III Belarusian Translation Forum Summary #tib_forum2019
On September 14, 2019, the III Belarusian Translation Forum #tib_forum2019 was held in Minsk. The venue (“Korpus” Cultural Center) gathered 160 colleagues from eight countries. This year, the Forum was held not on the International Translation Day, but a bit earlier. That enabled the most active translation and interpreting industry members not to face a choice between the Forum in Minsk and the contest of conference interpreters Cosines Pi in Moscow.
Great feedback received from our guests during the event and in social media afterward shows that the Forum is distinguished by versatile useful information, inspires creativity, provides new learning and business opportunities and simply brings people a happy mood.
The Ambassador of the Republic of Austria to the Republic of Belarus Ms. Aloisia Wörgetter was our guest of honor.
Some Statistics
The Forum was visited by 160 people from eight countries: Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, Germany, Italy, Kazakhstan, Poland, and the Czech Republic. Freelancers, full-time employees of translation companies and bureaus, students and teachers represented 55 language pairs. The participants’ geography and the number of language pairs ha increased significantly compared to the previous forums. This year for the first time we offered a special price for students and welcomed 12 future translators and interpreters at the Forum in the hope that one day we will call them our colleagues!
You may find the event photo report here. Download photos here and here.
Speech Summaries
By November 15, 2019, all participants will get access to presentations and video recordings of the speeches.
The plenary part of the Forum was dedicated to translation and interpreting at large sports events.
Head of the teaching work department Victoria Zelenko and methodologist Marina Sheremet at Streamline Foreign Languages School gave an energetic sporty atmosphere to the Forum and introduced the listeners to the “Results of Linguistic Support of the II European Games” in Minsk in 2019.
Head of translation and interpreting services at Sochi Olympic Games 2014 and FIFA World Cup 2018 in Russia Andrey Moiseev specified how complicated and prominent was “Organizing Interpreting Services at Major Global Events” for the translation industry.
PhD, associate professor, head of a translation agency, member of the Translation Teachers Association Dmitri Troitsky dwelled on “Technical Translation Basics”.
AWATERA linguistic company editor-in-chief, qualified editor, translator, head of AWATERA Academy Olga Gilyarevskaya talked on the topic “Wunderlancers. Educating. Employing. Caring”.
Director general of LinguaKontakt Company Theodore Kondratovich shared the secrets of a “Proper Website of a Freelance Translator. Concept. Content. Design. Optimization”.
Translator, translation teacher, MGIMO associate professor, author of military-technical and arts translation courses, member of Translation Teachers Association, Ph.D. in the History of Arts Tatiana Schvets covered the topic “Military-Technical and Socio-Political Translation as a Field of Study”.
Medical and pharmaceutical freelance interpreter Ekaterina Chashnikova presented a new speech format for the Belarusian Translation Forum, a workshop “Path to Medical and Pharmaceutical Translation without Field-Specific Education: Guidelines and Road Map”.
InText translation company employee Alyona Vlasenko presented a speech “UTICamp in a Nutshell” — a unique Ukrainian translation conference.
Practicing translators, members of the Union of Translators of Russia, members of Translation Teachers Association and organizers of the Krasnoyarsk Translators Club, director of Neo Translating agency Natalia Malenkikh and senior lecturer at the Department of Linguistics, Theory, and Practice of Translation, Siberian State University of M.F. Reshetnev Elena Kondrashova explained what “Mediation and Intercultural Consulting for International Dialog” can and should be.
Medical and marketing translator, one of the organizers of the III Belarusian Translation Forum Ekaterina Zubchenok shared know-how in her speech “Self-Editor. Principles & Lifehacks”.
Translator and editor Ekaterina Sokolovskaya presented her vision of the “Importance of Failure” in the translation industry.
Translator and simultaneous court interpreter Kryścina Šyjanok answered to the question “How to be a Court Interpreter in the Czech Republic?”.
Ekaterina Sokolovskaya and Kryścina Šyjanok presented their reports in the Belarusian language. We thank Interlingua and personally Mikhail Sobolevski for technical equipment for the simultaneous translation of these speeches into Russian, and also our colleagues Veronika Mazurkevich and Vitali Stanisheuski for the simultaneous translation.
Contract translator, editor, legal translation teacher at the Alliance-Pro School of Specialized Translators and author of Nuances of Legal Translation blog Helga Tarasova revealed some editing secrets in her speech “Legal Translation: Rookie Mistakes”.
Translator, one of the Forum organizers and founder of Akademiya Language Services Center Olga Budai described “Freelance Translation 2.0: Regional LSP”.
Pediatrician, medical advisor, translator, and COO of MED.Solution company Elena Shubina made a presentation on the topic “Dark Side of the Moon: What an Employee of a Pharmaceutical Company Expects of You when Ordering Translation Services”.
Simultaneous interpreter Yuri Burdenkov shared the best terminology practices accumulated during his 10-year experience in simultaneous translation with specialized vocabulary in his report “(Medical) Terminology and Linguist: Any Contraindications?”.
Notary public of Minsk City Notarial District Tatyana Taranova delivered a speech “Certification of Authenticity of Translator’s Signature on Translated Documents”.
Event sponsors and contacts exchange
Gifts from Partners
All the participants received gift vouchers for TO3000 Standard freelance translation management program by Advanced International Translations, and 4 guests won Translation Office 3000 Professional licenses.
2 participants won tickets to the Ukrainian Translation Conference UTICamp.
ProZ.com provided the Forum participants with free access to the top-5 videos. Please send us a link to your ProZ.com profile at info@translationforum.by e-mail to get access to these videos — in case you haven’t done so yet.
Event sponsors and contacts exchange helped to connect employers with translators, interpreters, and editors. We hope the established links will grow into mutually beneficial cooperation. The following representatives, sponsors and information partners of the Forum visited our contacts exchange: Effectiff Group, NeoTran, Roid, Literra, Databridge Translation Services, Streamline Language School, IE Elena Lojko, Transvertum, Advanced International Translations (AIT), Technical Translation & Software, TranslAID Service, LLC, Alma Translate, LLC, Translation Teachers Association, UTICamp and Contact conferences.
Forum’s guests and participants purchased books translated into Belarusian from the Halijafy publishing house, as well as products from Oz.by online store, and participated in book-crossing.
In the evening after the Forum, the participants socialized in Angels restaurant. The next morning everyone interested took a walking tour around the center of Minsk, during which they learned many unusual facts about the city while being in the company of like-minded people.
One of the 2019 Forum’s innovations was electronic certificates that the participants received via e-mail within a week after the Forum. In case you have not received your certificate please contact us via e-mail info@translationforum.by.
Team of the III Belarusian Translation Forum
The Forum was prepared on a volunteer basis by Yuliya Tsimashenka (originator and organizer), Olga Budai, Olga Lojko, Elena Lojko, Nadezhda Karabanovich, Ekaterina Zubchenok, and Renata Khitrova. You may find contact info of the organizing committee members here.
Media about III Belarusian Translation Forum
Euroradio live recording (Talakovy Efir) on August 6, 2019, and on ONT-program recording (Nashe Utro) on September 30, 2019, with the organizer of the Belarusian Translation Forum Yuliya Tsimashenka.
Plans for the Future
- On the initiative of Yuliya Tsimashenka, medical translators meetings are held in Minsk for the purpose of networking. The next meeting will take place in 2020.
- Information about future events will be posted on our website and on social media.
Thank you for supporting the III Belarusian Translation Forum.
If you have any questions please contact us at info@translationforum.by.
See you soon!
Sincerely yours,
the organizing committee of the III Belarusian Translation Forum