July is a special month for us — it’s when we meet up with the participants of the Ukrainian Translation Industry Conference in a pine forest reserve on the banks of the Samara River. We can now state confidently that this tradition has taken root: the 2020 conference was the fifth anniversary event for translators, interpreters, editors, representatives of translation companies and translation technology developers. In other words, a conference for everyone involved in the translation business.
UTICamp-2020 in numbers
The guests started to arrive on 19 July. They came by train, bus and plane from all over the country. UTICamp-2020 was also attended by foreign delegates: Gisela Grosselfinger Vogel arrived from sunny Mallorca, Sabina Jasinska from our neighbouring country Poland, and Leonid Glazychev and Yelena Glazychev made a transatlantic flight. The conference attracted 96 participants in total - what a wonderful crowd it was!
This unique year threw up a lot of unusual challenges, ultimately motivating us to develop and improve. A further 648 people joined UTICamp-2020 online, for which participation was completely free. We enhanced our online streaming so that our content could be watched on the conference website and on YouTube, Facebook and ProZ.TV!
We stream UTICamp-2020 for free all over the world
The conference program was really packed, with 63 speakers giving their presentations in the Summer Theatre and on the terrace this year. Some of them were speaking remotely, while others shared their experience in person in the outdoor auditorium. There were several conference streams: The Art of Translation, Interpretation, and Business and Translation Technology, as well as a new stream this year, entitled Forest Mix, which included presentations on topics from related sectors of importance in our work - marketing, graphic design, psychology, philosophy, self-development and much more.
The content was delivered in real time: the majority of the presentations were streamed with simultaneous interpretation. A star team of 18 top simultaneous interpreters worked with us this year! Students could watch them to better understand the interpretation environment and see how interpreters work.
UTICamp-2020 team of simultaneous interpreters and speakers
The European Lviv Translation Competition student winners took part in the conference this time. This means UTICamp-2020 was also very “studenty”. Hopefully, even more young talents will visit us next year!
The European Lviv Translation Competition student winners
Traditionally, creative workshops are offered to conference delegates and anyone else who wants to attend. The workshops were extremely popular this year: bag and dish painting, jewelry making, macrame, and clay modeling.
Creative workshops for UTICamp-2020 participants and guests
Meanwhile, young guests at the conference had their own, no less exciting programme in the small summer theatre. The educators ran quests, set creative assignments, arranged sports activities, explained the basics of robotics, and even held evening discos. The kids had absolutely no time to think about the adults, who were passionately discussing the future of the translation industry!
Children’s programme for junior conference participants
As it was very important for us that the conference participants not only learned something new and actively socialized with each other, but also enjoyed a real vacation, we put special emphasis on the culinary component of the conference. Delicious breakfasts, lunches and dinners, exquisite buffets, vitamin juice breaks, fragrant coffee and original cocktails all provided our guests with energy for exchanging expertise and enjoying leisure activities. In addition, tasty treats beautifully complemented the genuine holiday atmosphere.
The evening concerts were definitely a special highlight of the conference. We were truly amazed at the talents of our participants! There were dozens of music and dance performances over the conference days, which received an overwhelming response and created a uniquely warm atmosphere. Both participants and guest artists performed each evening. Music was everywhere: on the main stage in the Summer Theatre, in the lounge area in the Pears room and around the fire at night. All concerts were streamed online this year, and you can watch them on our YouTube channel. Watch and prepare your own performance for UTICamp-2021!
Fifteen thousand colourful photos were taken during the conference: all of them radiate the joy of meetings and will evoke the warmest feelings for many years to come. See the photo report of the event in our Facebook and Flickr albums.
The evening programme of the conference: concerts, songs around the fire, professional performances
The week-long holiday known as UTICamp-2020 is over but we feel a deep appreciation. We are grateful to our participants who believed in us so genuinely and thereby helped to motivate us. We’d like to thank Language Solutions Pro and Logrus IT, our sponsors, for their courage in supporting the conference. You can also contribute to the future of the conference by making a donation of any size. You can do it here. Many thanks to all our supporters - past, present, and future!
We thank the Programme Committee, the speakers and the simultaneous interpreters, as well as the technicians, organisers, chefs, drivers, waiters and everyone else who made this event possible. It’s always sad when a holiday comes to an end. But we know how to avoid this. Yes, we are starting to plan the next event! UTICamp-2021 will be held on 19—25 July at Meteorit campsite. You can pre-register here to pay the best price for your participation.
We have a year to prepare for taking it up to the next level. In the meantime, we’ll continue to meet in online webinars while building new plans in parallel. See you next year, friends!
