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ATA’s 67th Annual Conference takes place October 28-31, 2026, at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco, and those four days will fly by. The attendees who get the most out of the conference are rarely the ones with the best luck; they’re the ones who did a little homework before boarding the plane. Here are nine things you can do ahead of time so you arrive ready to learn, connect, and enjoy yourself. 1. Order paper business cards now Yes, still. Paper cards remain the fastest way to close a conversation gracefully in a noisy hallway. Order them early enough so…
How to Make the Most of Your Last Year at University? 7 Essential Steps for Translation Students
By Marta Stelmaszak My last year at university as a translation student was a blast. I was thrilled to see how the quality of my translations has improved over the years, my head was full of translation theory knowledge and I was excited to be thinking about developing my future career. But I was also a bit, just a bit anxious…
MIIS: A Day in the Life
By Erin Teske My first glimpse of what it would be like to be a student at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, formerly the Monterey Institute of International Studies (MIIS), came when I received the results of my Early Diagnostic Test (EDT), which is an essential part of the application process. The Spanish program coordinator suggested that I…
A tour of celebrations around the world through different time zones!
By The Savvy Newcomer Team and Friends The Savvy Newcomer is read in many countries, by translators and interpreters who work in many languages. As we consider Christmas and New Year around the world, we decided to explore some of those cultures by asking some of our translator and interpreter colleagues to take us on a selected world tour and…
University of Lund: A Day in the Life
By Marie Eriksson I came to Lund University for the first time as winter was just giving way into spring. My father drove me from one side of Sweden to the other in a shaky, noisy truck in a snowstorm, while I tried to sleep against the car window on an itchy old pillow. I arrived with no more than two…
Marketing to Direct Clients
Reblogged from the ATA Business Practices. Instead of working exclusively for agencies, many translators and interpreters are discovering that working for direct clients is a rewarding experience. However, the approaches that work for soliciting work projects from agencies are often not helpful when it comes to attracting direct clients. Dear Business Smarts: Business from some of my regular agency clients…
What to do when things slow down…
By Helen Eby As freelancers, we are thrilled when we get a lot of work! Then we go pretty crazy with the load, saying yes to every assignment that comes. Fortunately, there are down times. What do we do with them? Some colleagues get anxious about their cash flow. “I haven’t had a new assignment for a week! What am…
ATA Conference Through the Eyes of Newbies and Buddies
By The Savvy Newcomer Team It has been almost two weeks since we all returned from Chicago, but it already feels like the ATA Conference was a long time ago. Every year, those wonderful four days fly by in the blink of an eye, and attendees (all 1842 of them this year!) will find themselves looking for e-memorabilia to remember…
Lesson 94: 9 Negotiation mistakes every translator has been guilty of at least once
By Marta Stelmaszak Reblogged from Want Words with permission from the author I thought it was a very relevant topic to cover because of many misconceptions around negotiation, and even more little mistakes we’re all guilty of. Negotiation is often seen as something dodgy, perhaps close to haggling. Oftentimes we expect that when we give our price, the client says yes (hopefully)…
What’s New on the Business Practices List—Confidentiality and Revision
By David Friedman Confidentiality is not something that you can afford to take for granted in today’s digital world, where devastating disclosures of trade secrets can occur in the blink of an eye. You have to use your best judgment to determine what degree of confidentiality the documents you are translating need to be treated with in many cases if this…
Buddies Welcome Newbies at ATA55
By The Savvy Newcomer Team The pre-conference event that was a resounding success last year, Buddies Welcome Newbies, is back this year and it promises to be an even bigger event! Led by Helen Eby and Jamie Hartz, with the support of lots of volunteers, this program is designed as an ice breaker for those attending the Conference for the…