Translation conferences in the age of digital marketing

I have been actively attending translation conferences for the past few years, and I am increasingly questioning how beneficial they are to the development of a translator’s or translation company’s business.

The number of translation conferences is staggering: If around 15 years ago you could choose 2 or 3 conferences a year, today there are dozens of them every year. If you wanted to, you could fill your schedule to the point where attending conferences becomes the primary activity for a company executive or business development officer. It is not by chance that the concept of “conference tourism” is becoming increasingly popular in the industry.

In this article, I will analyze major conferences and their value for business development.

What are the primary objectives of translation companies and their representatives when attending conferences? I distinguish six main objectives:

1. Business development: Companies attend conferences to find new customers and expand their operations.
2. Maintaining existing business and developing customer relations: Companies attend events to meet with existing clients, since conferences present a perfect opportunity to hold meetings with multiple clients at once.
3. Brand positioning: Companies leverage conferences to increase their visibility within the translation community and client landscape, and to position their brand in a certain way.
4. Gaining industry insights: Companies can attend conferences to learn about new technologies, methodologies, or industry trends.
5. Networking: Conferences often provide an excellent platform for informal discussions with industry colleagues. For a company executive, such contact is valuable in helping the company assess its position in the industry and explore potential areas for development.
6. Building/expanding the vendor pool: Conferences, especially regional ones, are actively attended by freelancers and small SLVs. Vendor managers from large translation companies can attend these events to recruit new vendors and connect with existing ones.

Before deciding to attend a particular conference, you should have a clear understanding of your objectives. At the same time, the objective of attending a conference will directly depend on your role in the company. If you work in sales, your main goal is obviously business development, and if you are in vendor management, it’s probably expanding your vendor pool.

So the first takeaway is to choose conferences with your role in the company in mind.

Which conferences are more effective in achieving a specific set of objectives?

Conferences with client participation are typically the most beneficial for business development and meetings with existing clients. For direct clients, consider attending conferences outside the translation industry. If your clients are LSPs, keep an eye out for major industry events that most clients and translation companies will try to attend. These include LocWorld and GALA.

These large conferences offer a unique opportunity to arrange meetings with both prospective and existing clients, provided there is ample preparation on your part.

These conferences, as well as industry events, are also well-suited for positioning a company’s brand. For this purpose, the best option is to set up a booth or schedule a presentation within the conference program.

Large conferences are perfect for acquiring current industry or technical knowledge. This also holds true for technology conferences and seminars like Tekom. Check event programs to assess their relevance.

If the objective is to expand your vendor pool, connect with current vendors, or network with industry peers, your best bet is a regional conference. These conferences showcase small LSPs and freelancers in a particular region. You can also choose to attend an event geared primarily toward LSPs, such as ELIA and GALA.

Therefore, the second takeaway is to analyze which conferences align with your set objectives.

How do you measure the effectiveness of conference attendance? It’s actually quite simple. Formulate and record your set objectives, and evaluate how well they were met after attending the event in question.

In business development, the most effective way to measure success is return on investment (ROI) over a certain period. Document all costs associated with preparing for and attending the conference, evaluate the influx of new clients from a financial perspective, and assess the resulting profitability. With the right choice of conference and proper preparation, the ROI in the year after attending a conference can exceed 200%. Most modern CRM systems allow you to perform such analysis.

This analysis is also necessary in order to avoid attending events that have previously proven to be ineffective.

The third takeaway is to analyze all marketing activities, including conference attendance. You should have a mathematical evaluation of the results of attending various conferences using the ROI method.

How often should you attend conferences? Many companies and their representatives make the common mistake of chasing quantity instead of paying attention to the quality of the events they attend. As soon as an employee returns from one conference, they are off to the next. This approach shows a lack of planning and poor organization of the company as a whole.

You should set aside enough time not only to attend a conference, but also to adequately prepare for it and, just as importantly, to do the follow-up work. If you neglect these steps, the trip to the conference will not yield results, and the cost of attending the event will most likely not be recouped.

We had an interesting situation in our company: An employee had prepared meetings for a conference, but then was unable to attend due to illness. Despite this, thanks to the preparations made, the outcome of “missing” the conference was quite comparable to the results from those of the conferences the employee successfully attended.

What is the optimal number of conferences to attend per quarter? If we are not considering conference tourism, it is no more than 1-2 events every 3 months. Anything beyond that risks overloading the employee and reducing the results from conference attendance.

The fourth takeaway is to estimate how many events you or your staff can effectively attend in a quarter. This should take into account the time for preparation and follow-up work. Also, do take the preparation for conference meetings seriously. In my experience, it takes 2 to 3 weeks to properly prepare for a conference and set up meetings.

In summary, as you develop your conference attendance plan for the year, consider addressing the following questions:

1. What are my objectives in attending the conference?
2. Do the audience and focus of the conference align with my role in the company?
3. How will I analyze the results of attending the conference?
4. How many conferences can I effectively attend without becoming a conference tourist?
5. Do I have sufficient time to prepare for the conference?

The answers to these questions will help you create an effective and financially sound plan for yourself and your staff to attend conferences, and you will enjoy the satisfaction of well-prepared and beneficial meetings at the events you attend.