After a delightful evening meal at the library of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (the main conference venue), we reconvened early the next morning for another day of presentations, chat and lots of coffee. I felt that there was a perceptible shift on the second day towards the more practical, day-to-day aspects of translation and interpreting, with the emphasis on technology, work-life balance and professional development.

The day started with yours truly – co-presenting with Sarah Dillon. We’d done a lot (and I mean A LOT – see Sarah’s write-up) of preparation and research for our presentation, and it was both terrifying and exhilarating to finally be able to share it with our professional community in this way. We basically offered a whistlestop tour of the concepts behind social media and web 2.0, the type of online tools available, and how language professionals might best use them. Sarah did a demo of some novel uses of LinkedIn and Tweetdeck which appeared to be new to many delegates.

We had a small technological hitch along the way, with our remote presentation tool throwing a wobbly halfway through. Although it had worked fine in our tests, we had foreseen this happening, so managed to remain calm and carry on thanks to  our backup plan (a PowerPoint file containing screenshots). However, I think that our key messages still came through – that these tools are not scary or difficult to use, that they allow YOU to be in control of how much information you receive, that not every one of these tools will be right for you, and that’s OK, but that the online world is changing – big time. It’s almost a case of ‘find a manageable way to keep up, or get left behind’. I think these messages were fairly well received, and Sarah and I have been really, really excited to see more ITI members venturing onto Twitter, for example.

Watch this space for more news on our presentation, as we already have plans to make a recorded version of our presentation available at Slideshare and perhaps even to publish our research, thoughts and findings as an ebook via  Lulu. The ITI Conference website will also be uploading copies of every presentation early next week – go to  www.iticonference.org.uk.

Our session was followed by a panel discussion entitled ‘Where to draw the line?’ with Nick Rosenthal, Iwan Davies, Patricia Sommer and Paul Appleyard.  A few questions had already been sent to the panel in advance, focusing on the usual suspects such as how to chase late payment. We were reminded that it is important to operate a rigorous policy when dealing with late payments – don’t take any prisoners, and operate a zero tolerance policy, but remember to remain professional and courteous in all dealings with clients.

Next up was Dr. Steve Vincent from Leeds University Business School, on the subject of work-life balance for knowledge workers. Steve challenged the phrase ‘work-life balance’, suggesting that it was more an issue of ‘work-life conflict’ – this is a description that I also personally feel is more appropriate. Siobhan Soraghan, a business coach, ran the next session, again on work-life balance. Siobhan has personal experience of ‘burn-out’, and proposed that we check in with ourselves and our working/non-work habits and rationally analyse them.  We are all busy people, we all wonder how we’ll get everything done with just 24 hours in the day, so Siobhan suggested that in order to avoid burnout, in our daily tasks we should prioritise our endless lists of things we ‘need’ to do, by asking ourselves which of them are both important and urgent. The most important asset in each of our businesses is our health, and this needs investment through ’self-sustainability’ activities. To read more about Siobhan’s work, visit: http://www.active-insight.com

A truly original and inspirational presentation came next, by Phil Goddard on ‘Finding a work-life balance crossing America’. Some readers may already know about Phil’s 3000 mile walk across the USA for charity, but for those who don’t I urge you to visit http://anenglishmaninneworleans.blogspot.com and  www.nytola.com. Impressively, Phil found that he was still able to work on translation jobs while he was away, and often found himself delivering jobs from his laptop at random hours of the day or in unusual places – this really showed us just how ‘mobile’ it is possible to be these days if you really want to be.

Reinhard Schaler, founding editor of the Journal of Specialist Translation (JosTrans), and founder and director of the  Localisation Research Centre at the University of Limerick, presented a session entitled ‘Where is translation technology going?’. Reinhard started by stating a problem: there is more material out there online than translators can translate. Some examples: 40% of Facebook users are not using English, but Facebook’s mission statement is to make their product available in ALL languages. Their way of tackling this has been to crowdsource volunteer translators from within their existing user base – collaborative translation where users can comment on and update translations in order achieve a final version. This is a controversial practice among translators, and rightly so in some cases, but I am minded to agree that it is the most effective method for a product such as Facebook – after all, none of the language used on it is highly complex, and wouldn’t its users be best placed to understand the terms in context? The fact of allowing users to update other entries, Wikipedia style, would also go some way to resolving translation errors and stumbling blocks.

