… because the head is listening!

In my last article I wrote about the FIT XXth World Congress in Berlin hosted by the BDÜ, and the idea they had of attempting to elicit questions prior to the event through their Conference Bulletin Board.  This was a really great idea because it gives the tool vendors the opportunity to focus their presentations and workshops on the things users really want to know about.
There can be nothing worse, for an experienced user, than turning up to an hours presentation and listening to the same presentation on how to do the basics with a translation tool that you hear every time you make the effort to improve your knowledge.
So the idea of raising questions from people who wish to attend prior to the event is a really good one because not only does it mean the content should be more relevant to the things users really want to know, but it also gives the vendor time to prepare for any really tricky questions that might otherwise have to be taken off line.  So I thought I’d use this article to do two things.

1. Shamelessly promote a couple of conferences I’m attending this year where there are opportunities to ask questions
2. Get some questions!!

So these are the two conferences I’m attending this year… hope to see plenty of you there!

Translation Forum Russia : Ekaterinburg 26-28 September

This event, to quote the organisers, is “Russia’s top language industry conference with a focus on practical issues of interpreting and translation.”  This is going to be my first trip to Russia and it sounds great!  At this conference I’m fortunate enough to be participating in a few parts of the program where the first day will provide plenty of opportunity for users to ask questions as part of an open discussion.  I love these open discussions the most, but based on the kind of questions I get by email from our Russian colleagues from time to time I have a feeling they may not be the easiest to answer!  Sometimes I think the Russian translators who email me are computer programmers first and translators second!
So, to make the most of this session I’d like to invite anyone attending this conference, who has questions they would like to ask on the day, to post them into the comments below.  I’m hoping this will give people time to think about what they’d like to ask prior to the event, and give me time to prepare so I can cover more material in the time available without having to spend time mocking up examples on the day.
I’ll be there for the whole conference anyway so if there are so many we can’t cover them in the allotted time I’m sure we can manage it afterwards.  I’m looking forward to it!

ATA 55th Annual Conference : Chicago 5-8 November

Up to now (I haven’t been to Russia yet!) the ATA events are the most enjoyable for me… non-stop action with plenty of questions and plenty of learning from the moment we set up shop to the moment we leave!  This year I have two pre-conference sessions that I hope will cater for users of all levels.  The sessions are these (more details here):
A Beginners Guide to SDL Trados Studio
You have seen the videos, read the documentation, and asked your friends—but you would still like a little more information. If this is you, then this session may be what you were waiting for. You will learn all the basics to help make Studio easy, including how to get started, learning where the files go, working with translation memories, using a glossary, and getting help.
(Wednesday, 9:00am-12:00pm; Beginner; Presented in: English)
Getting More from SDL Trados Studio
Studio has a lot of functionality under the hood, and once you have mastered the basics it is time to see what else you can do! This session will cover more detailed topics, including filetype options, working with templates, using regular expressions and XPath, and getting more from the SDL OpenExchange (now RWS AppStore). You do not need to be an expert to get something from this session, but you should be comfortable with the basics.
(Wednesday, 2:00pm-5:00pm; Intermediate; Presented in: English)
The idea behind these sessions for me was that I want to tackle the sort of things that beginners want to know, and also the sort of things that more advanced users want to know.  But I don’t want to deliver a course for 3-hrs full of the things I think you need to know!  So whilst I’m coming prepared for a quiet audience, what I really want is an interactive one.  Even better would be some guidance in advance on the sort of things you’d like to know about and I can make sure I cover them on the day.
So, to make the most of these sessions I’d like to invite anyone attending this conference, who has questions they would like to ask on the day, to post them into the comments below as well.  I’ll be there for the whole conference anyway and we’re supporting the new Tool Bar concept organised by the ATA where we are providing 15-minutes sessions to answer as many questions as we can.
The Tool Bar Hours:

• Thursday, November 6: 9:00am – 6:00pm
• Friday, November 7: 8:30am – 6:00pm
• Saturday, November 8: 8:30am – 2:00pm

And of course we’ll be manning the stand the rest of the time… so plenty of time over the course of the four days to tackle anything we can’t include on the Wednesday.  But I think two 3-hr sessions will allow us to cover a lot , especially if they’re focused on your specific needs.