Tag Archives: social media

And the winners are… 1

by • events, fun, Interpreting, knowledge, ProZ.com • Tags: , , ,

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The results are in! In case you missed the buzz on social media, I thought it would be a good idea to highlight the winners of the 2015 ProZ.com community choice awards here. This initiative is held by ProZ.com on an annual basis (2015 being the third year) in an effort to recognize and celebrate those language professionals who are active, outstanding, or otherwise influential in various media throughout the industry. Results are split into two categories: translation-related and interpreting-related. Nominations, voting, and winners are determined entirely by the ProZ.com community.

So who did the community choose as this year’s award recipients?

Translation-related winners:

A special congratulations to Marta Stelmaszak of WantWords who took home an incredible 7 awards this year, beating the record she set last year. Congrats, Marta!translation_tiles

Interpreting-related winners:

*Categories marked with an asterisk indicate tied results.

Aida González Del Álamo won the award for best interpreting-related blog for the third year in a row. Congratulations, Aida! I am also pleased to announce that 2015 marks the first year that sufficient votes were received to select winners in every interpreting-related category. interpreting_tiles

Congratulations again to all the winners, and a special thanks to everyone who nominated, voted, and spread the word to make the 2015 ProZ.com community choice awards the best year yet. Stay tuned for guest blog posts featuring some of this year’s winners…

I hope you enjoyed this post! Comments, feedback, and suggestions for future blog posts can be made in the comments section below or via Twitter @ProZcom. For more information about the ProZ.com community choice awards, see:

List of 2015 ProZ.com community choice awards winners »
Announcement of winners in the Translator Coop »
Past community choice awards winners »
ProZ.com community choice awards FAQ »

Look who’s talking about the ProZ.com community choice awards 4

by • events, fun, ProZ.com • Tags: , , , , ,

Just a few days remain in the voting phase for this year’s installment of the ProZ.com community choice awards. Cast your ballots and help pick this year’s winners before voting ends on September 22nd here: http://www.proz.com/community-choice-awards/nominations. Nominees and winners are determined entirely by the ProZ.com community.

Now, as the purpose of the ProZ.com community choice awards is to celebrate those who are active and influential in different media throughout the industry, I thought it would be fitting to share some of the social media responses to these awards here.

Here’s a sample of what people have been saying about this year’s awards:

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Carol’s Adventures in Translation – a blog by Caroline Alberoni of Alberoni Translations – is in the running for “Best blog” among the translation-related finalists for this year’s awards. Congratulations and best of luck, Caroline!

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Laura Hargreaves has done a fantastic job of covering this year’s ProZ.com community choice awards both on her blog – LanguagesByLaura.com – as well as via Twitter @LanguagebyLaura. Thanks for the support, Laura!

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Translators Anonymous – an anonymous (and hilarious) translation blog – were the original winners of the “Best blog” community choice award. I had a lot of fun interviewing them on that win here: The ProZ.com community choice awards: Translators Anonymous. They are in the running this year as well for best blog, Facebook page/group, and the “other social media” category. Good luck, admins!

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The awards have been mentioned on a variety of different social media platforms, including this Pinterest pin by Chiara Bartolozzi of One Sec Translations. She also wrote a post about the event in her blog here: #ProZCCA: Community Choice Awards 2015 hosted by ProZ.com. Chiara is a nominee in a few different categories including best Twitter, blog post, and “other social media”. Thanks for the mentions and best of luck, Chiara!

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Erik Hansson – owner of the Things Translators Never Say Facebook group – has promoted the awards, as well as his group’s nomination in the best Facebook group/page category, throughout social media. Be sure to check Erik out via Twitter @erik_hansson. Good luck, Erik and the Things Translators Never Say group!

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Pieter Beens has been nominated in two award categories this year, including best article and best blog post. You can see both of these nominated posts on Pieter’s website, Vertaalt.nu. Congrats and good luck, Pieter!

Did I leave anyone out? Use the comments section below or tweet me @ProZcom with a link to your social media post on the 2015 ProZ.com community choice awards.

This year’s winners will be announced on International Translation Day, September 30th. Come celebrate the day with ProZ.com by attending our annual virtual event! And don’t forget to spread the word about the awards on social media using the hashtag #ProZCCA.

Questions, comments and feedback on this post are welcome. Happy translating!

