This year, Buddies Welcome Newbies celebrates its fifth anniversary, and as part of the celebrations, the team is introducing a few new surprises!

After its debut in San Antonio in 2013, led by Helen Eby and Jamie Hartz, Buddies Welcome Newbies has grown to become a well-known event right before the Welcome Celebration of the ATA conference. Designed as an ice breaker for those attending the conference for the first – or even the second – time, it is the place to get your gears in motion, in a fun, comfortable way.

Buddies Welcome Newbies (BWN) is a part of The Savvy Newcomer, where we are constantly innovating, and putting new ideas to the test. New this year is Jamie’s role as official leader of the BWN program, with yours truly in a supporting role.

Based on our experience from previous years, we approached ATA Headquarters and suggested including BWN as part of the event choices in the registration form, instead of having a separate link, page, etc. Fast forward to now and the results are amazing: More than 300 attendees registered as of today!

However, if you missed that one question during registration, and are interested in being a part of this event, do not despair! We will be happy to send you a link to register. Just send us an email at atasavvynewcomer@atanet.org, and we will get back with you.

Another novelty this year is the unveiling of our new seasonal blog ATA Conference Newcomer Blog, packed with resources for newbies and buddies alike. We thought waiting until Wednesday the 25th to share the myriad of things we want to tell you was kind of mean, plus, we could not possibly do it in 45 minutes! So, check it out, if you have not done so already, and be sure to leave us a comment to let us know how we are doing.

Also new in this fifth edition of Newbies Welcome Buddies is the opportunity to earn 2.0 CEPs by participating as a Buddy! But, as the saying goes: “Don’t fix it if it ain’t broke,” so the core of the BWN event continues to be the same.

What is Buddies Welcome Newbies, you ask? The answer is simple:

A Newbie is anyone who is new to the American Translators Association, to translation or interpreting in general, or a new conference attendee.

Buddies are the life of this event – experienced conference attendees, many of them seasoned T&I professionals, who donate their time and expertise for the benefit of Newbies. All our planning, ideas, and enthusiasm would mean nothing if we did not have the support of our awesome Buddies to make all this a reality.

During our opening session, Buddies and Newbies are paired up (the final ratio of Buddies to Newbies will depend on the number of participants in attendance), and off they go to enjoy the conference with the following “assignments”:

• Newbies and their Buddies make their own plans to attend a conference session together, have a meal together, etc. The number of activities and frequency is up to you.
• Attend the wrap-up session on Saturday October 28, for even more great information on what to do next and to hear presentations from guest speakers.

Pretty simple, huh? Yet, very powerful, as it can make a big difference in the life of new conference attendees, and who knows, maybe make a friend or two in the process.Of course, we have a few more surprises up our sleeves so you will have to come to both the opening session and the wrap-up to see the magic for yourself!

See you soon in D.C.!