#ChampollionY

Budapest 14: a success in its own right

Forints and #bp14conf

Forints and #bp14conf

After visiting Hungary and, mostly, Budapest for a few days as part of the recent, independently organized Budapest 14, an “International conference for freelance translators and interpreters,” amidst a looming 20,000-word project deadline, I finally got around to share some of my impressions of a fantastic four-day adventure in the land of Magyars. Csaba Bán, a Hungarian colleague, meticulously and, often, I am told, painstakingly devised, convened, organized and, ultimately, successfully pulled off a largely useful and fruitful two days of conferences geared specifically towards freelance translators.

Familiar faces, such as Anne Diamantidtis and Konstantin Kisin, whom I had previously met in Paris in 2010, and newer faces, such as Hristina Dojčinova and Pablo Mugüerza, were among the 20 speakers, not counting sponsors and solution providers, of which there were four, including the legendary Yves Champollion, creator of WordFast, who proved to be a charming, multilingual and quite approachable individual. And that’s not counting the close to 150 attendees, some of which I had the pleasure to meet.

Budavári-Palota #bp14conf
Budavári-Palota #bp14conf

A lot of concepts and ideas were thrown around during BP14, including buzzwords. I will just mention a few of those that remained rattling around in my skull: attending conferences targeted to customers, CPD, credibility, direct customers, perception, portfolio, seriousness, specializing (but offering more), standing out, and vocation. I particularly enjoyed Pablo’s conference on Medical Translation. We shared some time together during dinner on Saturday, talking about the craft and about opera. Hope to see him in Freiburg in October at MedTranslate.

I spent Sunday morning walking around for hours before taking my train at 1. The City Park is gorgeous and the flea market is quite picturesque.

Finally, I’d just like to mention a few of the people I had pleasure of meeting, people I hope to meet again: Mayo Asada, Juraj Bobula, Graciela Carlyle, Robert Daraban, Marie Deblonde-Vallet, Ursula Derx, Mariana Hernández, Barbora Kralova, Elina Ilaria Nocera, Iva Pajvancic, Tanya Quintieri, Gary Smith, and Ivona Stelzig. Oh, and that lovely, authoritative couple from Leeds whose name I can’t recall.

Barbora Kralova and Yves Champollion #bp14conf Barbora Kralova and Yves Champollion #bp14conf

A small note-to-self for the next time: do make a reservation for the train, at least on the way back. It seems that half of the Budapesters work in Austria!

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