Following the success of our three Russian editions, we decided it was time to bring the Know Your Worth: Understanding Marketing and Negotiating Interpreters seminar back to Paris, and that’s where our most recent edition took place, on 20 – 21 January 2018.

It was the first seminar we held after the beginning of the New Year, and we were naturally very excited to meet our new participants, and explore our new location. It was also in many ways it was a very special edition for us, as it symbolised our return to Paris after an almost two-year-long break.

It was also very special in that it brought together the most multinational group of participants we’ve had on the course yet, with colleagues hailing from Belgium, England, France, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United States, all working in different language combinations. We’ve also had colleagues with some rare (for the European market) languages join the team, which meant that we had an even greater spectrum of case studies and examples to look at.

The seminar was held in a our now well established two-day format, which allowed for a detailed discussion of the seminar’s two main subjects: marketing, and negotiating. Once again, we were able to dedicate an entire day to an in-depth study of each of the main topics, as well as cover such questions as branding, positioning, pricing, pitching, and client relations, and to discuss the many challenges that we, as freelance interpreters – and freelance professionals – must face on a daily basis.

The KYW training is the fastest path to success for you interpreters out there dreaming of landing THE best clients and THE best deals ever! special thanks to Julia Poger!

Cyril Belange

We like to see our participants brainstorm some of the more challenging cases together, in small or larger groups, as this way they are often able to discover new and exciting solutions to different marketing and negotiating problems. We also urge them to share cases from their own experience, as often this prove to be even more interesting to solve than any usual textbook examples.

We would like to thank all of this edition’s participant for taking such an active part in the discussion, and for being so generous with sharing their own cases and experience. This made the discussion even more relevant to the present-day situation on the market, and allowed us to cover an even broader spectrum of problems – and problem-solving techniques.

Here’s what one of the participants had to say about it:

Attending the seminar was very important to me not only to learn the art of negotiation and how to deal with new prospective clients, but more importantly to learn and understand from YOU and the other attendees what is the nature of the European job market for interpreters, I wanted to know if I have a chance in entering it.

Coming to the seminar was one of the best things I attended in my professional life.

Duna Qalyoubi

We also talked about the mindset necessary for successful marketing, and covered some general principles (as well as a number of highly practical aspects) of pricing and negotiating, all necessary steps in building a more sustainable and much more successful interpreting business. We were also able to devote some time to looking into how the interpreting profession is perceived from the outside, all in order to better understand our potential and existing clients.

Traditionally, one of the core features of the seminar is the atmosphere we try to create to encourage our participants to take an active part in the discussion, sharing their personal experience, and exchanging ideas on how best to implement the new tools and techniques in their work. Which is why we would like to take this opportunity to thank the wonderful team at Espaces Réunion for helping us create a unique and memorable atmosphere for the seminar, and for making sure that our participants had a wonderful time and nothing to worry about, except getting to the seminar, and getting the most out of it.

We could not have wished for a better place to hold out seminar, and the two days we spent there proved to be not only incredibly useful, but also great fun.

Which, we firmly believe, is the best way to learn.

This has truly been the best start of the new year we could have possibly asked for, and we are grateful to all those who took part, and helped us make it possible.

We now have a busy couple of months ahead of us, with Know Your Worth editions taking place in Washington, D.C., as well as in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

 

 

 

If you would like to hold a seminar in your area, please contact us via this website, or by contacting the seminar organizer Tatiana Kaplun at kaplun.tatiana@gmail.com.