The semi-annual publication “Pictures of the Future” (POF) of the Siemens corporation has won the BEST OF SHOW award from the Washington DC Chapter of the STC (Society for Technical Communication) in the Technical Publications Contest 2008-2009 (in the that I served as chief judge) .

POF is a publication of the marketing communications department of the corporate R&D division of Siemens. That explains its information-packed forward-looking content. “If any sentence or word doesn’t convey meaningful information, I remove it,” said Mr. Pease, POF’s editor-in-chief.

The magazine’s website describes itself as follows: “What technologies will shape our lives ten to twenty years from now?” “Images of the Future” magazine reports twice a year on major technology trends and analyzes ongoing work in Siemens laboratories. It includes future scenarios, features and reports on the corresponding R&D activities at Siemens and interviews with international experts.”

As someone who has published quite a few periodicals in the past, I am especially appreciative of the level of excellence achieved by Mr. Pease and his team, as I am painfully aware of the things that can be written by publishing such high exposure. magazine for such an international business leader.

When you publish a magazine like POF, with an average circulation of 100,000 and an average of 30 articles in each 100+ page issue, you know the “eyes of the world” are on you. “90% of our readers are from outside the company,” Pease told the STC-DC banquet audience. So when I said that the “eyes of the world” would be on such a post, I think I was not too far from the truth.

Let’s remember that POF is published on behalf of an R&D department that spends €3.4 billion a year on 8,000 inventions (or 21 inventions EVERY day!), developed at 150 corporate locations around the world. It’s a huge publishing and communication responsibility that Pease and his team fulfilled very well.