12 September, ITI London Regional Group Marketing Workshop, University of Westminster, London.

This is an all-day event with talks and workshops on a variety of marketing-related subjects, including:

- marketing yourself as a freelance translator or interpreter

- website dos and don’ts

- a practical workshop on how to write good promotional copy

- assertiveness and negotiation skills.

Speakers include Heidi Kerschl MITI, Keren Lerner of Top Left Design, Eamonn O’Rourke (freelance copywriter) and little ol’ me, MITI. I’ll be tackling assertiveness and negotiation skills, for example dealing with stressful client relationships, setting boundaries and finding a happy place between being a doormat and a prima donna.

This is an excellent opportunity to learn more about how to market and promote yourself as a freelance professional, network with with colleagues and make new contacts.

17 October, Novotel, London City South, ‘Starting out as a Translator & Specialised Translation’.

In the morning session, I’ll be giving a presentation especially aimed at newcomers to the profession, although it will also be of interest to established translators. I’ll also be following this up with a CIOL webinar later in the year.

The afternoon session will be devoted to “Specialised Translation”, a subject of ever increasing importance to translators. Ricardo Martínez Perales, a sworn translator, will talk about legal translation and Noemí Rey, a long established technical translator, will give a presentation about the mechanical engineering field.

And don’t forget the ITI Annual Translation Workshop at the University of Westminster, London, on 18 October! For more information, follow @ITIEducation on Twitter.

The response to our presentation has been really positive, with many people wanting to learn more or see the slides again, so we decided to take our little 2 person roadshow online for the big wide world to see. We are now pleased to unveil a stripped down, re-recorded version of our presentation available at Slideshare.net. You can view the show within this post (below) or by following this link to Slideshare if you have problems hearing or viewing the embed.

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.

This is a bit of a rhetorical question, as I think most people would probably agree that we do!

More probing questions you may wish to consider are:

Have women’s voices got deeper in recent years?

Do women find it hard to carry authority in their voices?

Do women talk more than men?

Do men use language to put women down?

What is the ‘ideal’ female voice from an advertiser’s viewpoint?

Are there really big differences between men and women’s brains in terms of how they process language?

These were all questions discussed in this morning’s Woman’s Hour in an interview with Deborah Cameron, Professor of Language and Communication, University of Oxford, and Professor Sophie Scott from the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, prior to a conference this Sunday at the Institute of Contemporary Arts entitled ‘Our Speaking Selves’.

The half-day conference sounds absolutely fascinating – particularly the bit where they demo how ’stuttering’ can be induced in normally fluent talkers, by playing their own speech back to them when they are reading aloud – but I won’t be able to make it, as I’ll be around the corner at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, where I’ll be co-presenting with Sarah Dillon at the ITI Conference (set to be equally fascinating!).

So here, finally, is my take on day 2 of The Translator as Strategic Partner Conference. This one probably will be shorter than my report on the 1st day, because my note-taking on day 2 amounted to just a few lines, partially due to being in a zombie-like stupor due to lack of sleep (trust me, after only a couple of hours sleep I am not someone you want to hang around for long) and the onset of a cold, but mostly because the second day adopted more of a ‘workshop’ style. I really liked this – I presumed it would be an uphill struggle to coax a room of over 200 sleepy delegates (who also happen to be translators – we’re not necessarily used to working in groups, nor even speaking to real people, for that matter ) brainstorm on a Sunday morning, but this actually came off pretty well. So, let’s roll out the tweets:

Day 2 of the conference and I’m sleep-starved due to too much coffee late at night and an over excited kitten. 9:10 AM Nov 23rd

I should explain this tweet. The Saturday night meal at Ciao Bella was great. OK, so they struggled a little to organise our courses, but how many restaurants could cope with a over 90 people arriving all at once? The food was fantastic, as was the wine, and the restaurant was buzzing with conversation. Naturally, the following morning (a SUNDAY, people!), when my alarm sounds at 7am I’m not thrilled about dragging my behind out of bed. Besides that, our kitten Cosmo (he’s nearly 2 years old now, but I still call him a kitten) was hyperactive as he always when his normal routine is changed, had been waking me up with a paw in my face every 30 minutes during the night.

Oh, and by the way, there is snow on the ground in London! 9:52 AM Nov 23rd

Yes, it’s true! On the plus side, it was a treat to wake up to see snow in our garden!

Now happening at the conference: Michael Benis on translation technology 9:54 AM Nov 23rd

Anyway, enough about my sleep issues and the weather, let’s move on to the conference itself. This began with a very comprehensive run-down of translation technology by Michael Benis. There was something for everyone here – if you didn’t already use translation memory/Computer Assisted Translation tools, then Michael told us what their purpose was and showed some screenshots to demonstrate how they work; he also touched on PDF conversion software such as Nuance Scansoft, Mindtouch.com, and Collanos Workspace. Most translators will know Michael for his expert reviews of translation tools, and really sit up and listen when he speaks on the subject, so delegates were scribbling away fiercely at this stage.

