Helena Diaz del Real Germany Local time: 00:35 Member (2005) German to Spanish + ...
My five pences...
May 4, 2007
Hello everybody!
First of all thank you very, very much to Csaba and all those who made this conference posible.
I would repeat, as well, all what fellow translators said before, but I would insist on the great organization (are you sure, Csaba, you don't have german ancestors????) ;o))
What I would suggest for next conferences (either regional or international) is to leave more time for people to chat/talk with each other.
And somebody said to make, perhaps longer conferences (3+ days): I agree with that completely and I really think everybody would get more out of it (and I don't mean only for the speeches) staying longer together.
Comparing with two previous conferences (Berlin and Edinburgh) I think it was great the idea to organize events on all evenings.
Also is excellent the idea to get interpreters for (at least some) speeches: I am still very, very sorry and feel disapointed not having understood more of the speech in Edinburgh about Tolstoi!!!
And something nobody commented up to now (or I did not see it yet) is the willingness to cooperate and contribute for a gift to the family Ban: Great! (By the way never before flew so much papermoney into my hands as in the last week -just a pity that it was not for me!) ;o)) ;o))
Due to personal experiences, I was not expecting much about the city of Budapest. This feeling has only been twice confirmed: At the two powwow's (it seeems to be like an hungarian "problem" as I felt this at other places as well), due to the waiters there: I could not imagine happening this way here in Germany. For the rest, I just changed my mind completely: Budapest is a great city, very much worth to be visited.
So thank you to all of you. It was a delight to meet you all there!
Me, too, I am very eager and utmost anxious to make the inscription to the next (european) conference, wherever it might be (it was likely to be held in southern France?).
Thank you all for this great time!
See you at the next conference and many greetings from cloudy Nuremberg,
Helena (you know, "the shy one") ;o)))
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Helena Diaz del Real Germany Local time: 00:35 Member (2005) German to Spanish + ...
By the way...
May 4, 2007
I have been watching pictures since my previous posting and I have been wondering:
Did you realize how diferent do we all look like comparing our pictures at proz and the reality???
;o)) ;o)) ;o))
Well it had to be stated, I think...
Helena
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Martine Brault Canada Local time: 18:35 Member (2005) English to French + ...
Wonderful conference
May 4, 2007
Thanks to Csaba and his faithful - albeit anonymous - helpers, we had a wonderful time, both from a professional and a personal point of view. The hotel staff must also be commended. They endured our requests with exceptional calm and patience.
Regional conferences are a great idea and will add value by focusing on local concerns; I look forward to one in Canada, and will gladly help if it takes place in my area.
Returning home, I realized I did not quite qualify for Henry's 12 hour standing: our pilot for the Frankfurt-Montreal flight surely had a Hungarian grandmother who drove a taxi: he beat the schedule by over one half hour and I made it, from Budapest to Montreal, in 11 hours and 35 minutes total. Do all Hungarians drive like Magyars?
Cheers to all
Martine
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Helena Diaz del Real Germany Local time: 00:35 Member (2005) German to Spanish + ...
Oh yes, the definetely do! ;o))
May 4, 2007
traviata wrote:
Do all Hungarians drive like Magyars?
Hi Martine,
Yes they definetely do!
(As if I am correct "both" are the same folk!)
Cheers and see you at the next conference -hopefully!
Helena
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Csaba Ban Hungary Local time: 00:35 Member (2002) English to Hungarian + ...
TOPIC STARTER
costs
May 5, 2007
I like the idea of expanding the duration of large conferences to 3 days - but this also increases the participation fee. In this particular hotel, for example, one extra day would have cost EUR 30-35 more per person (of which 4-5 goes to conference rooms and equipment and the rest on food). This time the early bird price was EUR 140 (I definitely wanted to keep it below 150), but with a 3-day conference, the starting price should have been EUR 175, and this does not even include an evening program for the first night, so altogether we are looking at around EUR 200 (3 days, conference rooms, equipment, 3 lunches, 6 coffee breaks, 2 dinners).
I'm afraid that this extra 60 euros would have turned away quite a few potential partipants. All in all, I think this is a good idea to explore for future conferences, but probably only for large international conferences.
Interpreting is of course technically feasible, but this would further increase the costs (and reduce the number of seats). I don't know the prices for this, as I have not even considered this for a minute. I think adding interpreting to the available services would unreasonably increase the participation fee, without adding too much value.
Instead, having more regional conferences in languages other than English is a much better idea.
cs.
[Edited at 2007-05-05 07:57]
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I don't want to repeat everything that's been said about the good organization. Sincerest congratulations to Csaba and his wife!
Most of the sessions were useful for me. There will always be less interesting ones, but that happens regularly at conferences.
People were great.
Staying up late at night was great.
It's bad I didn't manage to visit any of the spas/baths.
Veronika mentioned interpretation for the next conference, and there was positive response to the idea, or at least tacit agreement (I guess).