I attended the translation technology parallel session run by Ana Luiz Iaria. Ana is well known to be very knowledgeable on this subject, and took us through a run-down of productivity tools, back-up, tag verifiers etc. Look out for Ana’s presentation on the ITI Conference website to see the links to the tools she introduced us to.

And so the conference drew to a close, and there were a lot of tired but happy faces in the audience. To finish up, we discussed ways that the ITI is supporting the profession, with training courses and several new initiatives in the pipeline for the coming 12 months. Despite the feeling of tiredness I could sense we were all experiencing, I could also feel the unmistakable sense of renewed enthusiasm, new ideas and new contacts we so often come away with from conferences. At their best, conferences and any indeed any gathering of freelance professionals remind us why we’re in this profession, and help spur us on to develop ourselves and our businesses. I can safely say that this was one such event.

At the conference I attended last November, I decided to ‘live tweet’ from the event. But this time somehow the mood just didn’t take me, and I also knew that a few other delegates, particularly @nickrosenthal and @serenadorey would be tweeting updates, so I knew it would be well covered. Not to mention the fact that I was cripplingly nervous about my Sunday morning appearance as a speaker, so was rather distracted by that! So, I stuck to good old-fashioned paper notes this time, and here are my thoughts:

The conference had 3 key themes: ’sustaining the profession’, ’sustaining the professional’ and ‘moving with the times’; each  session being built into these. The Saturday morning began with the keynote speaker, Katerina Germanis from the FSC, describing the FSC’s work, and also giving a brief insight into its translation needs. This set the tone for the weekend very well. It seemed clear to me that the FSC are currently rethinking their translation ’strategy’ and assessing how best to proceed, so there may be some interesting developments there.

Next up was Helen Wolfson, international coordinator at Friends of the Earth, who gave a great overview of some of the work they do. Helen (clearly a very experienced and talented speaker) explained that FOE work with 3 official languages, and all their material needs to be available in each of these, meaning that their translation needs are huge. I was so impressed with the presentation, I decided to join FOE!

One of the most eye-opening sessions for me came up next: ‘Where have the translators gone?’, by Klaus Ahrend, Fiona Harris and Terry Clough of the DG Translation. I wrote a blog post a while ago about this, when the problem of sourcing talented into-English translators first arose in the mainstream British media, but I really had no idea that the problem had got so serious so quickly. About 1/3 of their staff translators are due to retire in the coming years. Some figures for you:

• In 2000, they worked with 10 language pairs and had 185 translators
• In 2004, they worked with 19 language pairs and had 222 translators
• In 2008, they worked with 22 language pairs and had 156 translators
• Their order volume has gone from €1.2m in 2005, to €3.8m in 2008.

As you can see, the general trend is fewer and fewer suppliers, against increasing (and wider) demand.  A particular problem is finding high standard English translators for the languages of the newer EU members. This is something Fiona Harris is seeking to address, namely by starting a MAJOR awareness-raising campaign (even using Youtube videos!).

According to Marcel Lemmens of Teamwork Vertaalworkshops, a similar situation is unfolding with the Dutch language. He explained there is a mismatch in the market in terms of Dutch>English translators. There is a major shortage, and only 2 universities in the UK offer translation courses where students are able to have Dutch as their source language. Marcel also emphasized one of the key take-home messages of the conference – that target language writing skills are the single most important skill in translation.

I really, really relished the next sessions – a series of presentations from recent MA in Translation students from assorted universities across the UK. They gave us a brief overview of their dissertations, which varied from translation gains in the international reporting of Chinese leaders’ speeches, to issues surrounding working as a sign language interpreter. You can read about some of the graduates in interviews on Sarah Dillon’s blog.

The conference then moved back towards an environmental theme, with a presentation by Cat Akana of Blue Planet Multicultural, a translation company specialising in the environment. I think our eyes were opened to just what a dire situation we’re in, in terms of the environmental challenges that lie ahead, and we were reminded of the need to take action now, before it’s too late. In fact, as Cat pointed out, climate change is happening NOW, and peak oil may already have happened, meaning that the ‘future’ we still assume to be far off may already arrived. Some of us may have noticed translating more and more environment-themed texts, and this is likely to continue to increase.

We were then treated to a fascinating presentation by Silvia Ferrero, owner of MediaLoc, on the games localisation industry. I’m not very familiar with this type of translation, but learned alot about what is involved, including a high degree of creativity and sometimes rewriting in order to achieve the best final result.

