Training for Translators

Classes for translators and interpreters

Professional associations


Corinne McKay

ATA63 wrapup

The ATA conference is back, in 3D!

It was a real pleasure to attend the 63rd annual conference of the American Translators Association, held from October 12-15, 2022 in Los Angeles. I’ve now attended every ATA conference since 2004 (yikes!), but this one was particularly special as the 2020 conference was entirely online, and the 2021 conference was hybrid, but the in-person component (which I did attend) was a lot smaller than usual. This year in LA felt like the first “normal” (whatever passes for normal these days!) conference since COVID, and I’m really glad that I went.

Attendance at this conference was about 1,100 people, pretty close to pre-pandemic levels. Having done the job myself back in 2015 and 2016, I can say that ATA’s current President-elect and conference organizer, Veronika Demichelis, did a great job balancing tradition and innovation, which is always a challenge when you’re organizing something that’s been done (literally) 62 times before.

Highlights

Most of all, it was fabulous seeing so many colleagues in real life after such a long time apart during COVID. It was almost impossible for international attendees to come to the US last year; a major damper on any language-industry event. Additionally, I was really impressed by the quality of the sessions this year; it was like everyone saved up their best ideas during COVID and presented them in LA! I was also honored that current ATA President Madalena Sanchez Zampaulo selected me as one of two new ATA honorary members, the other being outgoing Executive Director, Walter “Mooch” Bacak.

On Wednesday, I presented an AST seminar on direct client marketing, and also attended Michael Schubert‘s AST seminar on working in the premium translation market. I’m a firm believer that as a freelancer, either you’re growing or you’re stagnating, and I came away from Michael’s session with some new ideas for working with high-end clients, some reinforcement of what I’m doing well, and some ideas of things to change. If any other associations are looking for a presenter on this complicated topic, I highly recommend Michael! I think my AST session went well, and it’s always enjoyable to each a three-hour workshop on a topic I love.

Session highlights

Really, every session I attended was worthwhile. My main focus right now is growing the interpreting side of my business, so I mostly focused on the interpreting sessions, and I also presented a session on how to prepare for and pass an interpreting exam. I feel like the interpreting session offerings at the ATA conference have really increased in quality and quantity in recent years. I attended and really enjoyed:

-How to be a better simul partner, presented by Celine Colvin
-Deliberate practice for simultaneous interpreters, presented by Gabriela Siebach
-Interpreting international arbitrations, presented by Tony Rosado and Maria Propato
-Interpreting for the Tokyo Olympics, presented by Rony Gao and Jessie Liu

The non-interpreting sessions I attended were just as good:
-The elusive inclusive (on gender-neutral French), presented by Isabelle Meurville; one of the best French-track presentations I’ve attended in recent years
-How to work with top law firms, presented by Paula Arturo Klammer
-Time flies and you’re the pilot, presented by Ingrid Holm
I felt like this year’s sessions were all a great mix of theoretical and practical information, and honestly, “there were no duds,” as another attendee commented.

The venue!

This year’s conference hotel, the Westin Bonaventure, was well-suited to this type of conference. The rooms all had enough space for everyone (including enough seats at breakfast on the days I went!), and the lobby was a good place to hang out and talk. I can’t say that the conference made me want to move to LA (I had been looking forward to beach weather and it was cool and cloudy and even drizzling a bit while we were there), but I did dine at some excellent restaurants with colleagues, and there were some excellent food options in the area.

The only thing I didn’t love about this year’s conference was the pre-recorded speeches from the election candidates. Personally, part of what I use to evaluate a candidate for the Board is their “stage presence,” and how they present themselves in front of a fairly large crowd. I felt like the recorded speeches detracted from that, but I’m also glad not to be organizing that aspect of the conference anymore, and I think it’s always tricky to decide how to allocate the time during the fairly lengthy plenary meeting sessions.

This was my first real conference as a civilian, after serving for seven years on the ATA Board, then attending remotely in 2020, then attending the enjoyable but relatively small conference last year in Minneapolis. Honestly, it was a great feeling to not have any responsibilities during the conference and just do whatever I felt like doing, including going to a rhythm and blues yoga class instead of taking care of official responsibilities! Huge congratulations to Madalena and Veronika and the whole ATA63 team on a really wonderful conference, and I’m already looking forward to next year in Miami!

