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 and relive the highlights of the conference, reaching out to new contacts, sending notes to fellow colleagues who they had the opportunity to reconnect with – or even meet in person for the first time, like part of The Savvy Newcomer team!

Today, we want to contribute to the wealth of posts, tweet summaries, photo galleries, and even a video, of this year’s conference by sharing with you some of the comments we received about the Buddies Welcome Newbies event.

Last year, Buddies Welcome Newbies created a big buzz and received great reviews, but it was also acknowledged that there was room for improvement. Therefore, the team has begun looking at the opportunities created by past experience this year, and they also knew what to expect and prepared for it. The result: a hugely successful event!

If you were not able to attend #ata55 this year, we hope you find inspiration in the following selection of comments and that you will join us next year – whether as a newbie or as a buddy. We promise either way you will get hooked and will make it a regular on your conference calendar in the years to come!

See you in Miami!

 Buddies/Newbies program was SUPER helpful! There is so much that goes on during these 3 days, its fabulous to get insight from an experienced conference goer.

I just want to take this minute to thank you for the unforgettable experience I had at the ATA Conference; at first, I was extremely nervous, to say the least, but meeting you made a huge difference. You made me feel at ease, and part of the group; I felt I was not only a Newbie, but another member of the family. I have a greater respect for the field and I want to get as much knowledge and skills as possible, in order to honor the organization and the translators & interpreters that are making this world a better place to communicate

I loved the program! I was paired up with John DiRico and he was an awesome buddy, even though I know nothing about Wordfast 🙂  I also loved the fact that there were 2 newbies to a buddy. I spent a lot of time with my co-newbie.

I really enjoyed the conference. I thought it was a great experience, and I look forward to coming again next year!  I thought the newbies and buddies program was pretty useful! It was nice to meet a few people on the first night of the conference. I would suggest coming up with a more organized method to pair up newbies and buddies.

The information shared was wonderful and it was such a helpful experience. My first ATA conference would not have been the same otherwise.

After spending 3 days at ATA55 now I realize that I should have taken advantage of the resources available to newbies. I was not prepared as well as I could have been, and newbies next year can learn from my mistake of feeling lonely and at a loss for the first day.

It (the newbies/buddies program) was very helpful. I didn’t follow up with my buddy after the initial session (but I did say hi in the hall). It was really nice to talk to him in that first session – it made the conference less intimidating. Thanks!

I really appreciated the Newbies-Buddies program. Reading about it made me feel welcomed before the Conference even began, and the opening session brought me not one but many friendly faces to say “Hello” to during the next few days. My buddy, could not have been more kind and helpful, and checked on me every day. Thank you so much for your kindness and thoughtfulness in putting this program together!