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"Broken A. Jaw" wants <<...to go to the 47th STC conference
in Florida, but I need to write the right kind of proposal.>>
Well, one year they owed me big-time, so all it took was an
"I'd like to attend". But that was kind of exceptional. <g>
What's worked for me more regularly is to write a "what's in it
for the company" proposal. For example, the first year I
attended I wrote down the top three problems we were facing
in terms of communications (thereby proving I'd been paying
attention), then I went through the program and identified all
the sessions that related to those topics. I explained how all
that learning was going to improve my performance for the
company in terms of identifying possible solutions to those
problems (as proposed by hundreds of people who'd already
solved the same problems). Furthermore, for the sake of
comparison, I provided sample costs for various training
sessions available nearby. The STC conference usually comes
out as a bargain in comparison.
One final point: Whatever else you do, make sure to produce
a trip report when you get back. Send copies to all the
managers who might be interested in what you learned, with
summaries of the main points and how you could implement
them at your workplace. (That is, prove that you didn't just
attend to network, party with friends, and drink good local
beer on the company tab.) Then try to actually implement
some of those ideas; odds are, you won't get much done,
since enthusiasm usually confronts corporate inertia, but
maybe one or two things will change and the company will
see the benefits. In either case, at least they'll know you're
thinking and working to improve things. That's a good way to
get approved for the next year's conference too.
"Perhaps there is something deep and profound behind all those sevens,
something just calling out for us to discover it. But I
suspect that it is only a pernicious, Pythagorean coincidence." George
Miller, "The Magical Number Seven" (1956)
