Translation Conferences in the Age of Digital Marketing

Written by Konstantin Josseliani

For the past few years, I have been going to translation conferences on a regular basis and asking myself how useful they are for individual translators and translation agencies in terms of business development.
While 10 years ago, there were only two to three such conferences to speak of per year, now there are dozens of them. If one were so inclined, it would be possible to put together such a tight schedule of conferences that they would become a full-time job for a company manager or business developer. It’s no accident that the concept of “conference tourism” is becoming more popular in the industry.
In this article, I will analyze two conferences and their benefits in terms of business development.
What are translation agencies and their representatives really trying to accomplish in attending such conferences? I would single out six major goals:

1. Business development – the company participates in the conference in order to find new clients and expand their business.
2. Maintenance of business and client relationships – the company participates in events to meet up with existing clients, because conferences provide a perfect setting in which to meet several clients at the same time.
3. Brand positioning – the company participates in the conference in order to spread the word about itself in the translation and client communities, and position their brand in a certain way.
4. Obtain information on the industry – the company may participate in a conference in order to obtain information on the newest technology, approaches, and trends in the industry.
5. Networking – often, conferences offer a great setting for informal networking with colleagues. For company managers, this type of networking is useful, because it helps determine the company’s position in the industry and possible avenues for growth.
6. Building/expanding the vendor pool – conferences, especially regional ones, are actively attended by freelancers and small SLVs. Vendor managers at large translation agencies may attend such events in order to find new vendors and meet up with current ones.

Before making a decision to attend this or that conference, it is important to have a clear idea of your goals for the trip. At the same time, it must be noted that these goals will directly depend on your position in the company. If you work in a sales department, your goal will obviously be business development, and if you are a vendor manager, it will likely be vendor pool expansion.
Thus, my first conclusion is that conferences must be selected based on your role in the company.
Which conferences are more effective for achieving a particular goal?
For business development and meeting existing clients, I recommend large industry events, which most clients and translation companies try to attend. These include LocWorld and GALA. Provided you are properly prepared for them, large conferences like these offer a unique opportunity to organize meetings with potential and existing clients.
Like industry events, they are a perfect opportunity to put your brand on the map. The best way to accomplish this would be to have a booth or give a presentation as part of the conference program.
In order to obtain the latest information on the industry and technology, you should pick large conferences (study the program to figure out your level of interest in a specific conference), as well as technology conferences and workshops, such as Tekom or TAUS.
If your goal is to expand your vendor pool and meet up with existing vendors, and to network with colleagues, the most reasonable choice would be to attend regional conferences attended by small LSPs and freelancers from particular regions, or events primarily targeting LSPs, such as ELIA and GALA.
So my second conclusion is that you need to analyze which conferences will help you to achieve your goals.
How do you evaluate the benefit of attending a conference? This is quite simple. Before attending the conference, you must formulate and write down your goals and, after the conference, assess how many of them you achieved.
In the case of business development, an ROI analysis for a certain time frame may prove to be the most effective technique. You must log all expenses associated with preparing for and attending the conference and then evaluate the inflow of new customers from a financial point of view and in terms of their profitability. If you have picked the right conference and properly prepared for it, your ROI for the year following the conference may exceed 200%. Such analyses help build most modern CRM systems.
This analysis is also required to avoid attending low-benefit events in the future.
My third conclusion is that you should analyze all marketing events, including conferences. You should have a number figure (using the ROI method) for your results of attending any particular conference.
How often do you need to attend conferences? Many companies and their representatives make a common mistake – they chase after quantity without paying attention to the quality of the events they attend. Company employees barely have time to return from one conference before it is time to go to another. This approach speaks to a lack of planning and poor business management in general.
You should have time not only to attend a conference but to properly prepare for it, and, last but not least, evaluate its results. If you skip these steps, the trip to the conference will not bring about any results, and your investment in the event is unlikely to be profitable.
An interesting thing happened at Janus: one of our staff had been preparing for some meetings at a conference but was unable to attend due to illness. Nevertheless, due to his preparations, the benefit from this “missed” conference was similar to the benefit we received from the conference the employee actually attended.
What is the optimal number of conferences per quarter one should attend? Unless we are talking about conference tourism, it should not amount to more than one or two events per quarter. Anything that exceeds this number leads to an excessive workload for the employee and less benefit derived from attending the conference.
My fourth conclusion is that you should estimate the number of events you and your employees may attend within a certain period of time and can benefit from. At the same time, you must consider the time spent on preparations and post-conference evaluations.
Thus, when putting together a conference attendance plan for the year ahead, you should ask yourself the following questions:

1. What are my goals for attending this conference?
2. Do the audience and the focus of the conference match my role in the company?
3. How can I analyze the results of the conference?
4. How many conferences can I attend without turning into a conference tourist?

Answering these questions will help you create an effective and financially justified conference attendance plan for you and your employees, and you will enjoy well-prepared and useful meetings at the events you do attend.