ChatGPT has taken the world by storm. KUDO, a leading provider of remote interpreting, now offers a machine interpreting service. Avatars are making a mark on sign language interpreting. Are the days of human interpreting numbered?

Based on the book, Interpreters vs Machines: can interpreters survive in an AI-dominated world?, and tuned to recent developments, this talk will discuss several possible futures for human interpreting. It will lay bare both the problematic nature of the marketing of machine interpreting and the failures of human interpreters to effectively sell their own work. It will argue that the future of our work is neither inevitable nor universal and that there are as many opportunities as there are threats. This is even more the case given the wide range of situations in which interpreting is used and the surprising variety of client needs and requirements. Based on research and real-life experience and full of both honesty and humour, interpreters will go away from this talk with a clear view as to the actions they need to take to assure their future.

Dr Jonathan Downie is a consultant church interpreter and conference interpreter, working between French and English under the trading name of Integrity Languages. A former co-host of the popular Troublesome Terps podcast and a current co-host of The Church Interpreting Podcast, he spent 6 years on the board of his national professional association. As well as being an internationally published interpreting researcher, he is also the author of two books. Being a Successful Interpreter: Adding value and delivering excellence (Routledge, 2016) linked interpreting research and practice. Interpreters vs Machines: can interpreters survive in an AI-dominated world? (Routledge, 2019) discussed the futures of human interpreting given advances in machine interpreting.

As translators and interpreters, we do. Such is the very nature of being a service provider. Thus, we only make money when (and if) we are “doing” what we do. The caveat? We cannot scale nor can we diversify ourselves.

As the serious professionals we are, we tend to put all our focus and energy on improving our skills, on being better at what we do. And rightly so!

But what about what we know? Not just what we know about our own trade skills, which we can share with and teach to our colleagues, but also what we know about those ancillary skills that make us great at what we do and we can share and teach to our clients.

This knowledge can be turned into intellectual property in the form of, for example, information products. Products that can be scaled and automated; that may or may not need us to be there, present, “doing”.

Popular wisdom says that we should not put all our eggs in one basket. Business experts talk of building product ecosystems. I call it my London Tube Levels. Whatever you wish to call it, the idea is the same: strengthen our businesses with scalable, automated intellectual property that makes us money while freeing up our time so we can do what we do the way we want to do it.

Cecilia Lipovsek is a diplomatic interpreter of Spanish, English, and Portuguese and owner of MULTILATERAL, a services company that provides real-time, culturally-sensitive language support to British and Latin American diplomats, governments, businesses, and professionals.

Born in Buenos Aires, Cecilia has lived and worked on both sides of the ocean – a foot on each side of the language and cultural divide. Over the years, she has worked with heads of state, ministers, governors, CEO’s, changemakers, writers, royalty, Nobel Prize winners, museum curators, and countless experts.

Cecilia has also published JUMP!, the first business book created for interpreters, and WELCOME!, the only practical book about diplomatic interpreting in the 21st century.

LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cecilialipovsek/
Website: www.multilateral.london

In the age of computer-aided translation (CAT) tools, a common mistake is to rely on a CAT tool to create a perfect translated document without spending time on preparing it before and after translation. However, there are many areas where your CAT tool needs extra help, from cleaning redundant tags or fixing other formatting issues in the source document to making sure that the final document is well-formatted and easy to read. This presentation will demonstrate how to use TransTools and TransTools+ – productivity tools for translators – to get around various CAT tool limitations while working with Word, PowerPoint and Excel documents, saving time and improving quality.
You will learn:
1) How to prepare documents before translation in a CAT tool (clean excessive tags, remove redundant breaks and spaces, etc.) in order to optimize further translation.
2) How to translate specific parts of a Word document in a CAT tool, ignoring text marked as non-translatable.
3) How to produce a dual-language final Word document quickly and easily.
4) How to perform a pre-flight check of document formatting in the final document.
5) How to polish the appearance of final Word documents.
6) How to make last-minute corrections in final Word documents using correction lists.
The presentation will be useful not only to translators, but also project managers at language service providers, desktop publishing (DTP) specialists, editors and other language industry professionals.

Stanislav Okhvat is a translator turned software developer with a background in language studies and technical translation. During his career as an in-house technical translator, he was always keen on using specialized software to increase translation productivity of the company's translation team. This led him to develop TransTools, a suite of productivity tools for translators and editors, and TransTools+, a set of additional advanced tools for translation industry professionals. He currently works full-time on TransTools+, TransTools and a number of other software products, and also provides translation technology consulting and custom software development services for LSPs and translators.