Corinne McKay (classes@trainingfortranslators.com) is the founder of Training for Translators, and has been a full-time freelancer since 2002. An ATA-certified French to English translator and Colorado court-certified interpreter, she also holds a Master of Conference Interpreting from Glendon College. For more tips and insights, join the Training for Translators mailing list!


Corinne McKay

Tips for ATA57 attendees

With the 57th annual ATA conference coming up next week, I’m excited to report that we expect over 1,800 attendees (this will probably be our second-largest conference ever, after the 50th anniversary conference in NYC), the exhibit hall is sold out, and many of our Advanced Skills and Training Day sessions are sold out as well. If you’re attending ATA57, here are a few resources and tips that might be helpful:

If you are attending your first ATA conference, definitely check out our first-time attendees page. There you’ll find three things you should take advantage of: Jill Sommer’s free webinar on how to make the most of your conference, information about the Buddies Welcome Newbies program, and the ATA Newbies listserve. I also recommend The Savvy Newcomer, ATA’s blog for newcomers to the profession. All of these resources should help you navigate the conference a little more successfully than I did as a newbie in 2004, when I knew so few people, and was so afraid to talk to anyone, that I spent one evening going to the movies alone. Don’t do that…get in there and make the most of your investment in attending the conference.

Also, remember this: the “for newbies” events don’t just save you from ending up in the wrong room at the wrong time at the conference. They allow you to connect with other first-timers, who may be great contacts for you. One question I get from tons of freelancers is, “How do I find a translation partner/editor/someone I really click with to share projects/someone who works in my specializations but in another language/someone who works in my language, but in different specializations?” Attending the newbies events at the conference can be a great way to do that.

Greek translator Catherine Christaki wrote a great blog post on learning from your mistakes to make each conference better. This post is from 2011, but it’s still a must-read for those attending the conference. Catherine is admirably honest about her newbie mistakes (bringing printed copies of her six-page resume, not following up with people she met at the conference), and offers some great suggestions for how to learn from your own mistakes as well.

To round things out, here’s an excellent post from The Muse, on how to make the most of professional conference in general. They offer some common sense but often-overlooked advice, like putting away your phone and actually talking to people, connecting with speakers on Twitter after the conference, and “paying it forward,” by sharing the knowledge you gained at the conference.

A few closing tips from me, based on 12 ATA conferences:

  • Bring plenty of business cards and don’t be afraid to hand them out. If you are actively looking for agency clients, make sure to attend the Job Fair on Thursday evening, bring paper resumes, and have a complete profile in the ATA57 app.
  • Do not work during the conference. You’re making a big investment of time and money to be there, and a lot of what you’re investing in is connections. If you just want information, there are lots of webinars you can take advantage of. You’re coming to an in-person conference to take advantage of the fact that it’s in person, so be there in person.
  • Please, please, please do your session evaluations in the ATA57 app. Even if you use the app *only* for that purpose, please use it for session evaluations. When you use the paper evaluation forms, an ATA staffer or temp has to enter every single one (including deciphering your handwriting…) into the evaluation database. It’s slow, and expensive, and there’s the potential for human error or indecipherable handwriting. The app avoids all of that, and your ratings are instantly populated into the database.
  • Remember that this year the sessions are not being recorded. Do not go to Alcatraz and plan on listening to the recording later. Be there! If you’re interested in multiple sessions during one time slot, pair up with someone, take notes and exchange them afterward.
  • Along the lines of “be there,” be mindful of your phone and social media habits while you’re at the conference. First, you’re making a big investment in being there, so be there. Second, respect the presenters’ intellectual property. Never photograph slides or record the presentation without the speaker’s permission; it’s fine to ask whether the speaker can make the slides available afterward (I’m planning to post mine on my blog), but some speakers will not, and that’s their prerogative. Then take really good notes.
  • Even big-name speakers really appreciate knowing that you loved their presentation. You may think, “they’ve heard it a million times,” but it still means a lot when someone takes the time to write an e-mail saying something specific about a presentation. I make a point of e-mailing at least three or four speakers whose presentations I particularly liked.
  • Lastly: shoes. You cannot network effectively with blisters. Bring at least two pairs of good shoes that allow you to be on your feet all day. I’m a big fan of Lifestride and Crocs (their dress shoes, not the rubber clogs for a conference…) because they’re cute, comfortable, and vegan, but whatever your shoe preference, just don’t risk limping around San Francisco in pain.

