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TA's Spanish-language Conference Delivers
by Daire Coco

In early March I attended the ATA's Spanish-division conference in San Diego. I have to admit that I was hesitant about taking part, having gone to my first ATA conference in New York a few months earlier and finding it completely overwhelming. Would the conference rooms in San Diego also be bursting at the seams as the overflow of attendees spilled out into the hallways?

In the end, I was so glad I went because the Spanish-division conference was better organized, much smaller (about 200 people) and had plenty of space for everybody. Plus, the intimate setting made it super easy to network. In fact, I met more people there than I did at the big annual ATA conference with ten times as many people.

Things kicked off on a Thursday evening with a welcome reception, a chance to catch up with old acquaintances, meet new colleagues and get a bite to eat. The following morning we got down to business with the first presentations. For the most part, there were two simultaneous sessions to choose from: one designed for translators and the other for interpreters. Since I work as a translator only, the decision about which one to attend was made for me. It was actually a welcome relief not having to choose from six or seven concurrent presentations like I did in New York, which left me feeling like I was missing something.

Overall the quality was high and the variety of topics just right. The OMT's own Mercedes Guhl gave a fun and informative talk titled "Ingeniería de textos" about the often-overlooked importance of reading and writing for translators. The OMT's Salvador Virgen was also on hand with an insightful workshop on the main differences among different TM software programs. (Go, team!)

I was really hungry for information on how to run a freelance translator's business and, to my delight, there were two sessions on that topic. Amazingly, there was no overlap at all and both presenters had useful information, most of which I had never heard before. I also got a lot out of a session on the main differences between the criminal justice systems in the United States and Latin America. I was looking forward to the talk on medical terminology but, unfortunately, I didn't get much out of it because the presenter focused on the difficulties translators face going from English to Spanish, but not the other way around.

When the two days of workshops ended, I felt galvanized and ready to take what I had learned and put it into practice. And now I can't wait until the next conference. My only wish is that they would put it on every year, instead of every two.

Noticias:

- Noticias Diciembre 2009

- Noticias Noviembre 2009

- Noticias Junio 2009