Ten days left to the ProZ.com 2015 international conference: “Supporting each other, learning from each other” Reply

by • events, ProZ.com • Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The ProZ.com 2015 international conference is just ten days away. Translators, interpreters, students, sponsors, organizers and staff are getting ready to support each other, to learn from each other in the great city of Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

Program and speakers

The conference will be a two-day event showcasing outstanding speakers and presentations on the most trending topics in the translation industry:

  • Questions You’ve Always Wanted to Ask… Answered – Konstantin Kisin
  • Drafting legislation in 24 languages – Hans te Winkel
  • Paradoxes of freelancing: maintaining individualism when belonging to a community – Marta Stelmaszak
  • The Challenge with being international – Doug Lawrence
  • The globetrotting freelancer: making the most of your work’s flexibility – Pavel Janoušek and Daniel Šebesta
  • What works for me, could work for you – Doug Lawrence
  • Top Secrets of Effective Proofreading – A powerful though underrated way to learn from each other – Francesca Airaghi
  • Social Media or Anti-Social Media: a lifestyle choice or a death sentence? – Erik Hansson
  • Famous for 10 minutes – Nigel Saych
  • Translators: Stand Up! Time to confront the devil – Sameh Ragab
  • Honing your expert skills and building an expert translator profile through cooperation with other freelancers – Anne-Charlotte Perrigaud
  • Teaching Translation Today and Tomorrow: Breeding the next generation of translators – Joop Bindels and Nathalie de Schipper
  • Training the client – Gary Smith
  • Work-life balance during illness: a freelance perspective – Ellen Singer and Joy Maul-Phillips
  • Internships and mentoring – Attila Piróth
  • The first steps of a graduate in the translation market – Fedde van Santen
  • Find your balance with the aid of technology (and some other great tips!) – Fernanda Rocha
  • TransQuiz – Gabriel Cabrera

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For more information and details about each session, click here to view the entire conference program.

Social activities

In addition to the two full days of sessions, workshops, round-tables, interviews and whatnot, the international conference will also offer attendees the possibility to network and have fun by taking part in other social events:

  • June 11th – Pre-pre-conference powwow
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Tour behind the scenes at Schiphol airport and a subsequent dinner at Vork en Mes, Hoofddorp.

 

  • June 12th – Pre-conference powwow
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A boat trip to Kinderdijk, a walking tour to Rotterdam and a ‘Rice Table’ meal.

 

  • June 13th – Gala dinner
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Dinner at the Inntel Hotels Rotterdam Centre.

 

  • June 14th – Post-conference powwow
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Dinner on the SS Rotterdam, an ocean liner.

For more details on social events planned, click here.

Conference package

This year, the conference organizer, Nigel Saych, and ProZ.com have put together a conference package that not only includes full pass to Saturday and Sunday sessions, and to the gala dinner on Saturday night, but also the following:

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Signup

There are still a few seats left for the conference. To book yours, visit the conference page and click on Buy now next to the package that best suits your needs.

For special discounts, please contact site staff through the support center.

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ProZ.com and the conference organizer, Nigel Saych, would like to thank the following sponsors for their support of this event:

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Resumen del seminario regional de ProZ.com en Córdoba, Argentina (2014) 1

by • events, ProZ.com • Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

IMG_8177Apenas pasadas las ocho de la mañana del sábado 8 de noviembre de 2014, los asistentes al seminario regional de ProZ.com en Córdoba, Argentina ya se agrupaban sobre una de las veredas del dinámico barrio de Nueva Córdoba. Iban llegando solos, en grupos, con mochilas en las espaldas, anotadores en las manos y algún que otro bostezo pendiente. Algunos de ellos estudiantes, otros profesionales con años de experiencia a cuestas. ¿Qué tenían en común todos? Las ganas de aprender, conectarse con colegas y divertirse.

IMG_8214Una vez hecha la acreditación de más de 130 asistentes, fue Juán Manuel Macarlupu Peña el que los recibió con un enorme abrazo con perfil de traductor profesional. Y ya antes del desayuno, así, con hambre de conocimiento y de medialunas, Juan Manuel los invitó a trabajar juntos para descubrir a la traducción como profesión y como negocio, delineando posibles salidas laborales, enumerando diferentes habilidades indispensables del traductor y detallando estrategias para no parecer novatos.