Just an idea off the top of my head:
We have the interpreters' group now, so provided that we have a general agreement on this and provided it would be feasible and affordable, we can have volunteer interpreters taking turns thougout the conference according to a previously fixed roster. For the more demanding sessions, we can have senior (kudoz/brownies paid) interpreters doing the work. Perhaps it could be a chance for non-interpreters to test themselves as interpreters as well. Afterwards, those members of the interpreting group who are sitting in different sessions listening to the interpretation could have a genereral discussion on interpretation, as well as on more specific areas (strategies, common errors, equipment issues, etc.)
I hope to see you all again at the next conference!
Miroslav
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Thank you Helena for being responsible for the collection of the money and the time you spent to find a suitable gift for the Ban family. I believe it was everyone's pleasure to contribute.
Maybe next time you will be able to keep something for that trip to Cuba!! ; 0))
Many kisses from me
Effie
[quote]Helena1962 wrote:
And something nobody commented up to now (or I did not see it yet) is the willingness to cooperate and contribute for a gift to the family Ban: Great! (By the way never before flew so much papermoney into my hands as in the last week -just a pity that it was not for me!) ;o)) ;o))
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Lorenzo Lilli Italy Local time: 00:35 German to Italian + ...
Virtually nobody looks like their profile IMO
May 5, 2007
Helena1962 wrote:
I have been watching pictures since my previous posting and I have been wondering:
Did you realize how diferent do we all look like comparing our pictures at proz and the reality???
;o)) ;o)) ;o))
Yes, I had a hard time recognizing you (you look sooo serious in your profile ) and Csaba looks much younger in real life. And there were many others I just couldn't recognize at all. But maybe it's just me.
I don't know about the matter of interpreters, I'm not sure if it's worth it.
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Steve Yates United Kingdom Local time: 23:35 German to English + ...
A note on duration of conferences
May 5, 2007
Personally I do not think there is any need to extend the core of a conference beyond 2 days. From my personal experience, arriving one day early to take advantage of the walking tour, plus staying most of Tuesday for Trados training, was ideal. I'm sure anybody who arrived Saturday and left either late on Monday or early Tuesday went feeling that they had missed out on something.
I think it is perfect, therefore, to have organised events and training sessions immediately before and after the conference, which of course gives you extra time to meet more people. If anything, the more formal structure of the sessions on conference days give us less opportunity to 'mingle' with our colleagues, even though the long coffee and lunch breaks were ideal. So next time, come for an extra day or two if you didn't this time, but I would prefer it not to be an obligation by adding an extra conference day.
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Austra Muizniece Latvia Local time: 01:35 Member (2004) English to Latvian + ...
True
May 5, 2007
Helena1962 wrote:
I have been watching pictures since my previous posting and I have been wondering:
Did you realize how diferent do we all look like comparing our pictures at proz and the reality???
;o)) ;o)) ;o))
I spent a lot of time with Tygru from Poland, but in Budapest I only knew her by her real name, so only on the last night I realized who she was in Proz.com:)
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I have been watching pictures since my previous posting and I have been wondering:
Did you realize how diferent do we all look like comparing our pictures at proz and the reality???
;o)) ;o)) ;o))
Well it had to be stated, I think...
Helena
Well..I dind't recognize Helena either...or Austra from their profile photos. And Csaba look muuuuuch younger in real life. And the list can go on...
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Helena Diaz del Real Germany Local time: 00:35 Member (2005) German to Spanish + ...
@ Effi, Lorenzo, Steve, Austra and Csaba
May 5, 2007
@ Effi: Thank you very much for your comment. In fact it has been a pleasure to do that. BUT I have to add, that Carsten Mohr was doing this as well. Also the idea to change from the first thought (dinner for two) into the voucher has also been thought and first agreed by him...
On the other hand, yes: Cuba is just wonderful and I love this country. But as I have been already twice (and more to come!) ;o)) I think it was a much better idea to collect money for the present to the Ban's. I guess with the collected money for La Habana I would not have even reached the metro-station at Benczur
@Lorenzo: No. I do not think it is only you who did not recognize the people by their proz-picture! But its fun to make a guess game out of it, like: Oh! Are you XX??? Noooo I am YY!! (By the way somebody has seen actually at the conference in Krakow my twinsister! - non exiting, of course!)
And only for you: "Gian Lucca, dili d'aspertarmi!!!" (Do you remember??)
@ Austra: Something similar happened to me: At the cruise I began talking (me?? talking???) to someone to realize at the end that this person has been an outsourcer of mine for several times!!! What a wonderful surprise!!!
@ Steve: In part I do agree with that what you say. But I did not mean increasing the number of speeches at all! I think two days speeches are OK. But what about f.e. making 1st day: conferences; 2nd day: Excursions, get together,...; 3rd day: Conference I say so, because I am very much aware that there is people having a hard time to get to know and talk to persons (even fellow prozians) they do not know before (well I am not "exactly" talking about me!) And doing that way, it might be easier for them... As per me, I arrived on friday and left on thursday night...
