After a fantastic week in San Diego at the 53rd annual conference of the American Translators Association, I’m back at my desk, catching up on backlogged e-mail and work. I know, I’m by nature a positive person and I say this every year, but this conference was really wonderful. The location (the San Diego Bayfront Hilton) could not have been better, the weather was perfect, and several people commented that this was the best conference of the past few, in terms of sessions. Huge thanks to conference organizer Caitilin Walsh and the ATA staff for all of their efforts! Here is a summary of what I saw and did during the conference.
On Wednesday, I presented a preconference seminar, “Beyond the Basics of Freelancing” in the morning, then attended Chris Durban‘s seminar “Working the Room” in the afternoon. Overall I was pleased with how my seminar went; I had about 35 attendees which is a nice size for a 3-hour session, and there was a good mix of beginners, more advanced people, various language combinations, etc. Chris’ seminar was, as always, outstanding. She focused on in-person networking with premium-market direct clients, and offered great tips on how to select client events to attend, what to talk about, what to bring, and even what to wear (“no flowing robes at an investment banking conference”)! I love Chris’ sessions because she is incredibly straightforward, isn’t afraid to challenge the conventional wisdom about our profession, and hey, is in favor of making tons of money while enjoying your job. So that was a day well spent. And the opening reception for the conference was truly stunning: outside on the hotel lawn, about 50 feet from the water, with the sun setting over Coronado Island. If you’re already drooling, make your plans now to attend next year’s ATA conference: November 6-9 in San Antonio, Texas! Another plus to presenting a preconference seminar: the conference hasn’t even started and you’re already done presenting, which decreases the stress level quite a bit!
On Thursday, I was honored to join five other highly qualified candidates (seriously…this was a powerful group of women!!) running for the ATA Board of Directors. And even more honored to be elected! I’m looking forward to the upcoming three years of hard work and contributing to ATA’s programs and events, and I really appreciate the support of everyone who encouraged me to run. More on that later, but thank you for your votes!
After the opening session and election, I attended “Lightning Talks: The Future of Translation and Interpreting,” a Ted/Ignite-style panel moderated by Karen Tkaczyk. This featured various well-known T&I people who work in a particular niche (interpreting, high-end translation, translation standards, webcast interpreting etc.) giving four-minute talks about the future of their corner of the market. The format was a real departure from the traditional ATA session format and I really enjoyed it! After the talks, everyone at the conference was invited to submit their own thoughts on the future of the industry, then vote on two topics to be debated during the final session on Saturday afternoon. Hopefully this format will continue next year, because I heard very positive feedback about it.
I then attended Tuomas Kostiainen‘s session, “Tools for Quality Assurance and Translation Memory Maintenance.” Tuomas is an excellent speaker who gets straight to the point, and this session was packed full of tips on using the QA features of your current TM tool, then using standalone tools to go beyond those features if you need to. Tuomas also demonstrated tools for working directly in your TMs if you want/need to. The general takeaway from this session is that most people use only a tiny fraction of the QA features of the software that they already own…so learn those first, then see what else you need.
On Friday, I attended the ATA annual meeting, which is always a fun opportunity to see the various awards that ATA and AFTI (ATA’s charitable arm) present. Special congratulations to fellow Translate in the Catskills alumna Lisa Carter, who won the Alicia Gordon memorial prize for word artistry in translation! I then moved on to Percy Balemans’ presentation “Transcreation: Recreating a Text for the Target Audience.” Percy is a very natural and engaging presenter, and she drew a large audience for this hot topic! I don’t presently do transcreation, but this session really piqued my curiosity, especially since my translation style is very “non-literal,” and transcreation is a good market for translators who live in their target language country (according to Percy!).
Over lunch on Friday, I facilitated a roundtable discussion for the various translation software vendors who were exhibiting at the conference. This was the motivation for my information-gathering post before the conference. And I have to tell you, the discussion was great. It deserves its own post because once the tool vendors got talking, they had a lot to say, and it was incredibly constructive.
The rest of Friday and Saturday were taken up with Board-related meetings and with my family, who came out to San Diego for the weekend. And of course, intermingled with all of these sessions and meetings, it was really wonderful to get together with my long-time translator friends, long-distance translator friends who I had never met in person before, and of course clients! It’s just not possible to overstate the networking and outreach benefits of the ATA conference, even for those of us who are established in the profession. As usual, I left the conference both exhausted and energized, with lots of new ideas on how to tweak and improve my own business. More posts upcoming! And feel free to share your own impressions of the conference too; I would love to hear them!
Congratulations Corinne! I am so pleased you’re now an ATA board member. We’re in such good hands!
Congratulations as well for your outstanding pre-conference seminar. It tied in perfectly with Chris Durban’s and since you’re both some of the strongest motivators and “upward movers” of our profession, it started the conference on the right foot. Thank you!
Oh, thank you! I’m thrilled to be on the Board too and I will do my best to continue to deserve everyone’s trust.