Finalmente, el café no se hizo esperar más, y antes de dar paso al resto de los módulos del programa, actuó como un perfecto punto de partida para que los asistentes se conozcan y comiencen a sacar mayor provecho de asistir a este evento. ¿Cómo te llamás? ¿En qué año estás? ¿En qué te especializás? Estas preguntas iban de traductor a traductor, de estudiante a estudiante, de colega a colega, actuales y futuros.

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El seminario continuó con información sobre la situación del mercado laboral, tácticas para encontrar clientes, estrategias para determinar honorarios y negociar efectivamente, y una extensa discusión acerca de las diferentes posibilidades de cobro –nacional e internacional, culminando con una foto grupal cargada de buena voluntad y de amenaza de lluvia (que no tardó en hacerse efectiva).

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¿Qué faltó? ¡Nada! Si hasta nos reunimos luego del seminario para verificar identidades y credenciales en los perfiles de ProZ.com, y compartir una merienda en un bar de la ciudad mientras conversamos sobre las ventajas y desventajas de la traducción automática, las diferentes formas de especializarse, los métodos de enseñanza en las diferentes instituciones educativas de la República Argentina, y, como si fuese poco, sobre la posibilidad de volver a vernos pronto, muy pronto.

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Lo que resta…

  • Compartir fotos y videos a través de redes sociales con el hashtag #CordobaProZ1, y ver las fotos y videos que otros han compartido:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1470141453256774/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/search?f=realtime&q=%23CordobaProZ1&src=typd

ProZ.com: http://www.proz.com/conference/652?page=image_gallery

  • Ver y descargar los certificados de asistencia en la sección “Participación en conferencias” del perfil de ProZ.com (sólo asistentes al evento): http://www.proz.com/profile

Gracias, Juan Manuel Macarlupu Peña, por la organización de este evento y a todos los que asistieron y aprovecharon la oportunidad de aprender, conectarse con colegas y divertirse. Aquí les dejo un video-resumen del evento y espero verlos muy pronto!

Getting the most out of industry events: Part nine Reply

by • events, ProZ.com • Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

This is the ninth post in a series of weekly blog posts with tips to get the most out of translation industry events (click here to see a full list of previous posts). As explained in the first part, tips are grouped into “before the event”, “during the event” and “after the event” for easy reference. Please feel free to post below and share your tip(s)!

After the event

Tip 9: keep in touch

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Coffee break during the ProZ.com 2014 international conference in Pisa, Italy

Translation industry events represent a great opportunity to meet potential clients and collaborators. However, meeting them and taking to them during the event may not be enough to get them to remember you and to later contact you for collaboration. So, what can you do to make sure event attendees you met and that may become clients keep your name in mind? Let’s see…

  • Send them a nice-meeting-you email: if you did your homework during the event, you should have a few email addresses and business cards in your briefcase. Send a short email message to colleagues that have the potential of becoming business partners or clients (those who work in your expertise fields and language pairs, or those who own or work for translation companies). Let them know that it was nice meeting them and that you hope you can collaborate in the future. Make sure you are clear about the services you offer and that they may use. What’s important here is that you send them a personalized message and not a general one that you may send others as well.
  • Add them to your social networks: search for potential clients and collaborators who attended the event in social and professional networks such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. When doing so, just make sure that your profile is a professional one or that the posts you make and that they see are related to the services you offer (most social networks allow you to set visibility and privacy permissions).
  • Add them to your chat list: if you use chat software such as Skype, add potential clients you met as contacts. This may increase your chances of being contacted by them for rush projects or for projects for which they don’t have anyone in mind.
  • Include their names in greetings or gift list: if once in a while you take some time to thank your clients or send them a card or a gift (for Christmas or New Year for example), make sure you include potential clients’ names in the recipient list as well. This will let them know that you keep them in mind and help them to keep your name in their mind as well.
  • Invite them to future events you plan to attend: if there are any future events that you are planning to attend and that you believe may be of interest to these potential clients or colleagues, make sure you take a few minutes to invite them and show them that you are willing to see them again. You may invite them via email or social networks as long as your message is short and to the point.

