More than 200 conference participants, including fellow interpreters and translators, academics, students and industry stakeholders, convened at the University of Queensland on 14-15 November for the AUSIT 2008 Biennial National Conference. It was the second time that this national event, which attracts language professionals from across Australia, New Zealand, and the U.S. was held in the “River City” of Brisbane.
AUSIT Queensland hosted this year’s biennial conference, giving local and interstate participants the chance to enjoy some relaxed Queensland hospitality. Under the banner GET CONNECTED, academics, experienced professionals, business and industry stakeholders debated and explored the rising importance of  the translating and interpreting profession, increasingly relevant in a state such as Queensland in the current climate of high import/export relationships in the resources, service and health industries. Major sponsors were the School of Languages and Comparative Cultural Studies, University of Queensland, and Multicultural Affairs Queensland, Department of Communities. Event Partners were NAATI and Congress Rentals, TIS and Qld Health, and Trade Exhibitors were Qld State Library, Absolute Translations, QTIS, Institute of Modern Languages, Arabic Language Services and Multimedia Languages & Marketing. The conference organisers proudly presented a relevant and interesting program, covering a wide range of aspects of the profession from indigenous interpreting in the remote Kimberley region to United Nations level simultaneous conference interpreting, from literature to medical translations, from translation training to accreditation and much more. As many of the sessions were interpreted simultaneously into sign-language, German and Japanese, participants got a feel of what it is like to be in a UN-style conference without leaving the St. Lucia university campus. Australia’s leading conference interpreting equipment supplier Congress Rentals generously provided the state of the art equipment as part of their sponsorship, and with technicians in situ they ensured smooth and professional simultaneous interpreting of all plenary sessions. The Senior NAATI Conference Interpreters Felicity Mueller and Claudia McQuillan, AUSIT members and members of the prestigious International Association for Conference Interpreters AIIC left their usual international conference circuit to show their peers and colleagues what they have been doing during the Bejing Olympics and other international events. AUSIT strongly recommends use of AIIC interpreters for conference interpreting and is very proud to count several AIIC interpreters among its members.
 
One of the program highlights was Henry Dotterer, founder of the global translator marketplace Proz.com. Henry flew in from New York on Thursday and dazzled conference delegates early Friday morning with his inspiring keynote speech “Change in the Translation Industry – and what it means to you”. He talked about all the controversial realities from automated translation to free human translations, from the new Google Translation Centre to TMS Systems. He predicted the industry outlook for the next 3-5 years and described how the translation practitioner can benefit or deal with it. From VLTM (Word fast) to TAUS data sharing, he listed the trends of the industry and gave a realistic outlook about what is happening and that there is no turning back. His encouraging and inspiring message was not to fear the rise of MT (machine translation) and HT (free human translation), but to recognise benefits and integrate them (well managed) in your work and reap benefits by being fully up to date in your industry. Love it or hate it, it was the message we needed to hear.
 
The conference also featured a strong indigenous content with a variety of workshops dedicated to training Indigenous interpreters in remote locations, skills training, issues in Indigenous language translations and a presentation by the Kimberley Aboriginal Interpreter Service (KIS). Five KIS interpreters had travelled together with linguist Keeley Palmer from the Mirima Language & Culture Centre and KIS Coordinator Dee Lightfoot had come from Kununurra and remote East Kimberley communities to participate in the conference.
 
The Jill Blewett Memorial was given by Adolfo Gentile on the interesting yet very important issue “Interpreters & Translators and Human Rights”. We thank Adolfo for sharing his commitment, experience  and expertise in this enriching and pertinent speech.
Networking was high on the agenda with all participants encouraged to “grab” anyone they want to talk to including presenters, keynote speakers, conference committee and the National Council to ask questions, to make contact and to learn and to share.
 
The conference dinner was held on the Friday night in Brisbane’s historic Powerhouse overlooking the Brisbane River. Some 110 attendees enjoyed a relaxing evening in the avant-garde ambience, some even danced the night away. It was a welcome break to kick back and let one’s hair down and a fantastic opportunity to foster relationships, get to know a different side of our industry colleagues, enjoy a great drop of Australia’s  fine wines and Queensland’s freshest gourmet food.
 
In general, there was a fantastic buzz and endless energy throughout the entire two days. While generous breaks to ‘Get Connected’ were allotted between the different presentations and talks, it seemed there just never was enough time to mingle – however, there certainly was enough delicious food to balance the amount of food for thought provided.
 
Thank you to all participants for coming to make this Conference the success it was. Thank you to all our Sponsors, Event Partners & Trade Exhibitors for assisting us in making it happen in the first place.
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Conference partners and sponsors: