Registration is now open for the 61st Annual Conference (October 21-24, 2020) of the American Translators Association (ATA).
I want to start this post by saying thank you to the ATA staff for making this happen. This year's conference was originally going to take place in Boston, Massachusetts. However, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic forced a change of plans. Therefore, it will be a virtual event instead.
Ever since I joined this professional association in 2016, it's been my dream to go to an ATA annual conference. I'm very excited to attend for the first time. Another dream comes true!
ATA61 will offer:
120 live sessions,
a job fair,
an exhibit hall, and
other opportunities to learn and network virtually.
These are some of the sessions that caught my eye:
Drugs, Medications & Pharmacology: Implications for Spanish-Language Interpreters & English>Spanish Translators – Presented by Tatiana Cestari.
Exploring Gender-Neutrality in Grammatically Gendered Languages – Presented by Arianna Marino.
Freelancing in a World of Distractions – Presented by Dorothee Racette, CT.
From Stagnant to Vibrant: How I Rebuilt My Translation Business from the Ground Up – Presented by Marguerite Storm.
Linguistic Validation: How Linguists Help Ensure Clinical Trial Success – Presented by Alison Verbeke and Megan Kregel.
Medical Reporting for Translators & LSPs: From Pharmacogenomics to Clinical Research Lay Summaries – Presented by Romina Marazzato Sparano, CT.
Plain Language Strategies for Succesful Communication – Presented by Romina Marazzato Sparano, CT.
Research Methods for Medical Terminology – Presented by Sara Greenlee, CT, and Sydney Kaiserman, CT.
Terminology of the Ears, Nose & Throat – Presented by Jill R. Sommer and Karen Leube.
The Power of 'No': Self-Confidence for Translators & Interpreters – Presented by Dagmar Jenner and Judy Jenner.
The Spanish Gerund: Advanced Guidelines for Effective Translation/Proofreading – Presented by Sofia Rodriguez.
Translating for the Pharmaceutical Industry & Language Access – Presented by Helen Eby, CT, and Carlie Sitzman, CT.
What You Need to Know about Privacy, Data Protection, and Confidentiality as a Freelance Translator – Presented by Nelia Fahloun.
One of the speakers will be Allison Bryant, who will be talking about PDFs, OCR, and Formatting. If you don't know how to work properly with scanned PDF documents, I highly recommend her session Dealing with Flat PDFs Quickly and Efficiently. I attended that session during the MATI 15th Annual Conference in 2018, and the knowledge I gained was priceless.
I've also signed up for two courses during the Advanced Skills and Training (AST) Day:
Advanced Research Skills for Medical Translators – Presented by Danielle Maxson, CT.
Writing Skills to Enhance the Value of Medical, Technical, and Scientific Translators – Presented by Romina Marazzato Sparano, CT.
Of the networking events, I'll participate in:
Buddies Welcome Newbies
Stronger Together Networking
While the sessions and the networking events are included with the registration rate, additional fees are required for the AST Day courses.
If you're not an ATA member but are a member of an International Federation of Translators member organization, you may register at a discounted rate. Early registration rates are available until September 28.
Will you attend ATA61? If so, what courses and/or sessions are you interested in?
Let me know in the comments!