РусскийTranslation Forum Russia 2016
Translation Forum Russia 2016 was held from the 1st to the 3rd of July in Astrakhan. Some 200 professionals, including translators, interpreters, managers, conference interpreting equipment and translation tools developers, university teachers, trainers and LSPs from over 30 Russian regions and abroad were warmly welcomed by the Astrakhan Oblast Governor Alexander Zhilkin at the Opening Ceremony, which took place at a historical museum building of Zeughaus in the Astrakhan Kremlin.
The forum geography was broad as always: apart from the Russian participants, it received the language professionals from Azerbaijan, Belgium, Belarus, Britain, China, Germany, France, Iran, Italy, Moldavia, Ukraine, USA. And as always, its program included a whole range of dynamic discussions, networking sessions and practical presentations given simultaneously in four tracks during three full days of a working weekend.
This year, the conference participants were offered a number of novelties. Among them – Farsi, Japanese, Chinese and Italian language sessions. Much attention in the program was given to conference interpreting, including an inspiring speech by Andrew Falaleev, who compared simultaneous interpreting with martial arts. A training in simultaneous interpreting offered by the Caspian Higher School of Interpreting and Translation before the forum, and “Interpreters’ SpecOps” with a focus on psychological aspects of work immediately after it, provided a valuable chance to improve one’s skills and multiply the inspirational effect of the event.
Another important topic raised at one of the round table meetings was the role of professional organizations and associations in lobbying professional interests and raising awareness of translation professionals on a whole number of issues, including professional code of ethics.
For the first time at TFR, a battle of translation tools developers took place. Every developer had only 5 minutes to introduce one of their software features. The winner at the nomination “This is the Future!” became SmartCAT, represented by its CEO Ivan Smolnikov. Collaboration became an important and appreciated feature of their product. Two other winners were named in the nomination “You have convinced me — I’ll try!”: Stanislav Okhvat from TransTools, with his Unbreaker presentation and Konstantin Dranch from Memsource, with a presentation of multi-language translation tool.
All the event participants emphasized the comfortable and friendly atmosphere of the forum.
«……..I am writing from Geneva to thank you once again for everything that I experienced at Translation Forum Russia in Astrakhan. I met so many friendly and interesting people, everything ran smoothly, the volunteers were great, as was the hotel and staff, the wonderful social events, and so on», Geoffrey Westgate, WIPO.
«……I really appreciated the highest level of competence and professionalism of all the presenters, participants, interpreters, and the fantastic and invaluable organizational work! I am so proud of having given my little contribution to this enormous success! The reactions I had, the massive requests for information during the breaks and the informal times, the increasing social networks connections, the number of copies of the document I am distributing today among the attendees, are all proofs that TFR 2016 has successfully given Simplified Technical English a big and significant opportunity to be more and more known and used within the Russian linguistic community», Orlando Chiarello, Chairman, ASD Simplified Technical English Maintenance Group, Product Support Manager.
«…..I’d like to congratulate you for the organization of the event and all the event itself of TFR 2016. Everything was really well organized, full of interesting conferences and people. This was really professional and gave a good insight of the translation market in Russia and around. I hope to be part of it next year, in Ufa», Nicolas Stuyckens, Belgian Chamber of Translators and Interpreters.
The place of Translation Forum Russia 2017 has been announced. It is Ufa, the capital of Bashkortostan. The forum will be held in the end of May. See you again in this beautiful city!
Contact person Valeria Podkovyrkina
e-mail: tfrconference@gmail.com