Where Have All the Translators Gone?

Well, for the American translators and interpreters during election week in the U.S., that would be, drumroll, please: The 49th Annual ATA (American Translators Association) Conference in Orlando, Florida. From November 4 (yes, we know, election day) until November 8, several thousand language professionals will descend upon the Hilton in the Walt Disney World Resort (really!) to partake in what is arguably the biggest exchange of translation information in the country.

Clients, consider yourselves warned: get your projects in before the end of October, as most of my fellow translators and I will be entering into heated language discussions, dissecting pronouns, false friends, and learning from each other, among other language-oriented activities in Orlando.

I will be attending several very interesting pre-conference seminars on November 4, and have decided, as I have done in previous years, to fully focus my energy on the conference (translation: taking no work with me). I will, after all, need a lot of energy, as I average four sessions a day, plus networking events, happy hours, division meetings, roaming around the exhibitor hall to score the latest and greatest dictionaries, etc. My Blackberry is not invited.

The ATA Conference will be my fifth in a row, and I can't sing its praises enough: the hundreds of sessions run the gamut from accounting principles for translators (taught by expert German translator Ted Wozniak) to dilemmas in translating Cormac McCarthy's work to Web 2.0 for translators, translation environment tools, etc. etc. Some of the sessions I am looking forward to the most this year are: Negotiating Skills and Tips and Techniques for Getting Media Coverage in Your Area. I have already planned out my schedule for the entire week, and needless to say, I have several sessions I would like to go to for each time slot. Next time I am bringing my twin, Dagy. I will have to look into discounted fees for twins.

As if all this is not enough, the entire conference is a bargain at around $300 for the three-day main conference for ATA members. I have been to marketing conferences that run $700 per day, so this really is a sweet deal. Of course, the icing on the cake is always the incredible time I have with my favorite translator friends. I also look forward to finally meeting some colleagues I have only met in the virtual world of ATA listservs and fellow translation bloggers.

For more information and to register for the conference, check out the ATA site.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Go ATA!
Thank you for the reminder to sign up!!

Abigail on October 16, 2008 at 11:03 AM said...

Yes, I definitely wouldn't like to be a project manager trying to find a translator in the first week of November! I'll see you there, Judy.

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