And with that, on to ATA57, and I’ll see you there!


Corinne McKay

Getting Started as a Freelance Translator- starts September 23

The next session of my four-week online course Getting Started as a Freelance Translator starts on September 23, and I have five spots left. If you’re attending November’s ATA conference, this session is a good opportunity to get your freelance plan in place before then!

The course is open to beginning translators in any language combination, and everyone gets individual feedback from me on four assignments: your resume and cover letter, marketing plan, rates and billable hours sheet and online presence. We also do a one-hour question and answer conference call every week (recording provided if you can’t attend the live calls) and everyone receives free copies of my books How to Succeed as a Freelance Translator and Thoughts on Translation.

Registration is $350, with a $50 discount for ATA members. A recent participant commented that, “Although I have been a full-time freelancer for over 10 years now, Corinne’s “Getting Started as a Translator” course greatly helped me by requiring me to rewrite my resume and cover letter, create a solid marketing plan, rethink my rates, and improve my online presence. It was an excellent opportunity to fill in some of the gaps that had been limiting the growth of my business. Corinne’s individualized advice on targeting direct clients and developing my specialties has given me new hope for my business.”

Hope to see some of you there! Visit my website for the full course description or to register.


Corinne McKay

ATA56

It’s that time again, and the American Translators Association’s 56th annual conference is open for registration! We’ll be meeting from November 4-7 in sunny Miami, Florida, and the program looks fantastic. We received a huge number of session proposals for the 175 slots this year, which is usually an indicator of a well-attended conference (last year in Chicago was our second-largest conference ever).

You can read all about the conference and register at the link above. A few special features to mention:

  • Wednesday’s preconference day is always a great chance to get some in-depth training before the conference starts. This year we’re once again offering Tool Training (for SDL Trados Studio, memoQ and Deja Vu), and a number of preconference seminars (including a not-to-be-missed French to English seminar on French cultural literacy, presented by Angela Benoit and Eve Bodeux).
  • I’m also really excited about the Book Splash, where various ATA authors will be exhibiting and selling their books (I’m hoping to debut the third edition of How to Succeed as a Freelance Translator).
  • If you’re attending the conference for the first time, I highly recommend signing up for the very helpful Newbies and Buddies program. This pairs up first-time attendees with seasoned attendees before the opening reception, so that you have someone to help you navigate the conference.
  • And, oh happy day, this year we have free wifi throughout the conference space.

One final item: if you meet the requirements for ATA Voting Membership, please complete the free, fast, fully online process today so that you can vote in the 2015 ATA elections. We have a great slate of candidates (I will humbly mention that I’m honored to have been nominated for President-elect), including six people running for three Director spots, but you can’t vote for any of them if you’re not an ATA Voting Member. And you can vote by online proxy even if you’re not attending the conference.

Hoping to see lots of you in Miami in November!


Corinne McKay

ATA56: the call for proposals is open!

I’m excited to announce that ATA is now accepting session proposals for our 56th annual conference, to be held in Miami in November, 2015. Yes, you read that correctly: Miami in November…we’re expecting a large crowd!

ATA depends on volunteer presenters for the bulk of the conference sessions. You can submit a proposal for a three-hour preconference seminar or a one-hour session during the conference; there are some financial incentives for each of those options, and you can read about them on the proposal form. Especially needed are *advanced-level sessions* and topics that have not been covered at previous conferences. Here’s the online information.

If you’ve never submitted a session presentation before, you might find some useful information in this free webinar that I presented for ATA last year, entitled “How to write a winning ATA conference proposal.”

Thanks, and let’s make Miami the best conference yet!