As we moved towards wrapping up the 1st day, we discussed contingency planning with a panel of experts. Questions from the floor included (paraphrased) ‘how safe is the internet?’, ’should I use online word processing tools?’ and ‘how often should I back-up my work?’. We were shown techniques in supporting mobility and flexibilty through folder and software syncing, how to boot from Linux in the event of a system failure, and how to link your main PC to others in your office. The main message from this session was that we should never just rely on ONE solution, contingency planning means preparing for several eventualities.

The final session was by Liz Robertson, Chair of the Association of Translation Companies, entitled ‘Sustainable relationships in a recession’. I really enjoyed Liz’s presentation, and particularly appreciated how well she set the tone for the 2nd day (and for our presentation). Her key points were that translators and translation companies are usually seen as 2 separate groups, that there was a lack of mutual recognition. Instead we should be focusing more on working in cooperation, since we already share a common goal. Her take-home points were: 1) know your client, 2) understand yourself and 3) ask for feedback, and welcome it when it comes.

There are of course things I’d like to look at and improve on in the 2nd year.  Surprisingly, most of the things I’d like to work on revolve around allowing myself adequate time away from the computer to relax and recuperate. I’ve learned, on reflection, that although mobility and flexibilty are a freelancer’s best friends, working whilst on holiday is not necessarily a great idea for your sense of sanity.

I think most of us fail at taking time out of our daily routine to focus on our own wellbeing, rather than just the wellbeing of our business. This is a serious and potentially costly misjudgement. YOU are your business’s greatest asset, and to neglect that asset could damage your business.  Without sufficient breaks, holidays and mental (i.e. doing something different to your primary skill) and physical exercise, you are not giving yourself the regular M.O.T. you need to keep running your YOU-BUSINESS efficiently.

I should practice what I preach. I’ve been guilty of allowing myself to sit in front of the computer for ours on end without taking a break or stretching, and sometimes days go by without leaving the house. It’s great that I can be so enthralled in my work that it doesn’t even occur to me to move myself away from it, but I usually find that if this goes on for too long I find myself feeling a little less well-adjusted than ‘normal’ (not to mention that my weight has been ballooning out of control, and my eyesight has deteriorated rapidly).

So, to kickstart my new approach, I plan to implement the following into my ME-BUSINESS:

• Do 5-10 minute stretches at my desk every 60-90 minutes
• Check my sitting position at my desk every so often (I’m guilty of sitting cross legged at my desk)
• Get out of the house at least once a day – get some daylight!
• Do some form of exercise for at least 30 minutes everyday – even if this is just walking around the block
• Drink plenty of water
• Eat a proper lunch, and eat it away from the desk at least twice a week
• Try not to work too late into the evening, and plan something completely different (i.e. not computer bound) after work
• Allow for at least 22 days’ holiday a year (I’m ashamed to say that last year fell woefully short of this)

Shouldn’t be too hard to achieve, right? I’ll keep you posted.

To kickstart your own healthy new YOU-BUSINESS,  take a look at the excellent tips in this article on Freelance Switch.

The relevance of this bad experience to freelancing is that it reminded me of how important it is to realize the value of your clients and to put this into practice. In that vein, here are some pointers I’ve learned along the way, including those learned from customer service experts such as Chris Daffy.

1) First and foremost, your clients are central to your business.

You want to keep your customers because without them you will find it somewhat difficult to stay afloat. This seems like an obvious statement but it is surprising how many people seem to forget it, or appear not to fully appreciate it.

In my bad experience with the online groceries delivery service I felt like I was being treated flippantly throughout. I received no apology for appalling service, and was greeted with a shrug that said to me “Yeah, whatever, there’s more where you came from”. This is a dangerous assumption, even for a supermarket giant. After all, customers talk, and these days there’s the added dimension of the blogosphere, where word spreads like wildfire. So, they’ve missed an opportunity to lock onto a loyal, regular customer, and have therefore also wasted the big profit potential of me telling my friends and neighbours how great they are and winning them as customers too. I should add that I have also been trialling a rival, more expensive, online groceries delivery service, who I will now happily spend my hard-earned pennies on instead. Customers are usually willing to pay extra if that means excellent service.

2) Reward loyal clients, as well as new ones.

For freelancers, attracting new clients is essential to ensuring a regular flow of work, and it is an ongoing process. It also allows us to develop and progress in our careers, specialising both in terms of subject and client.

