Start the conference off right by attending the Opening Session!

Keynote Speaker, Andy Abbar, will focus on the importance of language in helping building local economies—bridging the language divide is the first step to bridging the digital divide. He will talk about Microsoft's plans to expand its localization outreach by partnering with local experts and providing the opportunity to reverse the brain drain.

Andy Abbar has a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from SDSU and MBA from City University, Seattle. He joined Microsoft in 1991 to work on Internationalization of Microsoft products with focus on Office suite of applications. He is now the Director for International Strategic Initiatives, based in Paris, France, of which localization and locale specific solutions are part of his focus.

Hear the candidates for ATA's Board of Directors voice their opinion and then make them hear yours by exercising the right to vote. You must be an active or corresponding member of ATA to vote.

Share your views on issues concerning ATA. The entire ATA Board of Directors will be on hand for this open discussion.

This workshop is a requirement for anyone wanting to participate in ATA's Mentoring Program as a mentor or mentee. ATA's Mentoring Program offers a different approach from a typical mentoring arrangement because it is mentee-driven. We will look at best practices of successful mentoring relationships, introduce tips for structuring the relationship, and provide guidance to make the program work for the mentees and mentors involved. There is no charge for mentors, but mentees must pay $15 to cover the cost of materials. Participating as a mentor or mentee over the course of a year earns one ATA Continuing Education Point.

This workshop is a requirement for anyone wanting to participate in ATA's Mentoring Program as a mentor or mentee. ATA's Mentoring Program offers a different approach from a typical mentoring arrangement because it is mentee-driven. We will look at best practices of successful mentoring relationships, introduce tips for structuring the relationship, and provide guidance to make the program work for the mentees and mentors involved. There is no charge for mentors, but mentees must pay $15 to cover the cost of materials. Participating as a mentor or mentee over the course of a year earns one ATA Continuing Education Point.

Find out what your association has accomplished and the goals that are being set for the future. Members of the audience will be given an opportunity to ask questions and make comments to ATA Board members and committee chairs.

This forum is offered for ATA members who seek a better understanding of ATA's Certification Program. The panel will respond to questions from the audience about certification policies and procedures.

While codes of ethics sometimes appear dry and boring as written, applying them in real life can create interesting and juicy dilemmas. We will dissect the ATA Code of Professional Conduct and Business Practices and look at some of the gray areas of professional conduct in translation and interpreting. ATA members are invited to submit real-life conundrums for discussion by October 1, 2005 to courtney@germanlanguageservices.com. This workshop fulfills the ethics requirement for maintaining ATA certification.

The goal of this workshop is to present the new ASTM standard, analyze its contents, and discuss how it affects the different stakeholders in the translation process (translators, project managers, editors, terminologists, requesters, reviewers, etc.). The speakers will first introduce the standard and go over its contents. The roles of the translation company, individual translators and editors, reviewers, and requesters of translation services will be specifically analyzed and discussed. A copy of the standard will be provided to each participant.

Translation quality assurance standards are partly built on data standards. This session will focus on three kinds of data standards that affect translators: 1) the representation of text in various languages (using Unicode and the ISO language codes), as well as new advances in the area of locale identifiers; 2) the exchange of translation-related data (TMX and TBX); and 3) the segmentation of text into word and characters (GMX and related ISO work). Because of time constraints, the session will not cover XML.

This session will be used as a sounding board for chapter and regional group officers and anyone else interested in creating or strengthening local group outreach and activities. Come and share your ideas, victories, and concerns.

This session will continue previous discussions dedicated to putting the Regional Network for North America on a sound organizational footing. Anyone interested in establishing strong communications links among the professional organizations in Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. is invited to attend. Topics for consideration include establishing a web-based calendar of translation and interpreting events in North America, scheduling training events across borders, comparative ethics and credentialing standards, and outreach and public relations. Volunteers able to assist in coordinating a web-based exchange of information will be particularly welcome.

If you are a first-time attendee, the official program may seem overwhelming and somewhat confusing. The presenters will outline a few strategies you can adopt to help make the most of your experience in Toronto. Learn how to chose between equally appealing sessions; how to read the map and navigate crowded hallways; why the colored dots are important; which gatherings are invitation-only and which are open to all; the best times to tour the exhibits; strategies for using the Job Marketplace room; and other practical information. Preconference tip: make sure you attend the Wednesday night Opening Reception, and do wear your colored dot(s)!

