Introvert here. How original for a freelance translator. I’ve realized that over the past few years since the pandemic, I’ve gotten more and more comfortable being at home in my bubble. It was time to change that.

To my surprise, it had been ten years since I last attended an American Translators Association conference (gasp!), so I decided to go to this year’s conference in Portland. That kicked off a conference marathon: four conferences in four weeks.

• The American Translators Association (ATA) conference in Portland
• The Translating Europe Forum (online)
• AI in Writing (online)
• AI in Translation (online)

No surprise, AI was the main topic at all four conferences. There was a lot of overlap between presentations, even within individual conferences. But hearing the same messages actually helped solidify my thinking: AI is here to stay whether we like it or not, so better to embrace it as a tool (not a people replacer!) and adapt rather than get left behind.

Common threads

Wow, there was so much anxiety. Understandable, given that it feels a bit like the Wild West out there. But also so much optimism! So that’s what I’m focusing on here. My favorite recurring themes:

• Yes, there are bad actors, but there are plenty of good people out there, too: translators who refuse to abandon their high quality standards or devalue themselves and their work and clients who value translators’ expertise and pay accordingly.
• AI can do the grunt work so translators and writers can focus on more fulfilling and value-adding tasks; and no, this does not mean cleaning up machine or AI translations.
• Translators are moving away from word or line-based rates, and even hourly rates, and toward project fees. Yes!
• The translation industry has survived major disruptions like this before: when computers replaced typewriters (before my time) and when CAT tools became standard (at the beginning of my career). We got through it then and we will get through it this time.

My very practical takeaways

For me, the best presentations introduced new tools or techniques that translators and writers can use now. Highlights:

• Josh Goldsmith, a UN and EU-accredited translator-interpreter, co-founder of techforward, and co-host of the AI in Translation Summit, spoke about three different AI tools and techniques. I think that makes him the undisputed champion of practical information. He showed how to (safely) use AI for terminology extraction and glossary-building, demonstrated lex.page, and showed how to create customized GPT assistants.
• Cris Silva, a translator, interpreter, and consultant, demonstrated Sketch Engine, a corpus tool.
• Veronica Hylák, an AI privacy expert and co-founder of Metalinguist, spoke about AI privacy and the impact of AI on the environment (it’s so so much worse than I ever imagined).

So what’s next?

The consensus seemed to be that there will be developments in AI that we can’t even imagine today and that AI will develop at an ever faster pace. Again, no real surprise.

But that motivates me to keep seeking out continuing education and professional development opportunities. While I’m happy to have a conference break now, my conference marathon drove home just how important it is to keep up with industry news, trends, new IT, and developments in AI (and news, trends, IT, and developments in the areas I translate in).

So with that, I asked ChatGPT to create a list of upcoming transportation conferences and events in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland for me. Now comes the hard part: to choose.