TriKonf 2013, Freiburg, Oct 2013
Viewed through Ellen's eyesI always wonder if conferences are a good business investment, whether they open doors through exposure or not. I have not been able to figure it out, but I do know I have had fun at the conferences I have attended and have many lasting friendships at most. It is, for me, a good investment, maybe not for my business but certainly for my personal life.
Most translators who have been to conferences during the last few years are bound to know Anne Diamantidis the organizer of TriKonf 2013 for GxP Language Services. This trilingual conference took place in Germany very near the Swiss and French borders. It is a beautiful town and the central location at the Historical Merchants Hall was quite imposing but once there we soon felt at home and learned to ignore the bells of the minster every 15 minutes.
On Thursday 17th of October 2013 the translators started arriving, especially those who had registered for the Friday workshops. On Friday more translators arrived and Anne gave a brief tour of Freiburg. We did meander through the town but most were already in networking mode and not really in sight-seeing mode.
The first dinner was in the crowded market hall where we could not all sit together but we all managed to stay with some new or old friends. I had dinner with Yana, her husband and their daughter Barbara, just three years old and Henry and Alessandra. Across from us were some translators I had met during the tour and a few others.
It is always good to join the activities the day before the conference where you meet a smaller group of attendants especially if you are going to your first conference where you do not know anyone yet.
I have attended conferences before but this was my first conference as a speaker. I hurried to my hotel after dinner as I wanted to reread my presentation and maybe add a few slides. Some brave souls went out for a drink but most returned to their rooms before midnight as they all know a conference requires quite some stamina.
Ralf Lemster is a good presenter, he can make anything sound interesting, but the whole presentation was about the fact that we need to specialize and act professional. He believes we should never say "I am JUST a translator". Jost Zetzsche had bored me at previous presentations with his ever-present Jeromobot, but this time he had a good presentation on how translation has saved lives or culture through time. After the two keynote speakers the attending associations were given the floor. They first presented themselves and told us about their mission statement. The fact that the DVÜD was not part of the BDÜ, and that Tanya Quintieri was representing the new kid on the block seems to have been essential as it was specified at least twice. Anne-Marie Robert told us there was a black market for translation in France but had no figures to provide as this is a group of translators who do not pay taxes, therefore, no figures are available. Marcelo Neves Almeida was representing a Brazilian association with 400 members. His main goal was to put ABRATES on the international map in order to grow at a national level. A few questions were raised. Alessandra asked how one could determine which national association would be the best one to join as it was difficult to determine their differences and their advantages. There is as yet no objective information available regarding the activities of associations to help translators decide which to join if any. Hearing them speak I would have thought that EVERY translator was a member of an association of translators and/or interpreters. I know this is not the case. I therefore asked if they had any idea as to the percentage of the translation industry they actually represented. This was answered by Anne-Marie and Ralf regarding their own associations.
After lunch we had to choose one of three rooms to go to. For the first talk the decision was simple for me as there was one in German, one in French and one in English. Rebecca Petras told us how a small organisation was addressed after the Haiti disaster, which lead to major growth. Translation without Borders is based on volunteers, both the board of advisors and the translators provide their services for free. Rebecca explained that in Western Europe it is not as important when the language of the care giver and the care receiver is not the same, as there is usually a common language and we have many means to receive information. In less populated areas where the care giver and the receiver do not have any language in common it is important that information is spread in ways that do reach the intended receivers. She used a specific patient to demonstrate the problems. Rebecca also told us that at some universities medical students receive credits for proof-reading Wikipedia medical entries. Rebecca also told us that the Translators without Borders Workspace is powered by Proz.com, which provides 3 employees to do so. She also stated that they did not need that many German to English translators (and vice versa) as they need other languages and that the translators can also provide NGO’s which are then screened to determine whether they suit the criteria. Translators without borders keeps track of all the free translations they provide and calculate their value in dollars, which is subsequently posted on the website. She was unsure how this was done and was not able to tell us the rate for the calculations.
Translators without Borders has various projects in progress:
Translation through the Translators without Borders Workspace.
Translation of 100 most read medical articles into 100 languages.
Translation of health care training material.
Setting up their Kenyan Translation Center.
This talk will not influence my work as such but it was very interesting and Rebecca was clearly convinced of the importance of the work of the organization, that it does save lives.
