45. Intersteno Congress, Vienna, Austria, July 2005

Congress Sessions

CONCLUSIONS

by Wolfgang Behm


Now we are at the end of the congress sessions of the 45th Intersteno Congress in Vienna,  Austria .  

We presented you an interesting program during the last one and a half days. The contributions of the speakers covered three fields:  

         Reporting

         Teaching

         International Organizations  

First we got an impression of the work and the aims of the Intersteno Scientific Committee by Mr. van Beurden. Mr. Keller presented the history of the last 50 years of Intersteno in a lot of details.

Concerning reporting we concentrated on the improvements of writing technologies. These �more traditional� technologies are embedded in an environment of modern information technologies, which give space for new information offers, and information demands. All of this helps to create new jobs and employment in the reporting area � one speaker called it reporting industry.  

Secondly we had an interesting look on non-writing technologies, which had been developed and improved the last years. Using these new tools, reporting without writing has become possible. The human voice is the core medium for reporting in this case. Training needs for voice-writers are less than for machine or pen writers. That is a great advantage. Furthermore the accuracy of voice-writing is increasing. In total: Voice writing will become an important reporting tool in the future � among others!  

The efficient use of non-writing technologies also leads to tasks and work of a minute taker. Mr. den Holder drew a picture of this kind of reporters. The main task is a summarized report, including all decisions made in the meeting to be reported. To take the necessary notes, writing technologies are only tools among others.  

In the teaching field we heard about the development of the Czech State Examination in word processing and all its elements. This concept is worth to be introduced also in other European countries. Additionally we learned that training shorthand helps to improve the language competence of the students, as proved in a Hungarian review.  

At the end of this part we turned to ergonomics, which can help to make working at the screen healthier. In this context we made office sport here in the hall, as well as a test of a totally new designed keyboard, the JogiType Keyboard.  

Additionally Mr. Schmidt impressively described the problems and chances of blind people in using the computer. Teaching efforts in this area are needed to make also blind people become part of the business world.  

In the third part of the sessions we got presentations of some international organizations in the field of reporting. Mr. Golden gave an overview of National Court Reporters Association (NCRA). He presented to us his organization as an old and powerful institution in the United States, representing about 35.000 court reporters and also parliamentary reporters. This organization as well as the National Verbatim Reporters� Association (NVRA), about which Mrs. Drake reported, is open for both, writing and non-writing technologies. In conclusion also Intersteno should open in that sense and co-operate with these organizations in the United States .

Finally we got an address of the Chinese Stenography Association. It was very interesting to hear, what happens in the reporting field in this part of the world and which reporting tools had been developed there. Mr. Onana reported on Intersteno in African countries. That indicates, that Intersteno widens its activities to and on other continents. Intersteno should continue doing this to become the most important organization in reporting worldwide.  

At the end of my conclusion I would like to thank very much Gian Paolo Trivulzio from Italy for all the organizational work he did to realize these congress sessions. It was his work, I presented here to you. Thank you Mr. Trivulzio!  

Also thanks to Mr. van Beurden sitting next to me here on the stage. As coordinator of the Scientific Committee of Intersteno he actively accompanied preparation and realization of the sessions. Thank you for your work.  

I finally thank Mrs. Kulb, President of Intersteno and head of the Organizing Committee, for her support.  

After the fruitful congress sessions of Vienna , I hope, you�ll also join the congress sessions on the occasion of the following, the 46th Intersteno Congress two years ahead in Prague , Czech Republic . Intersteno is looking forward to welcome you there.  

Finally: Enjoy the remaining congress events here in Vienna , and have a safe way home. Good bye.