ICR Translations attends the BP22 Translation Conference

On 9-11 May I had the pleasure to attend the BP22 Translation Conference, which took place in beautiful Lisbon. It was my first in-person post-pandemic translation event, as I had spent the previous several years focusing almost exclusively on legal events to maximise my legal specialisation journey. But after obtaining my STEP Advanced Certificate at the end of 2021, I decided that it was about time to resume attending translation events again.

Here are my thoughts and impressions:

Experience at BP22 Translation Conference as an attendee

After several online editions, BP returned in 2022 as a hybrid event combining the long-awaited in-person conference and the chance to attend remotely. I think that hybrid events are the way to go – they cater to a much wider audience and people who cannot make it to the actual conference can benefit hugely as remote attendees.

I like learning from the comfort of my home, but the long-lasting effects of face-to-face interaction and networking cannot be replicated remotely. That is why I attended in person. Well, that, and the fact that attending in person involved travelling to a city I love and having the chance to make a holiday out of it.

These were the sessions I attended:

• Learning how to thrive in an uncertain environment, by Renato Beninatto
• How to build the customer base of your dreams, by Iwona Bak
• How to grow your business from your current clients, by Tess Whitty
• Translator ready for 2025, by Marek Buchtel
• From solo to CEO: My journey (and potentially yours), by Martina Russo
• Beyond regular PDF conversion – Using PDF content effectively, by Sameh Ragab
• Pricing strategies and negotiation techniques, by Jason Willis-Lee
• Money management 101, by Martina Abagnale
• Stoicism for translators, by Dana Szabados

As expected, it was pretty difficult to choose which sessions to attend due to the variety of topics and speakers available but also due to equally interesting talks taking place simultaneously. The good thing about BP22 was that all sessions were recorded; as attendees have access to the recordings, I can watch all the sessions I was not able to attend. Moreover, the sessions are now available to buy from the BP Video Library.​

The networking reception and dinner were fantastic. Attendees came not only from every corner of Europe, but also from other continents. Translators are a bunch of very interesting people with fascinating stories; you always end up having the strangest things in common with someone sitting next to you – from a long-forgotten C language to someone’s partner being from a town close to yours, to another person having spent their Erasmus year in the same destination than you.

Everyone seemed in the mood for chatting, making connections, doing things together and meeting people. I am not someone particularly comfortable at approaching strangers and it was really easy to get to chat with others. The organisers did everything in their power to get people to be in touch long before the conference, facilitating communication channels for attendees to plan activities together and get to know each other. As a first-time attendee, I could not recommend this conference enough.

Experience at BP22 Translation Conference as a speaker

For me, BP22 was more than a conference. It was also my debut as a public speaker and excitement levels (and nerves) were through the roof. I had been toying with the idea of presenting for a while and had a very clear idea about what my presentation would be about. BP22 seemed the perfect place for me to try it, so I submitted my pitch and crossed my fingers.

Legal translation does not feature particularly often in general translation conferences. I kept my expectations low, and I was delighted to find out that my presentation was one of the chosen ones for the conference.

The title of my presentation was ‘Developing an effective legal specialisation strategy’ and the content was based on my experience specialising in legal translation as someone coming from a non-legal background. After talking about the need for real specialisation, I shared my own definition of legal specialisation and my 3-step process to create an effective legal specialisation strategy. I ended the presentation by sharing some first-hand study and marketing tips and several takeaways.

I kept the presentation as simple and easy-to-follow as possible and decided against including interactive elements in order to focus on the message. As a first-time speaker, I wanted to minimise potential issues and distractions that could affect the presentation delivery, which was my main goal. I stuck to my area of expertise and experience and created a presentation 100% from scratch by putting together thoughts and lessons learnt during my specialisation journey.

There were a few questions at the end of the presentation (always a good sign) and several attendees approached me later that day to share very positive feedback. I am yet to receive more feedback from the evaluation form provided by the organisers and I will update this post when I do.