Dedicated leaders of nonprofit organizations focus sharply on their goals, but sometimes find themselves tripped up by the process of getting there. Learn a new way to observe how you and your group function in order to bring out the best in your members as well as highly practical ways to let your organization grow and thrive.

The government is steadily becoming more proficient in utilizing translation services. Historically, local government depended solely on a translator's word for the accuracy of the printed product, but recent national attention focused on security issues and accessibility for limited-English-proficient customers has had an impact. This has elevated the demand for higher standards of service from vendors and independent translators. As chair of the Local Government Language Access Coordinators, Fairfax County (Virginia) government is bringing a serious message from its neighboring jurisdictions related to the issues and visions ahead for government translation.

Most translation companies are started by entrepreneurial linguists with basic business knowledge. As it happens, the last thing translation companies do is translation. This presentation lays out all the activities a translation company owner needs to monitor in order to have a successful business (vendor management, project management, and sales).

This workshop is designed for companies and agencies that would like insider tips on how to make sure that the client's expectations are being met (reasonably) and that interpreters are qualified and will perform well. Topics will address interpreter recruitment and screening, sourcing and managing talent, and successfully negotiating contracts. Participants will engage in exercises to learn how to set up booth arrangements, plan relays between booths and language pairs, and handle conference documents and multimedia presentations. Venue logistics, contracts, and assuring confidentiality will also be addressed.

Hiring the wrong person for the wrong position is one of the most costly mistakes a company owner or manager can make. Behavioral interviewing can help you minimize these mistakes. Based on the assumption that past performance is the best predictor of future performance, behavioral interviewing elicits specific information about what candidates have actually done in their previous work experience. This session on behavioral interviewing techniques and example questions is not to be missed!

Misconceptions and false expectations frequently occur among project managers, editors, quality assurance specialists, and others involved in the translation process regarding the editor's role in maintaining linguistic quality. The speakers will share practical tips on how to facilitate a better understanding of the editor's role (with assignment and style sheets/checklists, staff training, pilot projects, process evaluation and monitoring, and feedback reviews). These tips will help a company provide quality projects on a consistent basis.

In previous years, the speakers proposed a theoretical framework for assessing and measuring translation quality, explaining how the Translation Quality Index can be a reliable indicator of translation quality and serve as the foundation for process improvement. This year, they will show how they have turned their theory into practice. In particular, they will discuss how translation quality measurement is being implemented worldwide at a translation company, and will share their experience and real-life examples. A demonstration of tools and services the speakers developed to help measure translation quality will also be included.

Seattle, home of Frasier Crane, Microsoft, and Starbucks Coffee, seems the ideal place to discuss the spiritual and psychological state of translation project managers. This session will cover Asian values and attitudes that can prove useful for translators and project managers working in a deadline-driven, goal-oriented, stressful, and sometimes even chaotic world. Are you constantly going after one goal after another without being able to enjoy the present moment? Do you feel stressed and burned out? Come and participate!

Freelance translators who edit other translators' work know that projects can go awry. Project managers are often caught in the middle. Topics will include: the tasks assumed to be included in the "editing" process; tips for editing under ideal circumstances; the warning signs of a potential problems; and the strategies for making the best of a difficult situation. Panel participants will include translator-editors with successful editing experience, as well as an agency representative who is responsible for facilitating translator-editor relationships.

As corporations strive to maximize profits and satisfy shareholders, language services automation in general (and machine translation in particular) are seen as miracle processes to reach those goals. What does language services automation mean for companies and their customers? What role do human translators play? Is machine translation a viable alternative? If so, what opportunities does it provide for language professionals? This presentation examines automated translation from the perspectives of the corporation and the translation services company. The speakers intend to dispel common assumptions about what machine translation can do, and will demonstrate scenarios in which it is considered a realistic option.

Come learn how to use online research and business networks to target and profile customers and vendors. Specifically, participants will learn how to use: Ecademy (the business exchange that connects people to knowledge, contacts, support, and business); Google (for advanced searches); Hoover's Online (to search for business information); LinkedIn (to find the people [they] need through the people [they] trust); openBC (Europe's leading business networking site); Ryze (to [help them] make connections and grow [their] networks); and Spoke (to access people through people [they] already know and trust).

Just how well has the translation and interpretation industry risen to meet the federal government's increased needs for language professionals? Where are the big successes and where is there still need for improvement? Has the federal government increased its ability to gainfully (or painfully) employ translators in sufficient numbers and at sufficient skill levels? An overview of the current state of play, with real-world examples and lessons learned, will be brought forward in this session.

