ITI Conference 2011

Archive for September, 2010

When you’re organising a conference for a couple of hundred translators and interpreters from around the world, you’re bound to encounter one or two little hiccups. Little things that crop up when you’re not paying attention… Most of these hiccups can be overcome with a little imagination.

One of the odder, and biggest hiccups we’ve ever encountered hit us today. Our venue hosts, Conference Aston, contacted us to let us know that unfortunately they are unable to let us have access to the Lakeside Centre on Sunday, 8 May 2011, since on that day, demolition experts will be busy blowing up two nearby student accommodation tower blocks as part of a phase of development that will be completed in 2013.

While we’re naturally sad that our chosen venue will not be able to accommodate us, we’re working with Conference Aston this week to find a solution. Rest assured that the conference is still very much on track, and we hope to be able to give you a progress update soon. Keep up with our RSS feed and our Twitter feed to be among the first to hear the news!

We’d like to thank Conference Aston for all the help they have given us and have promised to continue giving us so that we can resolve this little challenge as quickly as we can. Whatever happens next, you can be certain that the ITI Conference will go with a bang! And at least we will know what that bang is, when it goes off on the Sunday morning!

In the second of our series What does ITI Conference mean for you, Cate Avery FITI explains why she has kept returning to the conference to keep her finger on the pulse of the translation and interpreting industry.

I first attended the ITI Conference in 1989, not long after joining ITI, and I’ve been to a good number of conferences since then.

One of the really rewarding things about the conference is that it opens a window into current trends. It’s noticeable that the crop of speakers at any given conference will have something in common – not that they speak on the same topic, but that their current preoccupations overlap.

Perhaps several of them allude to translating “in the cloud”; or there are a number of passing mentions of what difference the new European translation standard has made in practice; or there are repeated references to new translation companies that I hadn’t previously heard of, but which have become big players while I was busy doing something else (translating, perhaps?). Usually, these themes aren’t the subject of the presentations made, but are mentioned in passing.

This means that you pick up on trends in our industry without even realising it. Admittedly, this makes it hard to quantify what you’ve learned, or to put a value on it. But then, if you aren’t aware of a new trend, you can’t quantify how useful it would have been to know about it, either.

Over the years I have made a lot of friends among my colleagues, and having the opportunity to talk over these ideas and ask them for their opinions is not only valuable and stimulating, but also tremendous fun!

Percy graduated in 1989 from the Opleiding Tolk-Vertaler (School of Translation and Interpreting) in Maastricht, the Netherlands.

After having worked with a translation agency as an in-house translator for a couple of years, she switched to the IT business, where she worked as a technical writer and copywriter, information designer, web editor and trainer.

Translation, however, has always been her real passion and in 2007 she set up her own business as a full-time freelance translator, specialising in advertising and marketing material (transcreation), human rights, journalism, travel and tourism, art and fashion.

She is a member of the Netherlands Society of Interpreters and Translators (NGTV) and an Associate of the Institute of Translation & Interpreting (ITI).

Visit her website for more information: www.pb-translations.com

Lots of people who have never before attended an ITI conference ask why they should bite the bullet and book their place for next May in Birmingham.

Over the next few weeks this website will run an irregular series of short articles by ITI members, explaining their relationships with the ITI conference.

These people, who have very kindly donated their words free of charge, represent a broad cross-section of the ITI membership.

Read what they have to say and decide for yourself whether booking a place at the ITI conference next May might not be the best business decision you make this year!

Our series kicks off with an article by Matt Young, a Japanese to English translator who talks about the very tangible benefit he has seen from attending the last ITI conference, held in 2009 in London.

Don’t forget to sign up to our RSS feed (http://www.iti-conference.org.uk/conference-2011/feed/) to receive immediate notification when the next article is published on the site.

You can also join in the conversation yourself, by commenting on this and any other article on this website.

So if you’ve had a similar experience to Matt, or any of the writers of our subsequent articles, please do write to let us know!

The Comment box can be found at the bottom of each article.

We hope you enjoy reading what these ITI members have to say about the conference, and we look forward to reading about your own experiences too.

In this first article in a short, irregular series, Matt Young explains why he is so glad he decided to attend the last ITI conference, held in London in 2009. Many ITI members will have had similar experiences, so it is clear that attending the ITI conference quite simply makes good business sense. Once you’ve read Matt’s words, why not let us know your own experiences, using the Comment function at the bottom of the page.

My decision to attend the 2009 ITI Conference was rather last minute. It meant a weekend away from my wife and (then) new-born son, London is a bit of a trek from my home in Shropshire, and the conference fee of around £300 seemed somewhat expensive.

However, my concerns were short-lived: the quality of the speakers was almost universally excellent, the surroundings (The Institute of Mechanical Engineers) were both comfortable and inspiring, and I was able to meet a number of translators that I had hitherto only known as Twitter names.

Perhaps the most significant benefit from my trip to the conference, however, was an encounter with a previously unknown (to me) translation company who were there to pick up their award for “Best Translation Company”, as voted for by translators.

I figured that if enough of my peers had given them the thumbs up to receive this award, they must be a company worth getting to know. I had a brief chat with their representative who picked up the award and just a few weeks after the conference, I had my first enquiry from them.

Our association has since blossomed and I now count them among my favourite clients.

I have recouped my conference fee may times over thanks to the work they have put my way, and this has fundamentally changed the way I think about attending such events.

Just remember that it takes just one small translation job from one new client to make a return on your investment.

Transcreation

Workshop led by Percy Balemans

We have all heard of advertising campaigns gone wrong because they were not adapted for the target audience: slogans which, when translated, turned out to mean something completely different and seriously damaged the product’s or brand’s reputation. To avoid these mistakes, advertising copy should be transcreated rather than translated, to make sure it is specifically written for the target audience.

This workshop provides some background on how transcreation works and offers participants a chance to give it a try themselves.

Content

Introduction:

• What is transcreation?
• What types of texts are transcreated?
• What are the typical target audiences?
• Which skills does a good transcreator need to have?
• Which clients offer transcreation jobs?
• Which source material does the transcreator need?
• What are the typical deliverables?
• How do you go about creating a transcreation?
• Examples of transcreation jobs

Exercise:

During the exercise, participants will work in groups to translate a slogan into their target language. Slogans will be available in the following source languages: English, Dutch, German and French.

Learning objectives

How does transcreation differ from “regular” translation: how does it work, which skills are required and what do you have to keep in mind when accepting a transcreation job.

Workshop schedule

Introduction: approx. 15 minutes

Exercise: approx. 15 minutes

Discuss exercise results: approx. 15 minutes

Speaker

This workshop will be led by Percy Balemans, a Dutch translator who says she “chose to become a translator because I enjoy being creative with language and juggling with words in order to convey the same message in a different language and against a different cultural background.”

Percy’s biography is located here, but in the you can also find out all about her on her own website, www.pb-translations.com