SpeechTEK University Releases Curriculum for August Conference

Business Wire, July 29, 2008

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Organizers of the annual SpeechTEK Conference and Exposition have released the curriculum for this year's SpeechTEK University.

Each year the SpeechTEK Conference (www.speechtek.com) agenda covers every aspect of speech technology. The 2008 agenda features sixty panels, seminars, discussions, presentations and demonstrations featuring industry leaders, researchers, developers, analysts and customers.

SpeechTEK 2008, Speech in the Mainstream, will be August 18-20 at the New York Marriott Marquis.

In addition to the regular SpeechTEK agenda, SpeechTEK University is a curriculum of in-depth, 3-hour seminars featuring specialized content for executives, managers and speech and information technology professionals looking to increase their knowledge base in key areas or considering the deployment of a speech application.

SpeechTEK University seminars are held on Sunday, August 17 and Thursday, August 21 and are conducted by some of the speech technology industry's most experienced and respected practitioners.

The SpeechTEK University curriculum and faculty includes:

Sunday, August 17

-- Introduction to Voice User Interface Design
Eduardo Olvera, senior user interface designer, Nuance Communications

-- Introduction to Speech Technologies
James A. Larson, vice president, Larson Technical Services

Thursday, August 21

-- Introduction to Grammar Writing
Jenni McKienzie, VUI designer, Travelocity
Judi Halperin, speech engineer Avaya

-- Guerilla Tactics in VUI Design
Melanie Polkosky, human factors psychologist/senior consultant, IBM

-- Natural Language
Deborah Dahl, principal, Conversational Technologies

-- Tuning Speech Applications for Maximum Performance
Joe Alwan, VP/GM, AVOKE Caller Experience Analytics, BBN Technologies

-- VUI, GUI, MUI: Design Challenges in Multimodal Interaction
Catherine Zhu, senior voice user interface design engineer, Intervoice
Julie Underdayl, senior voice user interface design engineer, Intervoice

-- User-Centered Evaluation Techniques for Speech Applications
Susan Hura, principal, SpeechUsability

-- Stop Rude Calls: A CCXML Tutorial for VoiceXML Veterans
Moshe Yudkowski, president, Disaggregate

-- Speaker Identification and Verification
Judith Markowitz, president, J. Markowitz Consultants

A detailed agenda including session descriptions and registration information for SpeechTEK University and the entire SpeechTEK conference is available at www.speechtek.com.

For information about SpeechTEK contact Sheila Willison, 859-278-2223.

About SpeechTEK

Launched in 1995, SpeechTEK Expositions and Educational Conferences (www.speechtek.com) are recognized worldwide as the industry's premier events focusing on products, services, applications, solutions and innovations using speech technologies. The trade show and educational conference attracts a global network of speech technology providers and enterprise network customers who are developing and implementing speech solutions.

About Information Today

Information Today is the parent company of SpeechTEK and Speech Technology Magazine. Information Today, Inc. (ITI) is a leading publisher and conference organizer in the information and knowledge management industries. The company is widely known as the publisher of premier information and knowledge management titles such as Information Today, Computers in Libraries, ONLINE, MultiMedia & Internet@Schools, CRM, Searcher, KMWorld, and EContent. ITI is also the sponsor and organizer of many industry conferences, including WebSearch University, KMWorld & Intranets, Internet Librarian, Computers in Libraries, Enterprise Search Summit, and Streaming Media.