Facing the future - reflections on the FIT World Congress

I love travelling by train. Quietly working on my laptop with an ever-changing view from the window is a real pleasure. So, I have been making the most of my journey, via TGV and Eurostar, from Geneva back to London to reflect on a very busy few days at the XXIII World Congress of the International Federation of Translators (FIT) held in the beautiful headquarters of the World Intellectual Property Organization.

The title of the World Congress was “Mastering the machine: Shaping an intelligent future” – a broad enough theme to allow keynote speakers and other presenters (including me!) to choose whether to place their focus squarely on machine translation and AI or on the human aspect of our industry i.e. the thousands of professional translators and interpreters represented by the members of FIT. I will share my learning from the Congress presentations elsewhere, but in this article I would like to focus on the human element, and particularly on the fellowship that arises when people with a shared purpose come together in person.

As a relative newcomer to the language services industry this was my first experience of the FIT World Congress, and indeed the Statutory Congress that precedes it. I had no notion of what to expect, but I quickly felt at home. It was a joy to reconnect with European colleagues that I had previously met in Budapest (at last year's FIT Europe general meeting) and in Ljubljana (at this year's EULITA conference). Conversations flowed very naturally, and I was reminded that networking – sparking new connections and fostering relationships – is an aspect of my job that I thoroughly enjoy.

Although attending a major conference can feel intense, and even exhausting at times, it can also be a hugely rewarding experience. Spending time with colleagues exchanging ideas and insights is a necessary part of gaining a fuller understanding of our sector, its current challenges and its many opportunities. There is comfort in knowing that our worries about the future are shared by others, but also in the discovery those same people also want to find solutions that will ensure that the translation and interpreting professions have a future in our increasingly digital world.

I also sensed a change in the way that our international colleagues (and perhaps I may call them friends?) talked about the need for collaboration. While we may have previously viewed collaboration as a 'nice to have' it felt that there was a more tangible shared agreement that partnership working is necessary if we are to imagine, and more importantly implement, much-needed changes in how professional associations support their members.

But in order to turn the dream of a more collaborative future into a reality three fundamental issues need to be addressed:

Breaking the boundaries: Our sector operates in a multiplicity of tightly defined silos and breaking out of our habitual patterns will require bravery, commitment and effort. It would be all too easy to carry on doing the thing that we have always done rather than taking the bold step of pursuing (radical) new ideas but I hope that the chairs, presidents, and directors of our sister organisations can carry the sense of momentum fostered at the Congress back to their home countries, and move at speed to follow up the ideas that were generated in the coffee breaks and around the dinner tables.

Ditching the detail: Being able to focus on detail is a key requirement of translation work, but the challenges that our profession is facing are not going to be solved by tinkering around the edges of the problem. We need to lift our gaze and focus on identifying the big picture strategies that can guide our profession towards a sustainable future. There's no escaping the fact that worrying about the minutiae of governance and processes can feel like safer territory than daring to ask more fundamental questions, but reform is much overdue. If we don’t tackle the issues with bold thinking now, it may be too late.

Widening the outlook: Sharing experiences between FIT member organisations is useful, but we shouldn't focus solely on our own perspectives. It was interesting to note how many people welcomed the fact that, as a non-linguist, I was able to bring some objectivity to my presentation on developing strategies for fostering entrepreneurship. However, we need to ask ourselves who else should be in the room. When discussing AI, for instance, we would benefit from hearing from tech developers or professionals in other sectors who are wrestling with similar challenges.

What next?

Having had the pleasure of engaging with colleagues who have an appetite for change over the last few days I am confident that we can tackle these issues, if we work together. The many positive and forward-looking discussions and the strong relationships forged in Geneva will surely serve as solid foundations for fruitful future partnerships. At ITI, we're ready to play our part in this collaborative effort.

The conversation has begun; now the real work starts.