Gradually coaxing my tired grumpy self into ‘workshop’ frame of mind at the TSP conference. Great atmosphere here, I must say 11:31 AM Nov 23rd

As I mentioned before, I was grizzly, so the last thing I thought I needed was a group workshop. BUT this was just the ticket to get my brain juices flowing. The workshop was run by Ros Schwartz, on ’style’. We were given a piece of paper with a text in French (an editorial) and its literal translation into English. This was a very creative exercise, and we needed to engage our copywriting skills to have any hope of producing a translated text that was effective in its own right.

Very much enjoying style workshop run by Ros Schwartz – very creative and lots of different approaches to learn from 12:55 PM Nov 23rd

As a lone-worker, I hardly ever get the opportunity to bounce ideas off translator colleagues, and it’s easy to forget how beneficial it is to be able to pick the brains of others. I really did learn a lot from this about how best to approach ‘creative translation’ for marketing texts, for example. It’s hard to know how much licence the translator really has to adapt a client’s text for the target audience, but again, this is why it’s important to have an open dialogue with your client.

After a very impressive Caribbean lunch Jost Zetzsche from translators’ toolkit is up again to ’set priorities straight’… 2:27 PM Nov 23rd

Psst – wow the Caribbean lunch was good – and I was delighted to learn that it was provided by a firm round the corner from where I live – ‘Cummin’ Up‘; glad to have been able to pinpoint another spot to grab a bite for a weekday lunch! After that, Jost Zetzsche did another brief presentation on Machine Translation, called ‘Setting priorities straight: Us or the Machine?’ – a contentious issue!

Quote from jost: ‘how can we get back behind the wheel?’ 2:31 PM Nov 23rd

Jost said that we needed to acknowledge that progress is being made in Machine Translation; OK the results are usually extremely silly, but we need to bear in mind what clients need their translations for. It may be in future that some of us take on ‘post-editing’ of Machine Translated-text as part of our portfolio, but the important thing now is for us to regain some control over how this pans out. We need to be drivers of change, rather than the passengers. This was a point I believe is fundamental to the future of our profession (or any profession, come to that).

Next conference gig: fellow tweeter Nick Rosenthal on content management systems 2:50 PM Nov 23rd

Nick had been tweeting from the conference too, so it was great to be able to share this via my own tweets. I’m completely new to CMS (Content Management Systems), so I was intrigued by this session, entitled ‘TM is dead! Long live CMS!’. I think this is still a fairly specialist area for translators, but again, we need to embrace these things if we want to remain in the driving seat. A quote by Charles Kettering about change and progress, one of my favourites, springs to mind at this point.

TSP As it happens: Bill Maslen on Blogging and Twitter! Benefits of social networking….go geeks! 3:09 PM Nov 23rd

Sooo happy to hear social networking tools, wikis etc mentioned at the conference…how much of it will sink in with freelance translators? 3:23 PM Nov 23rd

This was another dynamic presentation by Bill Maslen, which, to my delight briefly touched on Twitter and social networking. The presentation was called ‘Working methods: collaboration amid constant change’. He also discussed online collaboration and new working tools at our disposal. There is so much out there for us; it seems that what frustrates many people is that the tools change all the time, but to my mind this simply reflects the vastness of the worldwide web. Having so many things available is 90% a fantastic thing (10% an overwhelming thing), and we mustn’t forget that the internet empowers us to search for, select and control which tools fit us best. If you don’t work well with a tool then don’t settle for it, go out (and when I say ‘out’ I mean ‘online’) and find another one!

Major realisation from reading the slides at this conference weekend: I need to have another eye test 3:27 PM Nov 23rd

Next is Istvan Lengyel from MemoQ, with a presentation entitled ‘Getting the most out of references’. I was excited about this, as MemoQ has made such a good impression with most translators I’ve spoken to. I think this is one to watch, and I’ll certainly be looking into it myself. Unfortunately, with my tired, myopic eyes I had trouble reading most of Istvan’s presentation, so can’t report much else (sorry Istvan!) about this one. Mental note: call my optician about getting some new spectacles. After Istvan’s presentation, we moved on to another round table discussion with the speakers. This time it mainly focussed on comparing translation technology tools (we had brave representativesfrom SDL Trados and Wordfast there – NB. watch out for new developments from Wordfast). We also discussed translation clauses in company contracts which us freelancers are asked to sign. Again, the key is discussion with clients at all stages.