In general, keeping in touch with potential clients is easier than meeting them for the first time. So, if you managed to leave your shyness aside and make an impression during the event, you should be able to stay connected afterwards, increasing your chances of getting collaboration requests and even making new friends. In the end, and as Socrates puts it, be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm and constant.

How do you keep in touch with potential clients and collaborators?

Share below.

The next –and last– part in this series will provide you with one last tip to get the most our of industry events. Keep in touch!

Summary of the ProZ.com 2014 international conference in Pisa, Italy Reply

by • events, ProZ.com • Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

It’s been a week since the ProZ.com 2014 international conference in Pisa, Italy, and I still wake up thinking about diversification, machine translation, negotiation, marketing and other translator challenges. Fortunately, I can see from social network comments and attendees’ feedback that I’m not the only one! Without a doubt, Sunday and Saturday sessions, lectures, workshops and social events not only offered those who attended the opportunity to learn, network and have fun, but also left us thinking about the conference main topic: Looking forward: skills, challenges and perspectives.

Twenty presentations, a sightseeing tour around Pisa, a gala dinner, two powwows and the presence of a great number of language professionals made this great conference. Translators and interpreters had the chance to meet colleagues, promote themselves, learn how to get the most our of their profession and have fun.

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So, what now? If you attended the ProZ.com 2014 international conference in Pisa, Italy, you are invited to:

If you did not attend this conference, you can:

And don’t forget to sign-up for the 2015 international conference to be organized by Nigel Saych:

ProZ.com 2015 international conference in Rotterdam, Netherlands »

Or propose your own ProZ.com event.

Special thanks to Daniela Zambrini, an amazing event organizer and a great friend, to Valentina Pardini and Catia Argirò for their outstanding assistance, to speakers for sharing their time and knowledge, to sponsors for their support of the event, to Esther Zambrini for recording great conference moments with her camera, and to attendees for being there to make of this conference a huge success!

Looking forward to seeing you all again soon!

Lucia

Getting the most out of industry events: Part four 5

by • events, ProZ.com • Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

This is the fourth post in a series of weekly blog posts with tips to get the most out of translation industry events (see Part one, Part two and Part three). As explained in the first part, tips will be grouped into “before the event”, “during the event” and “after the event” for easy reference. Please feel free to post below and share your tip(s)!

Before the event

Tip 4: design a marketing plan

In general, attending conferences and other industry events costs not only time, but also money. Taking a couple of days off, sometimes travelling and staying at hotels, attending networking dinners, all these represent an expense. However, as your own business owner, it’s up to you to turn these expenses into an investment. How? By designing a marketing plan to be implemented before, during and after the event, and that allows you to see a return of your investment through new clients and collaborators.

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Personalized business cookies baked by Gabriel Cabrera and shared with attendees to the ProZ.com 2013 regional event in Madrid, Spain.

The first step in drafting a marketing plan to be implemented when attending an industry event may consist of defining three basic points:

  • What you want to accomplish: define your marketing goals. Do you want to make yourself / your company known? Do you want to build better relationships with colleagues? Do you want to meet new clients / collaborators? Do you want to share information, content or opinions with others in the industry? Do you want to explore new service types / approaches? Do you want to raise funds to support a further investment?
  • What tools you will use: make a list of the marketing tools you will use to reach your goals. Social media tools, CV / resume, business cards, demos, other marketing items.
  • How you will use those tools: decide how you will use each marketing tool. Will you give a business card to every attendee or just to those who may be potential clients / collaborators? Will you give a demo presentation of your services to potential clients only or to everyone? Will you use social media to target potential clients, potential clients and colleagues in general, or potential clients and potential collaborators? Will you give a copy of your CV to sponsors? Defining the use of your marketing tools will require defining your target audience and this will depend on what you want to accomplish.

Other important points may relate to timing (when you will use marketing tools or when you’d like to accomplish your marketing goals).

Once you have defined marketing goals, tools and their use, it’s time to implement your plan. Keep in mind that there are plenty of marketing strategies you can apply even weeks before an event (most of these using online resources). Start announcing your attendance to the event, show potential attendees how you are preparing yourself, get in touch with attendees you will want to meet in person and make arrangements. Almost everything counts when it comes to promoting yourself while learning, networking and having fun!

Do you have a marketing plan for attending industry events? What does it include?

Post below.

The next part in this series will start introducing tips to get the most out of industry events while they occur. Stay tuned!