However, in your efforts to flirt with new clients don’t forget about your regulars. There will always be interesting one-off clients who call up only once and are never heard from again, but clients who keep coming back and spend a fortune on your services over the years are usually worth more to you. (This is a bit like the advice not to neglect your old buddies when you find new ones, with the caveat that in both cases this only applies to old clients or buddies who are definitely worth keeping; we are bound to lose some along the way.). Remember to focus some of your marketing effort on your regulars: why not try updating them on new skills you’ve developed, or simple things like the personal touch of remembering important events in their lives and sending them Christmas cards or even stationery gifts with your business name on it.

One of the best (in my opinion) supermarket delivery companies (the rival I referred to above) frequently emails me with discounts and offers that are tailored to my favourite things, and overall they give an impression of a company constantly striving to improve their service. Some of the add-on services they offer I really don’t need, but the overall impression leaves me with such a warm fuzzy feeling and I am so impressed that their approach probably has a 90% success rate with me. It’s a bit like going to a restaurant and receiving attentive and friendly service from the wait staff; you don’t need them to pour your wine but it makes you feel valued and creates an overall good experience.

3) It is usually possible to salvage a situation where the client is dissatisified for whatever reason.

I was easy prey for online grocery shopping services – I love how easy it is and I can create a list that I add to as I think of things, rather than the soul-destroying weekly barging and queuing under neon lights that is the modern supermarket experience. Plus, working from home all I have to do is answer the door to the delivery man, and even if they are a few minutes late with the booked delivery time I will still be here. So, you’d think it wouldn’t be hard for an online groceries delivery service to keep me as a long-term customer.

Well, as a result of my bad experience I lodged a complaint to the company concerned. After a few days had passed I did eventually receive a verbal apology over the phone. By this time my view of the service was pretty dire, but not beyond the point of no return; there was still a chance for them to retain me as a customer. What could they have done? In such a disastrous situation, nothing speaks louder to customers than cold hard cash. But alas, all I was offered was £10 off my next shop.  The presumption that I would use them again after this experience was an arrogant and erroneous one. If a customer pays for a service and you categorically fail to provide that service that customer should really be entitled to some sort of monetary compensation; in my case at least waiving the cost of the delivery. In translation, if you miss a deadline that has major ramnifications for the client, or worse, produce sub-standard work, do you expect to be paid in full? (Not a rhetorical question by the way).

4) The customer is not always right but neither are you.

A little meeting in the middle never hurt anyone. Imagine yourself in their position, in a different customer/client-supplier scenario such as a shop, or getting your kitchen fitted. As the customer, the service or product you are paying for is important to you, and you want to feel like you supplier appreciates this. Even when your customer is demanding, do not scoff or respond indignantly, but instead meet with a smile and try to help them as best you can, carefully explaining what you are and aren’t able to do for them. They will remember you positively, rather than as someone obstructive you doggedly refused to help. Listen to your clients, and they will listen to you.

Image courtesy of the Penrith Co-operative Society

Even in my modest little home office I try to make my own, small, positive contribution to the world by operating an ethical business policy. The website for the current Fairtrade Fortnight offers suggestions on how to make your workplace a little more ‘fair’ in this respect, and so I felt inspired to outline what my own contribution to that aim is.

I’ve been buying Fairtrade goods for personal use for a long time now; not only coffee and bananas but also clothing from companies such as Peopletree, and I wanted this to be true for my professional use as well. And, in addition to buying Fairtrade products, my ethical business policy extends to trying to minimise my impact on the environment as a whole, through the following 6 practices:

1. All coffee and tea products and other foodstuffs are purchased are Fairtrade products where applicable.

2. My office is heated using a ’sustainable energy’ gas and electricity supplier (E:On, if you must know!). Rest assured that in these chilly months of winter I *try* to take the big jumper option before resorting to turning up the thermostat (most of the time!).

3. I avoid printing out documents if at all possible, and when I do they are printed on recycled paper.

4. On the subject of recycling, I have a rigorous recycling system (not to mention a very large recycling bin, made from recycled plastic, of course) and aim to recycle 85% of my office waste. Even batteries are re-charged rather than thrown away.

5. Back to office supplies: these are sourced from environmentally-conscious suppliers, such as Naturalcollection and Ethical Office. Staple-free stapler anyone?

6. And finally, I clean my office using non-toxic, environmentally friendly products only. My, how utopian AND fragrant!

I still have a long way to go before I can truly call myself a totally ‘eco-friendly’ linguist, but we all have to start somewhere.

You may find the following ‘viral video’ from the Fairtrade Foundation inspiring/amusing: