I’m still new to freelancing, having set up as a sole trader in March last year. I’ve recently moved back to Newcastle (albeit temporarily) so am very pleased that my first ITI conference has conveniently been planned on my doorstep while I am here!

I first came to Newcastle to begin my BA at Newcastle University in Modern Languages & Linguistics (French & Spanish) then started my career working for P&G up here in roles where my languages were, for the most part, more of a bonus than a requirement. That said, I took every opportunity to translate in-house for them and landed my first big break in a fully French-speaking role liaising with Paris daily…. Just after I’d decided I was leaving to move yet further north to Edinburgh for my MSc in Translating & Conference Interpreting at Heriot-Watt, where I was tutored by ITI Conference delegate Rebecca Hendry.

After my MSc, some time spent translating and project managing in-house in Catalonia and a number of months based closer to my family in the Midlands, I moved back up here last Autumn. Over the next few months, my fiancé and I will be deciding whether to move to the more adventurous option of Gran Canaria (where I spent the majority of my year abroad as a student – yes, really) or the more sensible option of Bristol. Oh, and I’m getting married in July, so I will be Victoria Le Grove quite soon!

Looking forward to meeting you next week!

Hello! My language combination is English/Portuguese and I specialize in technical and scientific translations. My path into translations was not through a degree in languages but through an engineering degree and a PhD in Hydrometallurgy. After lecturing, R&D work in several continents (English and Portuguese speaking countries) and working in industry in the UK, a chance encounter with someone who is now a good friend made me venture into translations!

I have been an ITI member since I started translating, about 20 years ago!

I went to my first ITI conference in London, held at Imperial College. I felt I had to go to that particular conference, because it was very much like “going home”. Imperial College had been my home for five years, during my student years.

Another ITI conference I still remember was at the time that Graham Cross was the ITI chairman. I cannot remember the year but I do remember that I won a copy of Trados software, at a time when that software cost more than £1,000.00! I could not believe my luck!

Other conferences followed, the most recent one held two years ago in Gatwick. This was a very good conference with a good mix of presentations and excellent opportunities to network with colleagues from the UK and abroad.

I am looking forward to meet new faces and also to establish stronger links with my colleagues that work from Portuguese into English. I am sure both sides have a lot to gain from this synergy. So if you do work from Portuguese into English, I would like to have the opportunity to meet you. And if you work with other languages I am also sure I have a lot to learn from your experience.

My name is Sandra Stoller. I am both German and Italian, lived in Norway and went to French school. After I studied Political Sciences in Rome, I moved for one year to Brussels, where I worked as an intern for Amnesty International and the EU Commission. In 2000 I returned to Germany and now live in Munich, which used to be the crossroad of the ancient salt and the wine road and a meeting place for different cultures.

I work for itl (Institut für Technische Literatur) since nine years now. We used to be 6 project managers in the translation department and are now about 35. What I like about itl is it’s international culture: my colleaugues come from 15 different countries and you can often hear Russian, Italian, Chinese or Spanish besides German and Bavarian in our offices. My role at itl is to contact translators who could become become key translators for our clients’ projects and help them getting on with the first projects.
Please feel free to contact me at any time if you want some more information about itl.

I am very glad to come to Newcastle, looking forward to seeing some of our main translators attenting the conference and meeting new translators personally. I want to thank the team organising the Conference for the interesting programme and their great support.

I’m coming a little late to the party, but as it promises to be quite some party, I thought I should introduce myself, particularly as I have met few of the delegates/speakers before.

I have been a Spanish-English translator for nearly 20 years, beginning somewhat by chance following a move with my (then) young family to Central America in 2006 (Guatemala followed by Panama). At the time I had no formal qualifications in Spanish or translation (my degree was in German and French and I had spent two years in Spain post-graduation).

My first assignment (at a time when I was barely computer-literate, let alone translation-savvy) was 30,000 words of legal documentation relating to electricity privatisation in Mexico (courtesy of a friend who thought I might be bored of coffee mornings, play dates and golf). This was followed not long afterwards by scripts for a children’s tv cartoon series (courtesy of a(nother) friend who …). Definitely a case of sink or swim. I survived and went on to sit the Dip Trans exam in a language school in Guatemala City.

You would be forgiven for thinking that diversity is my byword, but in fact I soon settled into a routine of legal, financial and business texts, principally through a long association with a Madrid-based agency.

In my previous existence I had been a commercial litigation solicitor with a large London law firm. After returning to the UK in 2002 I continued to translate full-time, until I resumed legal practice in 2006, “reinventing” myself as an employment lawyer representing employees and small businesses. I have had my own law firm for almost eight years. Throughout this time I have continued to translate in my “spare time” and have now decided to focus increasingly on my translation business, capitalising on my knowledge of the law in practice and perhaps moving into more creative fields too. I’m attending a number of CPD events this year, including going on “holiday” to London for Translate in the City, which I hope will inspire me. I look forward to meeting new colleagues in Newcastle and becoming more involved in ITI.

I shall be joining the runners on Friday evening – I’ll be the one bringing up the rear. I couldn’t resist the lure of a free teeshirt!

Rafael Adam and Javier Ortiz, ¡mucho gusto! We (Adam & Ortiz Conference Interpreters or @AdamOrtiz_terps)are based in Munich and work in German, Spanish and English.

Last year we decided to start our own company. We wanted to take a different approach to the market and it had become clear to us that we worked well together. We share a mutual love of the field, but beyond that our interests differ: el Spaniard likes analysis and accounting, whilst ze German tends toward marketing and technical issues. With this logic, we threw ourselves into it. The original idea of “let’s present ourselves to potential clients as a team” quickly evolved into “if we are going to do this, let’s do it right”. Now we think we’re sorted: the website, the business plan and late nights at the office. It has been the best decision since we made our respective career choices.

We’re excited about this year’s theme – we are new, we are young, and we want to generate a lot of work. Initially, only Rafael was planning to attend since the main part of our concept is to share efforts (and expenses), but Javier was so excited about the programme that he couldn’t say no. On top of that, this is a great occasion for him to return to Newcastle for the first time since his studies back in 2004.

We are looking forward to seeing a few friends and colleagues again, but more so to getting to know new people. So if you see us standing around looking impressed, talk to us!

Hi, I am Dagmar Sanjath and I work as a translator both in an in-house capacity and free-lance, specialising mostly in legal and financial translation. My languages are German, English and French. I am based in Vienna, Austria, where I also completed my translation degree (sometime during the last millennium…).

In addition to working as a translator, I also teach at Vienna University’s Centre of Translation Studies, introducing future graduates to the problems and pitfalls they might be facing when they leave university and try to start a career. How do I know about these things apart from personal experience? I am currently Secretary General of UNIVERSITAS Austria, the Austrian Interpreters’ and Translators’ Association, on whose board I have served for quite number of years now in different roles. My latest addition in terms of association functions is Secretary General of FIT Europe, a function I was elected to last November and which implies having to keep abreast with developments in the field of translation all around Europe.

While this is one of the reasons I am looking forward to this year’s ITI conference, I also have fond memories of the last one, which was a really brilliant and exciting event. I am sure that the upcoming conference will be just as interesting and as much fun – see you there!