Close-up Translations

On the 30th, September 2009, the on-line translators’ community Proz.com held the first virtual translation conference. Over 6800 translators and language professionals attended the event, which coincided with Proz.com’s tenth anniversary and the International Translation Day.

During 12 hours, attendees were able to network with other professionals, attend conference sessions, view a variety of product demos, reach customers anywhere in the world and interact with translation agencies, exhibitors and sponsors via an on-line conference environment.

Sponsors included industry leading companies Alchemy, DéjàVu, Lionbridge, MemoQ, Multilingual, SDL TRADOS, STAR Group and thebigword.

The conference platform, Unifair, was divided into several areas, including an exhibition hall, a conference main hall, a networking lounge and a resource centre. Eight sessions were scheduled throughout the day and few ended with a Q&A, which was seemingly enjoyed by most participants.

Overall, it was a very good initiative and an interesting opportunity to meet new colleagues and clients in a user-friendly environment. However, I felt the conference sessions were not up to my expectations. I didn’t learn anything new nor sharpened new skills. One seminar, though, stood out of the lot: “Negotiation for translators & answering tough questions”, which was lead by Doug Lawrence. He offered an informing and enlightening talk about promotion, negotiation techniques and communication strategies.

All lectures are available as podcasts and can be listened to for the next year. So, if you missed a lecture or couldn’t attend the conference at all, you can still catch up on the various presentations.

All attendees are invited to give their feedback by filling in the post-event attendee survey, which is accessible here.