Until this year, I’d been to lots of translation workshops but never to a big conference. I’ve always been uncertain whether the investment of time and money would be worthwhile. I was particularly sceptical about the Elia Together conference, whose stated aim is to bring together freelance translators and translation agency project managers, since I am more interested in acquiring more direct clients than in expanding my work with agencies. However, friends who had been to the previous edition of Elia Together in Barcelona were enthusiastic, and so when I was invited to speak on a panel at the 2017 conference in Berlin I thought this would be a good opportunity to see what the fuss was about.
What impressed me most was the sheer scale of the event. There were nearly 400 attendees, and I spoke to a huge number of people, including people who I’d previously only met online as well as many other translators from lots of different countries and language combinations. For me, this was the most valuable and important part of the whole experience. Interestingly, many of the other attendees also saw the event primarily as an opportunity to network with fellow translators rather than with agencies. There was some scepticism about the quality of some of the agencies that attended (at least one has a score of 2 on the Proz Blue Board). However, others did (sometimes to their own surprise) meet better-quality agency clients that they hope to work with in future, and it was in any case interesting to talk with project managers about their experiences of the industry.
There was an extensive programme of talks, mostly focusing on relationships but also with a strand on technology. The quality of talks was mixed. Some were excellent and genuinely useful, others were either delivered well but lacked content or else had interesting content but were delivered in a less engaging way. The highlight for me was a talk by translators Galina Green and Paula Hedley on “Cooperation not competition” in which they discussed their personal collaboration: they revise each other’s work and market themselves to clients as a two-person team. It was a very engaging and inspiring presentation. Similar arrangements were described in several of the other talks and the idea of collaboration between freelance translators was a consistent theme that ran throughout the conference. Another common theme was ways of improving working relationships between freelance translators and project managers. That was also the topic of our own presentation, in which a combined panel of translators and project managers shared their perspectives on factors that can impact positively or negatively on the agency–translator relationship. I was able to share some of my pet peeves with a receptive audience; I can only hope that a few project managers take some of the points on board and make life a little easier for their translators (and vice versa, as I’m sure being a project manager cannot be the easiest job in the world)!
The conference was generally very well organised. It moved along at a brisk pace, was sensibly structured and cultivated a very motivating atmosphere. I was very impressed by the work of the organising committee, and I certainly had no complaints about the quality and (especially) quantity of the food, though several of the Brits did mention craving biscuits to go with their tea! There is still more scope to develop the conference’s stated aim of bringing together project managers and translators, perhaps with some more innovative formats. The “Together Fair”, where agencies ran stands and translators queued up to speak to them, wasn’t entirely successful; a format where agencies made clearer what languages, specialisations, technologies, etc. they are looking for or where agencies approach translators rather than, or as well as, vice versa might make more sense. I didn’t attend the gala dinner, which I felt was overpriced at €90, but others who went said that the venue (a converted pumping station) was “spectacular” and that they enjoyed the food and drink even if they didn’t necessarily consume €90’s worth.
All in all, if you’re already convinced that big conferences aren’t a worthwhile investment, it’s unlikely that Elia Together will change your mind. But despite my own scepticism, I can certainly say that I had a very enjoyable time and that the experience will be of benefit in my own work. I would recommend taking advantage of the networking opportunities rather than planning to sit through the entire programme or expecting to acquire lots of new clients. I can also, incidentally, recommend attending as a group – a delegation of 11 of us travelled together from Cardiff to Berlin, which made the whole thing a lot more fun!
And now, following my first translation conference, the next one coming up in my calendar will be the ITI’s own conference on our doorstep in Cardiff. I look forward to seeing how it compares.
An edited version of this post appeared in the ITI Bulletin (May/June 2017). Reposted with permission.
There was an extensive programme of talks, mostly focusing on relationships but also with a strand on technology. The quality of talks was mixed. Some were excellent and genuinely useful, others were either delivered well but lacked content or else had interesting content but were delivered in a less engaging way. The highlight for me was a talk by translators Galina Green and Paula Hedley on “Cooperation not competition” in which they discussed their personal collaboration: they revise each other’s work and market themselves to clients as a two-person team. It was a very engaging and inspiring presentation. Similar arrangements were described in several of the other talks and the idea of collaboration between freelance translators was a consistent theme that ran throughout the conference. Another common theme was ways of improving working relationships between freelance translators and project managers. That was also the topic of our own presentation, in which a combined panel of translators and project managers shared their perspectives on factors that can impact positively or negatively on the agency–translator relationship. I was able to share some of my pet peeves with a receptive audience; I can only hope that a few project managers take some of the points on board and make life a little easier for their translators (and vice versa, as I’m sure being a project manager cannot be the easiest job in the world)!
The conference was generally very well organised. It moved along at a brisk pace, was sensibly structured and cultivated a very motivating atmosphere. I was very impressed by the work of the organising committee, and I certainly had no complaints about the quality and (especially) quantity of the food, though several of the Brits did mention craving biscuits to go with their tea! There is still more scope to develop the conference’s stated aim of bringing together project managers and translators, perhaps with some more innovative formats. The “Together Fair”, where agencies ran stands and translators queued up to speak to them, wasn’t entirely successful; a format where agencies made clearer what languages, specialisations, technologies, etc. they are looking for or where agencies approach translators rather than, or as well as, vice versa might make more sense. I didn’t attend the gala dinner, which I felt was overpriced at €90, but others who went said that the venue (a converted pumping station) was “spectacular” and that they enjoyed the food and drink even if they didn’t necessarily consume €90’s worth.
All in all, if you’re already convinced that big conferences aren’t a worthwhile investment, it’s unlikely that Elia Together will change your mind. But despite my own scepticism, I can certainly say that I had a very enjoyable time and that the experience will be of benefit in my own work. I would recommend taking advantage of the networking opportunities rather than planning to sit through the entire programme or expecting to acquire lots of new clients. I can also, incidentally, recommend attending as a group – a delegation of 11 of us travelled together from Cardiff to Berlin, which made the whole thing a lot more fun!
And now, following my first translation conference, the next one coming up in my calendar will be the ITI’s own conference on our doorstep in Cardiff. I look forward to seeing how it compares.
An edited version of this post appeared in the ITI Bulletin (May/June 2017). Reposted with permission.
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