Closing up the conference now over a drink. Shattered but it’s been a productive weekend 6:05 PM Nov 23rd

And so, exhausted, we head to the bar for a well-deserved drink. I learned many things from the conference, especially the value of getting out there in the real world to meet people you’ve already met ‘virtually’ via social networking (for example). My live micro-blogging allowed me to keep a record of the event for my own future reference, as well as making it possible to share it with others. Instead of making endless paper notes I’ll probably be able never find again, I now have an extensive, meaningful record that I can refer back to online whenever I want to. The tweets also made it possible for me to make my report more ‘authentic’ – usually after these events people can remember things that never actually happened and as a result the write-up of the event is not quite as accurate as it could be.

Homeward bound from tsp conference…think I will be sofa-bound for rest of the evening. Signing off the live blogging now; it’s been fun! 7:51 PM Nov 23rd

By the way, check out Creative Alchemy for a guide to networking – essential pre-conference reading!

Last weekend I attended the conference ‘The Translator as Strategic Partner‘ here in London at the Camden Centre. Those following me on Twitter may have seen that I was live micro-blogging from the event throughout the weekend. I had intended to do this, as an experimental way of tracking the events and my thoughts in a more as-it-happens fashion than I would have been able to do otherwise, plus it meant  translators across the world on Twitter unable to attend could tap into the conference it virtually. The live tweeting seems to have worked fairly well (as far as it could – live tweets without links are rarely enough to supplement full text) and other tweeting translators seem to have appreciated it.

What I’ve done in this post is to paste in almost of all of my Twitter updates and use them as subheadings to structure my report summarising the main points I took away from the conference. Let’s see how this goes…and be warned that will be long!

Enjoying pre translation conference meal and networking at Betjeman Arms, St pancras, London 8:54 PM Nov 21st

The weekend really began on the Friday evening before the ‘official’ start to the conference.  Lots of delegates arrived promptly for the advance registration, not forgetting to leave enough time for a sneaky drink at the bar before heading out for a meal at the Betjeman Arms. It was great to meet so many other translators from the UK and around the world (it was an international conference), and be able to put faces to the names of people I’ve so far only met ‘virtually’ over the years. I wasn’t a huge fan of the meal itself (but thumbs up for being able to cater for such a large number of people) but the venue itself is awesome, and the company was ace.

Early start. I’ll now be live tweeting from the translator as a strategic partner conference this weekend. Stay tuned! 9:07 AM Nov 22nd

OK, so we get going early on the first morning to help with registration and welcome people on their arrival at the conference. I’m not accustomed to such early starts (6.30am) on a Saturday but I was really excited about the speakers on the agenda. Today we were due to hear from such distinguished translation professionals as Michael Benis (the organiser), Ros Schwartz, Bill Maslen, Cate Avery, Jay Kettle Williams, Jost Zetzsche and Nick Rosenthal.

Welcome address by Michael Benis: being quality driven rather than cost driven 10:14 AM Nov 22nd

Michael starts off by setting the theme of the conference, the subheading of which is ‘a workshop conference for a changing industry’.  The following two quotes basically sum it up:

Quote: “for a communications industry, the translation industry doesn’t communicate very well”. We have a problem guys 10:16 AM Nov 22nd

Quote: “the client cares about their business objectives and bottom line” 10:18 AM Nov 22nd

In short, the translation industry needs to roll with the punches and adapt to clients’ needs in order to survive. As shy, retiring translators we often undersell ourselves, and, in Michael’s words ‘effective cross-cultural communication requires a strategic partner’. What else do offer?

Next up: Ros Schwartz on client relations 10:33 AM Nov 22nd

I was really excited about this session, the title of which was ‘Client relations: Why and how to be proactive’. Ros, who works mainly in creative and literary translation, argued that in translation nowadays fidelity to the original is simply not enough. It has to be more than that; it goes without saying that clients expect us to be reliable, meet our deadlines and stay faithful to the original message of their texts, but what will really make a difference to the ‘bottom line’ (see above) is that their translated texts are fit for purpose. This was a crucial point, since cultural differences usually mean that what would be acceptable for one target audience would not make an impact on that of another cultural/linguistic community.

Copywriting skills and how they add value to your profile as a translator and what you offer to clients 11:02 AM Nov 22nd

Moreover, as translators we are also writers (this was echoed by several speakers at the conference during the weekend), and we can hone these skills in order to add value to what we offer. We can positively seek feedback from our clients to see where we can help them reach their business objectives, such as bringing our copywriting skills into play (Ros also provided a list of writing courses).

Working together as specialists to produce a project: be a problem solver 11:03 AM Nov 22nd

Ros went on to argue that clients have articulated and unarticulated needs from their translators – they may not even realise what they really need from their translations and it is our job to make that our business. As strategic partners and language specialists we are able to identify and highlight blind spots for our clients.