What’s the highest priority in translation? Costs? Deadlines? Quality? Translators, project managers, and clients all wrestle with this question every day. The presenter will outline the quality-first theory and suggest practices required to make it work even when it seemingly conflicts with market realities. He will address client-driven vs. quality-driven strategies, quality assurance procedures, managing client accounts, and sticking to quality-first principles even under "special circumstances."

Participants will work on some translations (English>Arabic and Arabic>English) and discuss which options best convey the meaning intended in the source language. Translations completed at the beginning of the workshop will be used to discuss the common principles of dynamic translation. Attendees will come away with a list of 20-30 principles of dynamic translation.

All translators look for tools that will help them become more productive, accurate, and consistent. Translation memory applications promise to assist with all of these areas, but how well do such tools work when Arabic is the source text? We will take a short look at the major issues facing translators working with Arabic, including how well computers handle Arabic text. We will then examine some of the translation memory applications and evaluate their performance when translating from Arabic into English (concentrating on MS Windows applications).

One has to know the culture to really understand a particular idiom or proverb. Designed as a follow-up to last year's session, the speakers will concentrate on the translation of Chinese proverbs into English equivalents. Specific examples will be given to show how knowledge and understanding of the historical and cultural background of a given proverb will affect its translation or interpretation.

This presentation addresses common syntactical challenges associated with translating Chinese texts into English. Good and not-so-good examples from legal, financial, technical, and other domains will be examined. Attendees are encouraged to bring their own examples of knotty syntax to add to the discussion.

Participants will work through a short translation of a newspaper editorial and discuss translation strategies and choices. Topics will include: semantic vs. communicative translation; over- and under-translation; and what makes a good translation. Feedback will be provided on participants' translations.

The administrator and assistant administrator will present a summary of the division's activities in 2005 and plans for 2006.

How can a professional Chinese translator or interpreter survive and be successful in today's fiercely competitive market? Learn how to become more productive and profitable and to focus on areas that bring more revenue.

With English being so prominent, even in the Netherlands, it is sometimes difficult to know if you are translating too literally, and perhaps even violating the Dutch rules of grammar and syntax. The same problem occurs in terminology, where false friends may lead translators astray. New words or new meanings for existing words gradually find their way into the language, especially in everyday speech. We will discuss the common errors and pitfalls in English-to-Dutch translation. The workshop will take the form of a quiz, loosely based on the popular language quiz show on Dutch public television, 10 door tail.

This is the follow-up to the 2003 Phoenix session ("The Legal Translator and Dictionaries: Friends or Foes?"). The speaker will provide new insights on the subject and explain how legal dictionaries can be used as self-training tools. Based on his experience as a writer and user of dictionaries, the speaker will describe the various approaches to compiling a dictionary, including examples such as the Harrap's-Dalloz Law Dictionary or Terminologie du contrat. Participants will be invited to share their own experience of using and/or writing legal dictionaries.

For several years, we have been witnessing an accelerated change in everyday French usage due to the influence of English. While we recognize that a living language evolves naturally and that mutual borrowing has been going on for a long time, we may ponder over the factors behind this current trend, its necessity, its long-term effects, and the role played by translation. What is our degree of responsibility? Do we have any control over this evolution?

Modern packaging is an integral part of daily life. Countless consumer goods arrive on store shelves prepackaged in a dizzying array of containers, sizes, and formats. Companies design these packages to extend product shelf life and to make products easier to use. Well-designed packaging keeps products safe from the warehouse to the consumer's home. Finally, packaging serves a key marketing role for manufacturers who make every effort to ensure that their merchandise stands out from their rivals. This presentation will introduce French and English packaging industry terminology by examining container design, manufacturing, and marketing, particularly in the liquid food industry.

French translators often have to choose between leaving an English term in a French text or translating it. We will discuss: the arguments put forward by those who want to preserve the French language from English interference at all costs; the influence English grammar and spelling has on the way people write in French; the use of English in French texts as a way of creating a community or a marketing technique; translating new words; and the legal framework. We will try and define how to make good choices based on the target audience.

The Public Fountains of the City of Dijon, published in 1856, describes the water supply system Darcy built in Dijon, France, in 1839-1840. The book is important today because it describes experiments that led Darcy to formulate a law on fluid flow through porous media that is the foundation of the science of hydrogeology. This translation project presented numerous challenges, including: the sheer size of the book; its flowery prose; old technology and terminology; Old French passages; references to Roman and Greek water experts; discussions of "new" pipe manufacturing methods; and discussions of antiquated theories of artesian wells and springs.