Nataly Kelly, Chief Researcher at Common Sense Advisory and regular
contributor to the Huffington Post, recently created a professional meme for
the Interpreting Profession as part of her blog, The Interpreter’s Launchpad.
“What I Do” memes are popping up all over social media, and provide an
often humorous look at how professions are commonly stereotyped. The meme for
The Interpreter, however, gets to the heart of a deeper dilemma facing our
profession. A common stereotype implies a common understanding of what a given
professional does. For interpreting however, few people actually know: a) what
we do; and b) why it matters.
Interpreters routinely complain about poor recognition, low pay, lack of
prestige, and how undervalued the service we provide is. However, before
something can be truly valued, it must be first perceived and then understood.
Interested in doing something about our professional image?
At InterpretAmerica we feel strongly that it is up to us, members of the
interpreting industry, to create that perception and understanding. To that
end, we have invited award-winning communications consultant Spencer
Critchley from Boots
Road Group, an advertising, public relations and digital media firm, to moderate
the PR Workgroup Session: One Profession, One Voice – Selling the Interpreting
Profession to the Public. Attendees will receive a crash course on PR and
then work to create unified messaging for the profession, continuing the
discussion that began during the 2nd North American Summit on
Interpreting. Your contributions will be captured and published as a beginning
publicity template for our industry.
Complete details can be found at www.interpretamerica.net/summit. Early bird
rates, student and teacher discounts, and poster presentation submissions all
still available! Register now!
