ITI Conference 2011

Welcome to the website for the ITI 25th Anniversary Conference 2011, to be held in Birmingham at the NEC Gallery on 7 & 8 May 2011. Our draft agenda has now been published and can be viewed online or downloaded in PDF format.

Our 25th Anniversary Conference is sponsored by MFL Professional Partnerships, and by Kilgray.

 

Thanks to , here is a captured Twitter feed for the #iticonf hashtag for the duration of the conference.

Twitter _ Search - #ITIconf

SDL, the company behind the ever popular SDL Trados Studio translation environment tool, has taken two slots in our software presentation room at the conference. They will use these sessions to tell delegates about the “Single Document Translation Process” and to answer delegates’ questions.

The slots reserved for SDL are:

• Saturday, 1400-1500
• Sunday, 1030-1130

Spaces at the presentation will be available on a first-come, first-served basis, but don’t worry if you don’t get in – SDL  is also exhibiting at the conference and the SDL Trados guys will be more than happy to take you through the software on their stand.

Information about SDL

www.translationzone.com

 

Kilgray, the company behind the increasingly popular MemoQ translation environment tool, has taken two slots in our software presentation room at the conference. They will use these sessions to tell delegates more about the MemoQ software and to answer delegates’ questions.

The slots reserved for Kilgray are:

• Saturday, 1030-1130
• Sunday, 1200-1300

Spaces at the presentation will be available on a first-come, first-served basis, but don’t worry if you don’t get in – Kilgray is also exhibiting at the conference and the MemoQ guys will be more than happy to take you through the software on their stand.

Information about Kilgray

Kilgray Translation Technologies
H-5700 Gyula Béke sugárút 72. II/8.
Hungary

Postal address:
H-1255 Budapest, P.O.B.: 7
Hungary

Email: info@kilgray.com
www.kilgray.com

We have had a phenomenal response in terms of bookings for the conference, and now you have just nine more days to reserve your place. With over 150 delegates, this promises to be one of the most popular events ITI has staged, and we would like to make sure that everyone who wants to can be there!

So don’t hesitate any longer – remember the conference fee can be recouped in just a couple of medium-sized translation jobs, and you could well meet that new customer at the conference! You can book your place by clicking the Bookings link in the menu on the left.

ITI is pleased to announce its keynote speaker for the 25th Anniversary Conference, to take place on 7 & 8 May at the NEC Gallery near Birmingham. The keynote session will be given by Nicholas Ostler, the well known scholar and author of books on language history.

Taking the title “English: the Last Lingua Franca?” for his speech, Nicholas will talk around the themes of his latest book, ”The Last Lingua Franca – English until the Return to Babel”. Nicholas is a popular and entertaining speaker and his insight into the development of the English language will be of great interest to translators and interpreters working into and out of English.

More information about Nicholas can be found in his biography on the conference website, while reviews of his book can be found at:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/dec/04/last-lingua-franca-ostler-review

http://news.scotsman.com/features/Book-review-The-last-Lingua.6634109.jp

http://www.tnr.com/book/review/tongues-twisted

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703609204575641060780481050.html

One of the key benefits of the ITI Conference for many delegates is the opportunity to meet up informally with colleagues working in similar fields and those with shared language combinations.
At the NEC Gallery venue in Birmingham, we have plenty of open space in which informal groups can gather together. So if you want to put faces to twitter IDs, practise your Spanish or chat about the latest news in your field of specialisation, then let us know using the comments form.
The Conference Fringe is a great chance for you to maximise the benefits of attending the conference - don’t miss out!

In the latest edition of ITI’s journal, the Bulletin, the booking form for the conference on the inside back cover indicates that the conference dinner will be held at the Hilton Metropole hotel at the National Exhibition Centre. Please note that this has actually not yet been confirmed, and may change. An announcement concerning the dinner will be made within the next couple of weeks, before the end of January.

We apologise for any confusion and inconvenience this may have caused.

Has your business bought you a present for Christmas yet? An upgrade for your translation memory software, perhaps, or the latest edition of your favourite dictionary?

Well if not, now is the perfect time for your business to treat you to a ticket to the next ITI Conference, taking place in Birmingham on 7 & 8 May 2011. CPD - or continuing professional development - is a key way of demonstrating to your clients that you are serious about the work you do for them. And there aren’t many more fun ways of doing CPD than attending a conference that is aimed directly at you!

