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C
saba Bán didn't set out to be a conference
organiser
– less so the owner of one of the
fastest growing translation conferences in
Europe – it's just that he finds it hard to say "no".
The seeds of the BP Conference were sown in 2005,
when he was asked by ProZ.com founder Henry
Dotterer to organise a conference in Budapest for
the translators website. Despite a lack of event-
organising experience, Bán agreed to give it a go.
"For me, that was a one-off project. I went back
to being a freelance translator, but even years later,
people would tell me that of all the ProZ
conferences, the Budapest one was the best," he
says. Then, in 2013, when he had just completed a
"gigantic translation project", a friend commented
that he now had time to organise another
conference. Without much thought, he called the
venue he had used in 2007 and booked the entire
hotel for a weekend the following May. "Within 10
minutes, I had also bought a domain name." The
BP Conference was born.
That, of course, was the easy part. "When I
actually started organising the whole thing, I realised
the immensity of the work that was waiting for
me." It was important to Bán that the conference
would be independently organised, but this also
meant that the entire responsibility fell on him. "It's
not affiliated with any national or international
association of translators or interpreters, we don't
have any membership, we are not funded by – or
affiliated with – any CAT tool vendors. That appeals
to many freelance translators, who are the main
target audience," he says. "I had to set up a website,
a way of selling tickets – I had to do everything."
Although he had been given a lot of freedom to
choose the speakers, theme, accommodation and
venue for the ProZ event, he did not have to deal
with marketing and sales. "I wanted certain subjects
to be represented, so instead of waiting for speakers
to contact me, I searched for speakers to cover
those subjects. As far as I know, that was something
new," he says. Because he had opened things up
beyond the ProZ network, he could use these same
avenues for his new, independent conference.
Sales were much more stressful. He may have
been quick to book a hotel, but he had no way of
paying for it until ticket revenue started coming in –
about four months before the event. "It's a basic
cashflow issue," he explains. "I had to negotiate the
terms with the venue – something I have to do each
year actually." With some venues it has been easier
than with others; the hotel in Budapest was not
sought-after for large events and was fairly flexible,
but the 5-star Marriott Hotel in Vienna insisted on a
deposit before tickets for BP18 had gone on sale.
©
SZONJA
BÁN