I’m so glad that you liked the preconference seminar. I agree that even if you’ve heard the information before, sometimes the extra motivation really helps. And the preconference seminars are good because you’re not yet too exhausted to absorb anything (the way I am on Saturday!!).
I have to agree with you — and others: this was the best ATA conference I’ve been to! The sessions were really high-calibre and the setting was gorgeous. Everything ran without a hitch and I enjoyed myself immensely.
Wishing you all the best in your term on the Board. I for one am very glad to see you there.
And thanks for the shout-out!
Lisa 😉
Thanks Lisa! And congratulations again on your award, how fantastic! I really appreciate your support for the Board; hopefully we’ll have some good things to report in San Antonio!
It was a wonderful conference and I wish it had lasted one more day or even two (even though I’m struggling to catch up with work and e-mail). I loved the location, the sessions and of course spending time with wonderful fellow linguists (including you).
Congratulations on getting elected to the ATA Board, Corinne! I’m sure you’ll do a fantastic job.
San Antonio, here we come!
Thanks Dagy! It was so fun to see you and Judy, you are wonderful friends and colleagues! And yes, San Antonio, here we come! Get your cowgirl outfit ready 🙂
Since Corinne is afflicted by preternatural modesty and a charming self-effacing nature, there’s no hope, alas, for the world ever knowing just how great her ATA pre-conference session really was.
Ah-ha! Not so fast! Draw around close, dear friends, to learn what events unfolded on Tuesday in sunny seclusion.
For first-time attendees, ATA conferences are Very Big Scary Places. It’s easy for us dinosaurs to forget that we were once on the lower tiers of the pre-Cambrian Explosion, just hoping that all those big scary creatures with razor-sharp teeth who talk way too fast (that would be me) would not accidentally lumber over us on the mad rush to the coffee tables, thereby extinguishing us from existence.
What made Corinne’s talk so compelling is that it was, above all, a hopeful dose of Chamomile tea to the weary and frightened newcomers. Stunned bewilderment is easily spotted, and honestly a little disheartening to witness, because translators at the ATA conference – even the lumbering dinosaurs – are uncommonly thoughtful and generous. It was important to set their minds at ease.
Corinne was born to convey all that charm and goodwill.
This worked for two reasons.
First, as any early-career translator knows, nobody explains the rules of the road to you. So your first foray into the profession can feel a lot like a blistering hair-raising car chase through a crowded suburban mall without any brakes at all. What’s acceptable in translator marketing? Do best practices actually exist? How do you get hired and keep your clients? Can you build a business and succeed?
And how can you possibly pull this all off without falling deep into writers’ clichéd refuges, like alcohol, bull-fighting and psychotherapy?
Corinne explained all of this in good humor, mostly at her own expense. Which brings us to the second reason it all worked.
It’s easy to lecture people from a position of authority. It’s why prestigious universities are far more concerned about the pedigree of their faculty than silly irrelevant things like teaching skills. It’s far trickier when you make no appeal to authority and rely instead on your ability to connect to your audience through understanding, encouragement and a shared sense of the absurd. This makes people sit up and take notice. Link all that up to a roadmap of eminent sense that points the way out of the dark forest of confusion, and you have a real winner on your hands.
As one young translator commented during the Sci-Tech Division reception on Wednesday evening, Corinne’s talk alone was worth the price of coming to the conference. “It was the most valuable event I’ve been to as a translator,” she said with gratitude and a wry smile.
I think the wry smile was because the conference was just beginning.
Oh, stop! But thanks for that feedback; I did make a lot of significant changes to the preconference seminar since the last time I presented it (even I was getting tired of it!) so I’m glad to hear that you liked it Kevin, and that the attendees seemed pleased with it afterward. And I do agree that even if one goes to school for translation, running a business is a different thing entirely, and in a way it’s the scariest part! Thanks for attending; your turn to present one next year 🙂
Wow – sounds like a wonderful experience all the way around. I am not surprised you were so brilliant Corinne, but am thrilled to see that brilliance recognized! Congratulations on that and your election to the board; I know you will do great work there as well. I am sorely disappointed that I had to miss the conference this year, but I will definitely see you in San Antonio!
Thanks Steve! We missed you! I’m excited about the Board, feel free to send me any suggestions that you have and we’ll look forward to seeing you in San Antonio.
Toutes mes félicitations pour ton élection Corinne !
Merci merci! Surtout car c’est toi qui m’a convaincu de me porter candidat pour la FLD en…2006?
Ca devait être une autre Michèle.
It is great to know you are on the board Corinne! Best of luck and cheers to an awesome conference!
Thanks Tess! Yes, cheers to an awesome conference indeed! Hope you had a smooth trip back!
I enjoy Kevin praising Corinne and Corinne being charmingly self-effacing. 🙂 Glad you liked the Lightning Talks.
Thank you! And I really hope that the Lightning Talks will continue next year. So great to see you as always!
I’m definitely budgeting in the next Conference! Too bad it’s a year away!
I think that San Antonio will be great too; see you there!