference, December 3-6, 2000, Orlando.
	"Pre-emptive Project Planning," an STC teleseminar, February 7, 2001.
	"Hey, Kids! Become an Author at Home in Your Spare Time and Earn Big Bucks!" presented at the Vancouver, B.C., chapter of STC meeting, February 20, 2001.
	"Pre-emptive Project Planning," presented at the Suncoast (Tampa) chapter of STC meeting, March 1, 2001 (done by phone because an earthquake in Seattle the day before had shut down the Seattle airport).
	"Pre-emptive Project Planning" and several other topics, presented at the Central Ohio chapter of STC scholarship fundraising event, March 23rd, 2001, Columbus, OH.
	"Hey, Kids! Become an Author at Home in Your Spare Time and Earn Big Bucks!" presented at the Orange County chapter of STC meeting, May 8, 2001.
	"How to Be Immortal," presented at the STC Region 7 Conference, October 6, 2001, Portland, OR.
	"Creating Documentation Plans," presented at the Willamette Valley chapter of STC meeting, October 18, 2001.
	"Creating Documentation Plans" and "Captive vs. Freelance: Making an Informed Decision," presented at the Suncoast (Tampa) chapter of STC meeting and an all-day Saturday workshop, November 1-3, 2001.
	"Pre-emptive Project Planning," presented at the Phoenix chapter of STC meeting, January 8, 2002.
	"Hey, Kids! Become an Author at Home in Your Spare Time and Earn Big Bucks!" presented at the Vancouver, B.C., chapter of STC meeting, January 15, 2002.
	"Pre-emptive Project Planning," presented at the Austin chapter of STC meeting, February 12, 2002.
	"Setting Up a Home Office," presented at the Puget Sound chapter of STC meeting, February 19, 2002.
	"Creating Effective Documentation Plans," an STC teleseminar, February 20, 2002.
	Keynote speaker at the Touchstone 2001 STC conference, March 9, 2002, Oakland, CA.
	Progression topics and the jam session at the STC annual conference, 2002.
	"Captive vs. Freelance: Making an Informed Decision," presented at the Hoosier chapter of the STC meeting, October 10, 2002.
	Keynote speaker at the STC Region 6 Conference, October 13-15 2002, St. Louis, MO.
	One of seven speakers in an all-day "Job Skills for Technical Communicators" workshop presented at the Hoosier chapter of STC, December, 2002.
	Lunch presentation at the Four Lakes (Madison, WI) chapter of STC meeting, February 11, 2003.
	"Seeding the Clouds," presented at the Milwaukee chapter of STC meeting, February 11, 2003.
	"Fast and Friendly Time Management," an STC teleseminar, February 13, 2003.
	"Basic Time Management" and "Writing Technical Books" (progressions) and the jam session, presented at the STC annual conference, 2003.
	"Writing for Magazines," an STC teleseminar, June 18, 2003.
	"Seeding the Clouds," presented at the Rocky Mountain chapter of STC meeting, June 26, 2003.
	"Writing Technical Books" and another progression topic and the jam session, presented at the STC annual conference, 2004.
	"Seeding the Clouds," presented at the Mid-Valley chapter of STC meeting, October 10, 2004
	"Preemptive Project Planning," an STC teleseminar, January 12, 2005.
	"Preemptive Project Planning," presented at the Willamette Valley chapter of STC meeting, October 20, 2005.
	"Why I Blog," presented at Orycon 27 (Portland, OR), November 5, 2005.
	"Are Writers and Artists Really Crazier than'Normal' People?" presented at Orycon 27 (Portland, OR), November 5, 2005.
	"Writing As a Business: Keeping Track of the Numbers," presented at Orycon 27 (Portland, OR), November 6, 2005.
	"Editing 101 -- What They Do and Why: Explaining the Inexplicable," presented at Orycon 27 (Portland, OR), November 6, 2005.

I'd be glad to speak at your event as well. Rates are negotiable. Contact me at john@hedtke.com for more information and schedule availability.

References are available upon request.

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