The Pandemic brought about a sudden and dramatic increase in Remote Interpreting (RI) for interpreters. Previously interpreters were more \"out than in\" unlike our translator colleagues who are used to Working From Home (WFH).

Our worlds changed when we interpreters too had to grapple with isolation, technology (good and bad) and negotiating new terms and conditions (such as payment for tech trials before interpreting events) with our clients to govern our new working conditions.

Perhaps we were naive in assuming that post pandemic that we would return to \"normal\" but instead many of us are still mainly working remotely - some of us love it (no tiresome travel) and some of us hate it (downward pressure on rates as some clients are less and less willing to pay half and full day rates and instead want to pay us by the hour).

In any event RI is clearly hear to stay so we have no choice but to weather the most dramatic change in our working lives in the last 50 years or so!

This interactive session will explore how we have transitioned into the \"new normal\" and have (hopefully!) made it work for us!

Sue Leschen is a lawyer linguist and the Director of Avocate Legal and Business French Interpreting and Translation Services Ltd

https://www.avocate.co.uk

She is also a member of CIOl\'s Interpreting Division Steering Group and also sits on NRPCD\'s Professional Conduct Committee

How can a blind person “see” a media event or a theatrical presentation?

This presentation will demonstrate how audio description (AD) provides access to the arts for people who are blind. AD makes visual images accessible for people who are blind or have low vision via a translation of visual images to succinct language. Using words that are vivid and imaginative, describers observe, select, and use language to convey the visual image that is not fully accessible to a segment of the population—the American Foundation for the Blind notes that 31 million Americans are blind or “have difficulty seeing even with correction”.

It is critical, of course, that all providers of audio description have adequate training in the fundamentals of audio description. While literature exists that focuses on guidelines for professional audio describers (United States, U.K., Spain, Australia), little has been done to tailor training to non-professionals. In addition to an overview of the history of audio description (including the development of “YouDescribe” in the United States) and a focus on the nature of the audiences for audio description, the program of training for non-professionals to be presented is focused on “The Four Fundamentals of Audio Description” developed by Dr. Snyder throughout the 1990s:

- OBSERVATION: Active Seeing / Visual Literacy -- how to develop skills in concentration and observation

- EDITING: WHAT SHOULD BE DESCRIBED -- the art of "editing" from what you see

- LANGUAGE: WHAT WORDS TO USE – Brevity, Imagination, Objectivity

- VOCAL SKILLS: using the spoken word to make meaning

Dr. Joel Snyder is known internationally as one of the world’s first “audio describers,” a pioneer in the field of Audio Description, a translation of visual images to vivid language for the benefit, primarily, of people who are blind or have a vision impairment. He was a part of the world’s first audio description service which had its debut at Arena Stage in Washington, DC in 1981. Since that time, Dr. Snyder has introduced audio description techniques in over 40 states and 64 countries and has made thousands of live events, media projects and museums accessible. Most recently, Dr. Snyder was named a Fulbright Scholar to train audio describers in Greece over a four-week period in 2019.

In 2014, the American Council of the Blind published Dr. Snyder’s book, The Visual Made Verbal – A Comprehensive Training Manual and Guide to the History and Applications of Audio Description, now available as an audio book and in Braille from the Library of Congress, in screen reader accessible formats, in English, Polish, Russian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Chinese; a version in Italian is planned for 2023. His PhD is from the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona with a focus on audiovisual translation/audio description. Dr. Snyder is the President of Audio Description Associates, LLC (www.audiodescribe.com) and he serves as the Founder/Senior Consultant of the Audio Description Project of the American Council of the Blind (https://adp.acb.org).

We, as language professionals, are focused on written skills which constitute the essence of our work and profession. However, limiting our communication to written materials may hinder our ability to connect with our clients, colleagues, business partners and audience and may raise issues of understanding and even of readability when our message is distorted. On the contrary, verbal communication skills for language professionals, eloquence and persuasiveness greatly improve our relationships by creating a space of connection and trust. Verbal (and non verbal) skills are not limited to addressing a public on stage, but rather they allow us to brush up our negociation ability for contracts or prices, job interviews, salary negotiation, sales discussions, presentations to clients, training presentations, round table discussions, networking and much more. This talk will offer valuable tips on how to prepare or improvise a pitch or a speech in a meeting, a talk in public, an acknowledgment of appreciation or any opportunity to value our work – for in-person or virtual, small or large audiences.