So while you are busy sending the Christmas cards out to your clients, consider this - wouldn’t they rather have the peace of mind of knowing that you have invested wisely in your professional development?  Don’t forget, you might be able to deduct some or all of your conference fees from your income on your tax bill, as a legitimate business expense. So go ahead and have your business treat you to an extra special Christmas present!

Click to open our Bookings page.

When it comes to pricing, the conference committee has been well aware of the fact that purse strings may now be tighter than they have been in the past. The full list of prices can be found in the table below.

With an early-bird that expires at the end of February, there is plenty of time for delegates to choose the best moment to book. However, the VAT increase in January 2011 does mean that, effectively, those who book earliest will make the greatest savings, since after the New Year even the early-bird price will rise slightly in line with the VAT hike.

A booking form is available on the website, along with a provisional programme so that those who are only able to book for one day can choose which day they want to attend (though naturally, we would like you to book for both days if you can).

At just £248 for two days, the basic early-bird price for those booking between 4 January and 28 February 2011 represents excellent value for money. Equivalent conferences in other professions can cost double this, and we are confident that the sessions and networking opportunities on offer at the ITI conference will give you the chance to earn back your conference fee very quickly. As usual, ITI member prices are also granted to members of FIT organisations and the ATC. Note that prices do not include accommodation.

If you are in any doubt as to the usefulness of attending an ITI conference, read Matthew Young’s article about how his decision to attend the 2009 conference in London brought him a major new customer.

Table: Pricing for the ITI Conference 2011.

	Price ex. VAT	Price inc. VAT before 4 January	Price inc. VAT from 4 January
ITI members - 2 days early-bird	£206.67	£242.83	£248.00
ITI members - 2 days non early bird	£258.33		£310.00
ITI members - 1 day early-bird	£165.33	£194.67	£198.40
ITI members - 1 day non early bird	£206.67		£248.00
Non-ITI - 2 days early-bird	£310.00	£364.25	£372.00
Non-ITI - 2 days non early bird	£387.50		£465.00
Non-ITI - 1 day early-bird	£248.00	£291.40	£297.60
Non-ITI - 1 day non early bird	£310.00		£372.00
Students - 2 days	£124.00	£145.70	£148.80

Following our potentially explosive problem in staging the conference at Conference Aston, ITI is now pleased to announce that it has agreed to hold its conference in 2011 at the National Exhibition Centre, adjacent to Birmingham Airport and Birmingham International railway station.

The NEC is well known as a venue for major rock concerts and exhibitions, but it also has excellent facilities for smaller events. ITI has secured the exclusive use of the NEC Galleries conference suite, which is located on the first floor, above the public areas of the Atrium section of the exhibition centre.

Exclusive use means that we are able to stage multiple parallel sessions, and offer exhibitors and delegates a large area in which to network and do business.

For more details on the NEC Galleries, see the NEC website and the other links on this conference website.

Autumn is in full swing here, and preparations for ITI Conference 2011 are continuing apace. This morning we have added the details of some more sessions, including a presentation of the findings of a survey of professional translators, 10 years on from the original study, and a freelancer’s experiences of spending a week or so in the media spotlight. See the Programme page for more information.

Tomorrow is a red-letter day, as we will be visiting two alternative venues for the conference in Birmingham. You have probably already heard about the explosive news that greeted us two or three weeks ago, and we hope to confirm our new venue in the next week or so.

In the meantime, keep checking your RSS feed and follow the twitter feed

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!

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 (/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

Welcome to the website of the ITI Conference 2011. The Conference, which has the broad title “Expanding Horizons”, will take place on 7 & 8 May 2011 at NEC Gallery, at the National Exhibition Centre close to Birmingham, United Kingdom.

The Conference will give delegates the opportunity to experience a broad mix of practical sessions and workshops on many different aspects of translation and interpreting, and on professional development and running your own business as a freelancer.

Over the next few weeks and months, we will be adding more and more material to the site as we start to firm up our programme. Details on the papers that have been accepted for inclusion in the programme can be found on the Programme page. There are also links to speaker biographies.

Why not use the RSS feed option at the bottom of the page to subscribe to the ITI Conference 2011 website – this will notify you of changes and additions to the website as they occur, so you can be sure you always have the latest Conference news at your fingertips.

Thank you for your visit to our website today. Please do have a look around and find out more about the conference.