2008
Business planning
All staff recently attended a one-day business planning workshop. Thanks to Steve Coleman from Global Learning for facilitating this session. Use of Global Learning’s iMEET technology was a great feature of the day.
On the day after our business planning workshop, to offset some of our carbon emissions, all staff headed out to Hilary’s farm for a morning of tree planting organised by Hilary’s partner Bruce. This was followed by an afternoon of further discussion and business planning.
Professional development
All staff are revising their grammar skills by working through the Grammar Girl podcasts each week.
Meg helped to organise the 2008 Australasian Medical Writers Association conference, which was held in Brisbane on 17–18 October. Meg, Ruth and Janet attended the conference and Janet gave a three-hour workshop on evidence-based medicine.
Meg attended the conference of the Association of Regulatory and Clinical Scientists in Sydney. The topic of the opening plenary session was human stem cell research and cloning, and the keynote speaker, Senator Natasha Stott-Despoja, spoke in glowing terms about the Lockhart Review — the review of legislation on cloning and embryo research published in December 2005 (and largely written by Biotext).
In July, Ruth presented a poster of her honours research at the 2008 Population Health Congress in Brisbane. Ruth's flights, accommodation and conference fees were sponsored by ACT Health. In August, she gave feedback on her conference experiences at a breakfast forum organised by ACT Health and the ACT branch of the Australian Health Promotion Association.
Ruth helped to organise the October event for the ACT branch of the Australian Science Communicators. David Constantine, the president of the ACT branch of the Australian Graphic Design Association, spoke about ways that science communicators can work well with designers.
Activities
The Canberra staff took part in the Global Corporate Challenge. This involved aiming to walk 10 000 steps (or more) each day, and taking a virtual tour of the world. There were no prizes, apart from a healthier heart and body. Between them, our seven team members walked a total of 7 220 221 steps, or a distance of approximately 6000 kilometres.
Training
Biotext training courses were held in Melbourne in September and in Brisbane in early October. The feedback for both courses was excellent, with participants giving the course and the presenters glowing reviews!
For more information about Biotext training courses, see our Training page.
Work experience program
Biotext has been running a work experience program since 2006. Currently we have two students: Carolyn Ng, who has worked as a retail pharmacist and has experience as a medical writer and editor for a regional medical newspaper; and Stephanie Stohr, who is just finishing the second year of a Bachelor of Science/Arts at the ANU. If you are interested in joining Biotext as a work experience student, please contact us.
Projects
For information on our recent projects see our Services offered page.
2007
August: Janet Salisbury was a guest on Radio National's The Book Show on 17 August. Based on her success as the technical writer of the Lockhart Report (the review of legislation on cloning and embryo research, published in December 2005), Janet was invited to be one of three panellists discussing government reports — what makes some good and some not so good! See Radio National's website to download a podcast.
July: After many months of waiting, we heard that we were awarded an Excellence Award in the international STC competition for the Lockhart Report (see the February item below to refresh your memory about this competition). See the STC website for details of the other winners.
May: Janet, Hilary and Malini attended the Institute of Professional Editors National Conference in Hobart from 9 to 12 May. There were about 200 delegates and the program was varied and interesting. Janet and Hilary both presented sessions (Janet on ‘The language of evidence’ and Hilary on ‘Bare bones editing’) that were very well received.
The conference website has information about the sessions and speakers. Some papers have been posted there; more will be added to the website as they become available.
April: Janet, Meg and Eve attended the 5th World Conference of Science Journalists (http://www.scienceinmelbourne2007.org/) which was held in Melbourne from 16-20 April. Janet ran a satellite meeting for scientific editors which was attended by more than 70 delegates. Topics discussed included the fine dividing line between substantive editing and rewriting, the need for an Australasian science style guide and the potential for a professional organisation for science editors in Australia and/or the Asia-Pacific region.
On Wednesday, Janet, Meg and Eve presented an interactive professional development workshop, 'Introduction to science editing', as part of the main conference. Again, this workshop was well attended (with more than 30 participants from Australia and several other countries) and the feedback received suggests that it was well received.
And on Thursday, Janet (yes, she was busy!) was part of a panel discussion on 'Stem cells and bioethics'. Other panellists were Dr Mal Washer, federal liberal MP from Western Australia, Geoff Carr, Science Editor of The Economist (UK), Dr Peter Mountford , President and CEO of Stem Cell Sciences. The session was chaired by Robin Marantz Henig who has been a freelance science writer in the US for more than 25 years and is, among other things, currently a contributing science writer for The New York Times Magazine.
February: The Australian chapter of the Society for Technical Communication (STC) awarded the Biotext team (Janet, Malini, Meg) a 'Distinguished' award in the 'Information materials' category for technical writing and production of the Lockhart Report (the review of legislation on cloning and embryo research published in December 2005), as well as ' Best in show' for the 'Technical publications' category overall. See the STC webpage for further details of this competition. The report has now been entered into the international STC awards.
Hilary and Janet were also awarded a 'Merit' in the same competition for technical writing of Making Decisions about Tests and Treatments — Principles for Better Communication between Healthcare Consumers and Healthcare Professionals.
February: Carolyn Weiller and Arran Dengate both joined the Biotext team.
January: Biotext opened its Melbourne office, conveniently located at 55 Flemington Road, which is in the Bio21 precinct. Our Melbourne-based consultant is Eve Merton. Eve welcomes visitors, if you are in the area (tel: 03 9329 4150).
2006
September: Malini and Hilary helped organise the 23rd annual conference of the Australasian Medical Writers Association.
June: Hilary gave a presentation on the 'bare bones of editing' at the Canberra Society of Editors' professional development day 'EdEx'.
May: Janet attended the 9th International Conference on Public Communication on Science and Technology (PCST) including the post-conference workshop Training scientists to communicate with lay audiences.
March: Vesna joined us as our office manager.