Rebecca also showed how smart she was by having us all provide our business cards for her to draw one. The winner would go to Stockholm to the Nordic translation industry forum. Andrew Davies won but he had already left the room and had to be asked to return as he said he NEVER ever wins anything.
Next I attended Alessandra’s presentation on Transcreation. She first told us about the process of transcreation, that we first read the brief, then we panic (it seems to be a necessary part of the creative process) and then find some options. Next we become warriors and get rid of the worst options. Once we have the required 3 to 5 options, we need to fill in the form or write a report on the various options including their back translations.
Alessandra then walked us through a few transcreation processes. First she stressed the differences between the objectives and features of Spiderman and Spiderman India, then the family atmosphere of the Barilla pasta and the different approaches in other countries depending on the way they viewed Italy. She also discussed the Haribo jingles in various languages and indicated the differences. In some the fact that the product is for young and old is stressed but in others this information is left out.
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At the coffee break I went back to my hotel to reread my presentation and to tweak the slides as I had not gotten far after the dinner the night before. I, therefore, missed a few great presentations.... including that of Paul Filkin on interoperability, Pablo Mugüerza on quality, Ana Iaria on memoQ, Henry Jansen on CVs, for which he used fictional CVs of well-known medieval figures (as John Moran had been unable to attend to give his on productivity) and that of Joanna Gough.
I did attend the networking dinner that night and it was a memorable evening...... The conversation flowed freely as did the water, wine and beer. We all made new friends. I even convinced three lovely ladies and one gentleman to attend my presentations and, if all else failed, they could be my dancers to make sure my presentation was ‘different’. We discussed various topics from wedding planning to music and dancing. The two charming ladies stated they would dance if it was the Madison and the other lady wanted to dance salsa but needed a partner..... I do not mention their names as they may become upset if I do....
Once again I tweaked my presentation and slides. I did get up at 6 a.m. to do so but even then was not satisfied until around 11 a.m. I, therefore, missed the presentation by Professor Philipp Koehn, which I have been told was very interesting. I returned to the Kaisersaal and heard most of the roundtable discussion on Machine Translation.
Lunch on Sunday was to be at any of the many locations on or near the square. I decided
I had no choice but to miss Stefan Gentz’s talk on interoperability and Nelia’s presentation (in French) as it was time for mine. My talk was about technical translation, what it is and the tools you need. It was my very first talk at a conference, which seemed to surprise many. It took me about 10 minutes to forget the audience and just talk......After which they did get my jokes.
I closed off my presentation by stating that context is everything. I asked the audience whether they knew more than one translation for camel in their own language. The next slide said that if we back translate it, it is either bucket or glass. I hope you all now know the clue..... the translation for camel is bucket or glass if the initial context is ‘The straw that broke the camel’s back’ as the saying in most other languages involves a bucket or a glass that overflows.
After my talk I was told Professor Koehn had been at my presentation, and I later heard he had been at two after that, but had fallen asleep. Well, I am glad I was interesting enough to have kept sleep at bay ;-)
Even though I do not really do medical translations (except medical equipment if and when the review is undertaken by a physician or medical specialist), I next went to Yana Kuvalkina’s talk on PRO (Patient-Reported Outcomes). It was interesting to hear her talk about the problems she has experienced and how she attempts to communicate on the issues to improve the overall quality.
Yana finished before time so I got to hear the last bit of Stefan Gentz’s presentation on XML. Marek Pawalec presented on various ways to deal with problems which are otherwise time-consuming. I did not learn anything new but it was nice to hear someone talk to translators about other ways to do something by applying different programs and using regular expressions.
Siegfried Armbruster then informed attendants they could compliment Anne but should address any and all complaints to him. Anne thanked everybody for making TriKonf such a success and where we were planning to meet for drinks and dinner and drinks.
I went to the hotel for a short rest and then joined the conference attendants for dinner. It was great to have a last chat with those who had not left yet. We chatted some more and then really needed to go sleep, the match sticks were not working any longer.....
On Monday I had breakfast with Alessandra, Enrico and Henry. Then we packed and Alessandra left for Basel. We met a few other stragglers, climbed the tower of the minster and waved goodbye to Freiburg until TriKonf 2015, from the 9th to the 11th of October.