@ Csaba: Of course, adding another day to a conference gets everything on another prize category. I do not really know how many people would not be able to afford this, but on the other hand I know quite a bunch that have stood much longer in Budapest and others who might have, but they didn't just because oficially everything was over... And I found this a great pity.
Ah! And about interpreting: As Miroslav said, it does not have to be sooooo much more expensive, I think: Just making all those volunteers the confernce accordingly cheaper, there maybe even more people interested on attending conferences. With other words: An interpreter did not attend any conference due to the fees. He/she agrees on interpreting for one speech and may pay only 20% of the conference-fee. Suddenly we have got, at least, another participant!
Ok that was long enough yet ;o))
Thank you, once more to all of you!
Cheers from rainy Nuremberg,
Helena, "the shy one" ;o))
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Helena Diaz del Real Germany Local time: 00:35 Member (2005) German to Spanish + ...
Spite of... (Short addendum)
May 5, 2007
Hi!
In spite of other voices there are two people who recognized me at the very first powwow, after my pictuer on proz
Sorry I had to quotate this, as well.
Cheers,
Helena
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Veronika Hansova Czech Republic Local time: 00:35 Member (2006) English to Czech + ...
Interpreting at the large conferences: Helena and Miroslav - thank you, that's what I thought
May 5, 2007
Csaba, yes, regional conferences are a solution and undoubtedly less expensive one. But still I cannot get rid of the feeling that we keep forgetting about the rest of the translators and interpretors who just do not understand English.
Btw. it would be interesting to find out how many of prozians do not speak English and still would love to participate at the conference.
If it was a technical/technological conference then English would certainly be the most preferrable working language there. But, hey, we are the linguists, aren't we? ...
And yes, volunteering might be the solution for us. I understand the obstacles of financing such an event and collecting the registration fees. For some of us it is cheap for others expensive. Maybe the classicifation of countries could help a bit too. It is a common practice; the participants are charged according to the group to which their country of origin belongs.
I like Helena's idea about price reductions for interpreting volunteers and Miroslav's idea of interpretors helping themselves in practise.
Could we discuss this topic more in-depth?
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Irina Nesterenko Russian Federation Local time: 03:35 Member (2007) English to Russian + ...
Thanks to all for the beautiful experience!
May 5, 2007
The Conference was absolutely fantastic! 250 co-thinkers from 39 countries!
The sessions were varying from informative to entertaining. I’d like to once again thank two speakers in particular -Alicja and Jerzy.
Alicja's website presentation was most beautifully structured, clear, logical and very educative. I'm personally very thankful for the analysis of my website - I will definitely make the recommended alterations.
I would also like to thank Jerzy once again for the Trados sessions. I attended both courses, and having done that, I wouldn’t have doubted to take a third one if it were provided.
Thinking of the improvements that could be made in the future, I would find it useful to receive (or distribute) -should I happen to be a speaker one day)) hand-out materials, which would provide a more in-depth and detailed information on the subject discussed, with the presentation itself just pinpointing the main aspects due to the time limitations of each session.
Budapest seemed like a beautiful place – mostly at night, I didn't have much chance to discover it otherwise - so will definitely have to come back.
I’d still like to list some things that impressed me there:
- the town park (the only place I investigated thoroughly)
- dogs in the town park ( most beautiful)
- women in Budapest (very attractive)
- salsa night club (very peculiar type of salsa- seems to have originated in Turkey)
- strawberry Palinka
- the piano player/singer in Birdland
- the view of the sunset from my hotel (10th floor –very close to the sky)
- cakes (delicious)..
and of course, people, most amazing people.
This conference was a little life -full of thoughts and emotions. And for me the biggest value was meeting all those wonderful, open-hearted, sincere, intelligent, interesting, versatile, creative, aspiring, deep people.
…absolutely amazing - somebody said that going into the night up the road leading to a beautiful castle in the sky. Just two words portraying the whole world of feeling and emotion - absolutely - absorbingly, breathtakingly, intoxicatingly..amazing.
There are days, minutes that are worth the entire life, and they Are the quintessence of life, when your heart is flung open, when every cell of your being is breathing in the seeds of happiness and miraculous flowers are opening in you, your heart is expanding and seems too big for the chest, and you can not stop being amazed at how beautiful the whole world is.
I deeply share the feeling of Eponine: in the result of the conference, having met all of you, I feel a surge of pride and enthusiasm for our profession!
Looking forward to meeting all Prozians again – wherever and whenever (preferably sooner)!
Special thanks for making those days beautiful to Aurelie, Thomas, Monika, Jeremy and beautiful Elsa, Annelies, Philippe Rousseau (for the epiphany on language-life perception interrelation:)), Henry, Csaba, Maggie, Volodya, Alicja....so lucky to have met you all!!!!!
[Edited at 2007-05-05 20:15]
[Edited at 2007-05-05 20:19]
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The translation workplace 
