Translators and interpreters gather in Brighton

What is the ITI Conference?

The ITI is the UK’s specialist association for translators and interpreters of all languages, backgrounds and specialisations. Its conference, which takes place every other year, is the largest translation and interpreting conference in the United Kingdom and took place in Brighton this year. Under the theme of “Embracing change, emerging stronger,” the conference saw a large variety of topics covered that could help translators and interpreters develop more resilience for the future.

First speaker engagement

Far from being my first ITI Conference, this edition still held a thrilling first for me: I was to give a presentation on the first day of the gathering.

I was excited back in November 2021, when I first received news from the ITI that my proposal for a session had been accepted and I would be presenting alongside some well-known colleagues. Drawing from my own experiences with first diving into space technology, I wanted to share my story of working my way into a new specialisation and help colleagues identify a new area of interest as well as finding the necessary resources to gather sufficient knowledge.

Feedback

It was great to see how many colleagues came to attend my session in person—as it turned out, the room I was allocated was actually too small for the number of attendees, so many had to stand in the back or sit in the aisles.

The talk itself was well-received; many attendees asked interesting and insightful questions and I heard a lot of positive feedback afterwards, both from in-person and online attendees.

Learning and networking

The rest of the conference was, as usual, packed with high-quality and highly relevant content. Some of the other sessions I attended over the two-day period included talks on enhancing productivity, offering more holistic client solutions, making the translation process visible for non-translators and tips for handling complaints. It was, once again, a great event, not only for honing professional skills, but also for networking with fellow translators and interpreters. I am thrilled to see that there are a fair few of us out there who are interested in working with space companies or are already doing so.

Summary

It felt good to finally be able to attend an in-person event again after such a long time, catching up with old friends and making many new connections. And it was great to have a little bit of pre-pandemic “old normal” back.

I also very much enjoyed my first time as a speaker at the event and am grateful for everyone attending and expressing how much my talk had inspired or encouraged them. But after one conference is before the next: I am very much looking forward to diving straight into preparations for my first IAC, taking place in Paris this September. I would love to hear from you if you are planning to attend too!