It’s all about communication, guys. Truly excellent talk by ros schwartz 11:25 AM Nov 22nd

All in all a really thought-provoking session. Ros was obviously coming from the perspective of a translator who mainly works with direct clients, but the crucial points should be applicable to those who work with translation companies as well. Highly recommended.

Bill Maslen encourages us to seek out feedback – ask to see the final product that goes to the client 12:34 PM Nov 22nd

Bill Maslen (of the Word Gym) was up next, with a session (intriguingly) entitled ‘Strategic partnerships: principles and solutions, triumphs and tragedies’. Bill used a chart he had clearly put a lot of thought into that very neatly illustrated his point, and demonstrated the buy-in from the top-level guys in companies throughout the product development process, i.e. right at the end, when the translation is commissioned, the buy-in from the top bods is almost zero. What does this tell us?

…seeing the final product will help you understand your client’s needs and the sort of copy they’re looking for for their target market 12:36 PM Nov 22nd

This session followed on very nicely from the one before, again commenting that in terms of the perceived value of what we do, translation really suffers from a brand image problem. To improve this we need to get more involved, and really understand our clients’ needs better. We need to demonstrate how we analyse the texts and the overall process. What’s to stop us asking for a brief?

Interestingly, Bill encouraged us to ask to see the final product that is sent on to the end client. I personally haven’t ever done this, as it’s often slightly more difficult to have a two-way dialogue with translation companies, rather than direct clients, but it’s a very good idea, and something I would like to try.

After a distinctly un-Italian Italian buffet lunch we move on to a translator-client joint presentation. Nice to see a united front 2:12 PM Nov 22nd

This session was with Cate Avery, a patent translator, and one of her clients. This wasn’t a format I’d seen before at a conference, and I liked it. Cate explained the process involved in patent translations with a good dose of amusing anecdotes, and she and her client discussed what it is that makes Cate a good supplier to them.

Update: What does a client look for above all? ‘Reliability’ ‘cost effectiveness’ ‘intelligent approach’ and ‘good working relationship’ 2:27 PM Nov 22nd

These were the words of Cate’s client on what they look for in their translation suppiers. In short, ‘reliability’, ‘cost effectiveness’, and ‘good working relationship’ shouldn’t be anything new, but ‘intelligent approach’ wasn’t something I’d heard before. To me it goes without saying that translators should have an ‘intelligent approach’ to their work, but perhaps this needs to be demonsrated more clearly in how we approach our clients and in our marketing campaigns.

Paraphrased quote from Jay kettle Williams: ‘the days when we can call ourselves a translator, full stop, are gone’. 3:00 PM Nov 22nd

I don’t think I was the only one amazed by Jay Kettle Williams’ superb oratory skills. He presented a very entertaining and lively session called ‘It’s not what you want to give the client, it’s what the client needs’. This may have been a controversial way of looking at things for many translators, but it continued the theme already established earlier in the day. An true expert on linguistics, Jay calls translators the ‘code-breakers’ for their clients; highlighting the fact that we often do so much more than simply ‘translate’ A to B.

Now speaking: Jost Zetzsche on idealised notions of translators. He asks ‘does quality spell u-s-a-b-i-l-i-t-y?’ 4:20 PM Nov 22nd

Jost Zetzsche, of Toolkit fame, spoke about our age-old idealisation of the patron saint of translators, St. Jerome. We risk being constrained by this idealisation of a translator who, let’s face it, innovative as he was at the time, was born c. 347. Instead, we need to roll with the times and think about the true purpose of our texts – I empathised with this, and it returned to the discussion around a text’s fitness for purpose again. Oh, and Jost also briefly introduced us to his cute little mascot Jeromobot.

Closing up the ‘official conference’ part of day 1. Q&A discussion, prize draw, and then much needed drinks and dinner! 5:27 PM Nov 22nd

The first day of the conference ended at around 5.30pm, following a comprehensive Q&A session with the panel speakers which dealt with issues such as ROI from marketing campaigns, ‘educating’ project managers who don’t like translators with ‘queries’, where agencies can find good translators, reference documents and translation tests (one panellist expressed the view that receivied wisdom tells us that quality translators will not offer to do free tests for clients – hadn’t thought of it that way).

A particular quote I remember from this part of the day was that ‘nobody is going to read your texts as carefully as a translator’ (I can’t remember who it was, unfortunately). How true that is.

An enjoyable evening’s networking was spent with 91 other delegates at Ciao Bella in Bloomsbury. My report on day 2 of the confernce will follow next week…

Check out this insider’s guide to London written by Sarah Dillon on Brazen Careerist. Highly recommended.

By the way, in view of the UK’s current success in the Beijing Olympics, this Londoner is already getting very excited about the 2012 London Olympics!