The ATA Chronicle - May/June 2018 - 11

FEATURE

Miami Spring into Action 2018
What made the "Spring into Action 2018" conference in Miami
such a success? Teamwork!

I

n March, ATA's Spanish Language
Division (SPD) partnered with ATA's
Miami-area chapter, the Association of
Translators and Interpreters of Florida
(ATIF), and Florida International
University (FIU) to present the "Spring
into Action 2018" conference. I was one
of those lucky enough to attend.
Although the tragic FIU bridge
collapse occurred the day before
the actual conference, when many
attendees and presenters were arriving,
thankfully nobody involved with the
conference was injured. Attendees were
notified via email that the conference
would go on as scheduled, but were
told that they would have to allow
more time to get back and forth to the
main conference venue, the School
of International and Foreign Affairs
Building at FIU, due to traffic detours
around the accident area.
www.atanet.org

A FULL PROGRAM
The conference attracted an estimated
225 attendees from 27 states and
nine countries. From what I could
determine, the majority of attendees
were freelancers like myself. There
were also four corporate sponsors in
attendance, three of them with tables in
the registration lobby: Cross Cultural
Communications, the International
Medical Interpreters Association,
Natural Languages, and the National
Association of Judiciary Interpreters
and Translators.
The three-day conference was
designed to provide those interested in
acquiring or perfecting their skills in
translation, editing, and interpreting
with the opportunity to learn from
experts in these fields. And the program
of speakers certainly didn't disappoint,
with 35 educational sessions, a sold-

BY ANNE CONNOR

out ATA certification exam sitting, and
a Friday night networking reception
at the famous Biltmore Hotel
(compliments of ATIF).
The featured presenters were four
gentlemen comprising the collective
called Palabras Mayores (which has
many meanings in Spanish, such as
"greater words," "big words," or "tall
order"). Antonio Martín Fernández,
Alberto Gómez Font, Xosé Castro Roig,
and Jorge de Buen Unna joined forces
in 2010 with the goal of sharing their
combined knowledge of the Spanish
language with everyone by teaching
courses and workshops in America
and Spain. The group offered attendees
several sessions on topics such as
the proper use of Spanish style and
grammar; search engine optimization;
and using our computers' embedded
tools to work more efficiently. Although
they focused more on English>Spanish
translation, I still got a great deal from
the material presented, especially the
workplace efficiency session. It was
also great fun to "geek out" during
high-level language-specific sessions,
including seeing photos of ancient
Latin manuscripts showing the use of
diacritical marks that resemble what
most European languages still use.

The program of speakers certainly
didn't disappoint, with 35
educational sessions, a sold-out
ATA certification exam sitting, and
a Friday night networking reception
at the famous Biltmore Hotel.

Other sessions I attended dealt with
public health translations (given by an
employee of the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention in Atlanta),
interpreting in mental health settings,
the translation of audiovisual material,
quality assurance, subtitling, and taking
the Romance-language style out of
into-English translations. Many speakers
American Translators Association

11
http://www.atanet.org
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The ATA Chronicle - May/June 2018
