By Zoe Qian, Edited by Xue Lin
Attending ATA annual conference is an investment – quite a big one for someone like me who is just starting out. So it’s important to make it work for you.
Smart planning does exactly that. It helped me maximize this rare opportunity to meet people in real life (what a strange time we live in!) It also allowed me to forge genuine connections, discover, and be discovered at this hybrid conference, all the while without feeling awkward.
I decided to attend ATA62 in person in August and started to plan for it in the same month, which means two months in advance. As you’ll see, some things take more time than others, so I’d say start early if you can.
Setting your goals
What do you want from this conference? Do you want to know more colleagues and companies, or to learn the latest trends, tech, knowledge, and strategies from those wonderful sessions? Probably both. But after two years of intensive learning and training, my choice was certainly the former. So no surprise that most of the tips here are on the marketing side. If the latter is your priority, be sure to get the most up-to-date schedule (there will be last-minute changes!), watch the most pertinent sessions live, and catch up on other interesting ones later.
Here’s a list of things to do in advance to help you get the most out of any professional conference:
Building up your online presence
This one takes time. Starting one or two weeks before the conference is unlikely to give you any tangible result. A professional conference like ATA62 is a place for you to showcase yourself, so you probably want to have something relatively polished by that time. That’s why you should start early, even if it’s something imperfect – it at least gives you a foundation that you can always build on.
There are four platforms that are important for translators and interpreters: your professional website, LinkedIn, Twitter, and the conference portal. The first three require long-term commitment, while the last one can be left to just before the event.
Website
This is your home base and centerpiece of your online presence. But before you get all excited about designing your very own online space and playing with SEO, buy your domain first. Domain name is also crucial. Come up with several and run them by your friends, colleagues, and even professors (special shoutout to Prof. Michael Schubert!)
If you’re your own web designer, the easiest way to get started is to pick a template and keep it simple. It doesn’t have to be perfect – in fact, it’s not going to be perfect if it’s your first go. The good thing about starting early is that you can always tweak it later.
When choosing a place to host your website, the rule of thumb is to choose one that is NOT free and is SEO friendly. No WordPress – you don’t want your website to be hacked. If you want to learn more about how to build your own website, the blog by ATA’s new president Madalena Sánchez Zampaulo has given me tons of inspiration.
Most language professionals already have a LinkedIn profile, so the action item here is to keep it up to date. Of course, this can be done right before the conference, but what requires medium-to-long-term planning is your LinkedIn activities, including posts and interactions with other colleagues, especially those that you want to connect with at the conference.
Being more active also allows others to find you on LinkedIn before meeting you in person (hopefully!) People might not react to your posts, but they do take notice. One attendee told me that she really likes some of my posts, while the other recognized me from two videos I did with another interpreter.
The best place to connect with people you don’t know, period. But if you simply follow others and don’t tweet at all, you’re missing the opportunity to be discovered. Then of course, gaining followers or any traction also takes time.
To tweet consistently is very important – in small doses, but do it at least every other day if you’re getting started. Don’t worry about what you should tweet or retweet, since very few people will read it. The key is to accumulate some tweets before the conference, so that people you meet there will be more likely to follow you on Twitter. Don’t forget to reply to others’ tweets as well: I find online interaction a great ice breaker, which really helped me turn Twitter followers into real-life contacts.
Another thing you should try is to keep an eye on Twitter during the conference– but that’s another topic.
ATA conference portal
Many professional conferences have their online portals for attendees and speakers to interact with one another and ATA is no exception. Since it’s partially a networking platform, you should fill out your profile to the best of your knowledge.
The most important piece is surprisingly your profile picture. It’s the easiest way to stand out from 1000+ profiles. Visuals attract attention like a magnet. There will most likely be fields such as website, LinkedIn, and Twitter for you to fill out. Here, your long-term planning pays off. You might be able to upload your CV as well, so keep it up to date.
You should also play with the portal to get to know all the functions it offers. For example, how to filter attendees for the ones you want to get to know and don’t forget to send a friendly message before or during the actual event!
Business cards
My perhaps unpopular opinion is that they are a means to an end and will eventually end up in recycling bins. So this year, I opted for digital ones (QR code and NFC tag). Another reason is that as someone who’s tech savvy and environmentally minded, I find paper business cards incompatible with who I am. Since most people nowadays do have their phones nearby, digital cards are probably sufficient.
Learning from experienced attendees
I highly recommend the “Smart Habits for Translators” podcast, hosted by ATA President Madalena Sánchez Zampaulo and President-Elect Veronika Demichelis. Episodes 3&51 are dedicated to attending in-person and hybrid conferences. Have a listen, you’ll find more tips there!
Bio: Zoe Qian is a Chinese-English-German conference interpreter and translator with MA Conference Interpretation from MIIS. She draws upon academic and professional experience in China, Singapore, Germany, UK, and US to help international organizations connect with their Chinese stakeholders and businesses thrive in a global market. Zoe also plays the cello and most recently took up ballet, because she believes it’s never too late to learn something new.
Visit her website (www.zoelingo.com) and say hi on Twitter (@thatzoeterp)!
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