Question:
Anyone here have any experience with the Manuals Evaluation that goes on at the STC Conference? Is it helpful or merely a public humiliation opportunity? I've not been to an STC Conference before & am wondering if the manual evaluations in particular are worth the expense & time, etc. (And what are the chances of even getting one of the very limited slots for such?)

Answer:
I don't understand your question. You don't want personal opinions; what else would you get? I'd say the official STC position, and likely the reaction of most, is that the experience is constructive.

However, I'd suppose it depends on the experience, education, and training of the evaluators. For example, if you submit something you created for offset press and it is evaluated by someone who has only ever produced HTML documentation, you might feel the critique unfair or inappropriate.
Prior to the actual ceremony I got to talk with a couple of the document reviewers. One of them, who happened to hit me in a negative manner with her evaluation, appeared open to discussion and seemed to listen to my explanation of why I chose to present the information the way it was presented. She didn't really come down on me about it. It is a matter of opinion how the information is presented, and she was open to that. As far as the final evaluation sheet is concerned, I look at it as a way to improve the next document. There were some things in the evaluation that showed me where I may make the document more useable to the end user. This was in no way a public humiliation. I looked at it as an opportunity to learn to produce a better document.

The evaluators bring their training, education, and experience to the table. Agreed, an Award of Excellence is awesome!! But, just who is critiquing your stuff?

I mean, the STC is so very broad in scope that it might be somebody who is literally applying some techniques they learnt in "Usability cl," or it might be an insightful guru with a bunch of experience. It might be somebody who has no idea what you are doing, or somebody who has been there and appreciates the hurdles.

I'd say, if you got an excellence award, you are doing fine. For those who did not, perhaps you should consider the STC judges as part of your target audience before you prepare your documentation. This might lead to some compromises for your paying audience, but you should be able to hide that sufficiently. Just a thought.

Still, wasn't the original poster talking about an actual conference session, and not the STC publications competition?