Hello! My name is Giorgia Garavini and I am a freelance Italian translator from English and French, based in Leeds. I have been living in the UK for about 9 years, 3 and a half years in London and the rest in Leeds. I’m originally from a town called Faenza located near Bologna in the north of Italy.

I decided to go freelance at the beginning of 2013 and I mainly translate, edit and proofread business, marketing, technical and government material.

I obtained a degree in Translation and Conference Interpreting and a diploma in Business & Foreign Languages. After graduating, I worked in Italy as both an in-house and freelance translator in a translation agency specialized in manuals, user guides and technical documentation. Despite a general idea that translating manuals might be a little daunting and boring, I must say that I discovered that I didn’t mind this type of material at all and on the contrary, I really enjoyed doing terminology research and getting to know even the smallest part of a particular device.

I then moved to London where I worked for 3 and a half years as Editorial Assistant for a media company, assisting the team in the monthly production and review of TV listings on behalf of international TV channels such as Discovery Channel and ESPN, with particular reference to the Italian language. Here I particularly enjoyed the ESPN schedules, because I could concentrate on one of my biggest passions: sports.

Following this, I spent 3 years as the in-house Italian translator at a major international translation agency in Leeds, where I translated, edited, proofread and QAed a wide variety of texts from English and French into Italian in sectors such as marketing, business, legal and government.

In addition to the above, I also carried out freelance translation activity on a part-time basis – especially in the travel & tourism sector – until I decided to make it my career full-time.

This will be the first time I attend the ITI conference. I have been attending quite a few events organised by YTI in the last two years and I have just recently joined ITI as Associate Member. I am really looking forward to the conference, both for the interesting sessions and the possibility of meeting new colleagues.

I will be there on Saturday and I hope to get to know many people, so don’t be shy (I will try not to be either!) and come and say ‘ciao’!