Dominique Bohbot, is a certified translator, certified writer, certified editor and certified trainer. She is Linguistic Promotion Advisor at University of Montreal, and in charge of the recognized and award-winning competition Délie ta langue! which brings together students from various universities in a public speaking performance. Previously, she worked for several years as Head of Professional Training at the Department of Linguistics & Translation. She has worked as a manager, linguistic services at TMX Group (Toronto Stock Exchange and affiliated companies), where she led the successful integration of translation services as the financial terminology hub in Canada, which made her finalist of the 2014 French awards of the Office Québécois de la langue française. During three terms, she has chaired the Association of Linguistic Services Managers, which awarded her the distinction of honorary member. Engaged in professional best practices, she has brought her expertise to Editors Canada for their French certification program and to the OTTIAQ- Quebec order of certified translators, terminologists and interpreters as a mentor. She has also served as a jury member of the Mérites rédactionnels of the SQRP (The Quebec society for professional writing). As a soughtafter expert, she regularly talks as a guest speaker on several forums and conferences in Quebec, Canada, Europe, Latin America and Israel. One of her major appearances occurred in 2017 at the Standing Committee for Official Languages of the Canadian House of Commons, where she stood up and talked for the promotion of translation and the recognition of linguists’ professionalism. In 2018, she received the award of the OTTIAQ-Quebec order of certified translators, terminologists and interpreters for her outstanding work for professional recognition and in 2020 the Initiative-Coup de coeur prize of the Rector of University of Montreal.

Understanding the progress of artificial intelligence in language
lecture_description: This is a presentation to understand what artificial intelligence is, what it can do, and the progress it has made in language, so we can be better prepared and equipped for the challenge.

Bio FIT Mundus Council Member
Vice-President of FIT Latin America
Head of the Organizing Committee, FIT Congress 2025 in Costa Rica
Official translator and interpreter appointed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Costa Rica
Former President of the National Association of Official Translators and Interpreters of Costa Rica (ANTIO)
Attorney at Law and Notary Public.

Where do we go after CAT tools and TM? How is the localization technology stack changing? What is the likely impact on the translation profession? What are some of the trends that are emerging? While automation is increasing and MT is improving the demand for translation is also exploding. What does this mean for translation work?
submitter_bio: Kirti Vashee is a Language Technology Evangelist at Translated Srl, and was previously an Independent Consultant focusing on MT and Translation Technology. He was formerly associated with several MT developers including Language Weaver, RWS/SDL, Systran, and Asia Online. He has long-term experience in the MT technology arena and prior to that worked for several software companies including, Lotus, OTG, Legato, & EMC. He is the moderator of the Automated Language Translation (MT) group with almost 10,000 members in LinkedIn, and also a former board member of AMTA (American Machine Translation Association).

Kirti is active on Twitter (@kvashee) and is the Editor and Chief Contributor to a respected blog that focuses on MT, AI and Translation Automation and Industry related issues. (http://kv-emptypages.blogspot.com )

I am a transcreator.

I work with texts that are meant to intrigue, engage, and motivate to action.

Maybe that’s what you do too.

So like me, you may have been asking yourself: How do artificial intelligence, translation memory systems, machine translations or, more recently, chatbots like ChatGPT come into the picture in this kind of work? Are they a threat to what we do or can they be used for our benefit? If so, in what ways?

In this session, we will explore how you can use translation-related technology and AI tools for jobs that are inherently more on the (trans)creative side, and what pitfalls you should be aware of. We will also discuss ways to communicate what we do and how to frame our services when working with direct and agency clients.

Note: Due to the great feedback received, this session is a sequel to the presentation delivered at the ITA Conference in 2021.

Nina Sattler-Hovdar is the founder and owner of Transcreation Experts.

Based on her professional background in both translation and marketing, Nina started building her transcreation business in the late 1990s and thus became one of the pioneers of transcreation in the language services space.

As a keen observer and analyst of the language services industry over the past 25+ years, she has written many articles and books on transcreation. She is also a frequent speaker and transcreation trainer for enterprises, language services companies, and professional associations around the world.