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Edu-Con 2025 is set to showcase a stimulating roster of speakers hailing from various regions of the country. Attendees can look forward to engaging presentations, specialized pre-conference sessions, expert keynote speakers, and ample opportunities to explore our Sponsors & Exhibitors.
Friday, May 2, 2025 - Main Conference Sessions
Session Descriptions
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A
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Gabriela Siebach, 2:00pm – 3:00pm
Keeping Up with the Machine: Practical Tools for Enhancing Completeness
Accurate and complete interpretation is crucial for effective communication. While machine interpretation offers speed and completeness, it often compromises accuracy. Consequently, human interpreters must continually refine their skills to truly provide more value than the machine. This presentation explores deliberate practice methodologies to enhance both accuracy and completeness. Participants will receive a self-evaluation rubric and practical exercises for personalized skill development. The aim is to empower interpreters with tools to elevate their proficiency, ensuring robust and reliable communication across diverse contexts.
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B
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Marisela González, 2:00pm – 3:00pm
Streamlining Translation Workflows: Best Practices from Start to Finish
In this presentation, we will explore the intricacies of translation workflows, examining each critical step from initial request to final delivery. Participants will gain a comprehensive understanding of how translation projects are managed, including the various factors influencing request intake and file preparation. We will delve into project assignment strategies, effective project management techniques, and the importance of quality assurance throughout the process. Additionally, we will discuss best practices for finalizing projects to ensure client satisfaction and successful outcomes. Join us as we uncover the essential components that contribute to streamlined and efficient translation workflows.
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C
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Majd Haddad, 2:00pm – 3:00pm
Brain Power for K-12 Interpreters
Enhance your memory and boost your interpreting skills in this engaging session designed for K-12 interpreters! This webinar explores key memory techniques through interactive exercises, helping you understand how the brain retains crucial information. Learn three secrets to developing a "super memory" and master strategies for recalling complex content, such as the AAITE Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice for Interpreters in Education. By the end of this session, you'll gain essential tools to improve recall, accuracy, and confidence in high-stakes interpreting. Don’t miss this opportunity to strengthen cognitive resilience and elevate your professional interpreting practice!
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D
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Eliane Sfeir-Markus, 4:45pm – 5:45pm
Consecutive Without Note Taking
This presentation explores techniques for consecutive interpreting without note-taking, focusing on memory and active listening. While note-taking is valuable, interpreters often rely solely on retention and structured recall. The session covers strategies to enhance memory, segment information, and ensure accurate real-time interpretation. Attendees will refine skills in attentive listening, visualization, and other key exercises essential for accuracy and confidence. This hands-on workshop includes various drills that can be integrated into personal practice routines. Participants should bring a recorder and notepad to engage fully in the interactive exercises designed to strengthen their interpreting abilities.
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E
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Natalia Abarca, 4:45pm – 5:45pm
Bridging Barriers: Empowering Student Success Through Language Access at Every Level
Language access is more than just translating a flyer or interpreting at IEP meetings; it’s about creating opportunities, fostering inclusion, and ensuring equity for every student. This presentation will demonstrate how your school district can implement effective language access strategies at all levels, ensuring that every student, regardless of their background, can thrive. Whether you’re starting at the "Silver" level, advancing to "Bronze," or striving for "Gold," we will meet you where you are and help you reach your goals.
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F
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Leonor Prian, 4:45pm – 5:45pm
Unlock the Power of AI for Project Success
Artificial intelligence offers tremendous potential for project development, but effective steering is key. This presentation provides a step-by-step exploration of how to leverage AI to conceptualize, develop, and refine projects, using the creation of a presentation designed to promote the interpreting profession to students and adults as a practical case study. We'll delve into strategic AI integration, refining ideas with AI-driven tools, optimizing final outcomes, and understanding AI's role as a collaborative partner. Participants will also engage in a brief interactive lesson, experiencing firsthand how AI can create impactful presentations.
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Saturday, May 4, 2024 - Main Conference Sessions
Session Descriptions
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G
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Agustin De La Mora, 10:00am – 11:00am
Stop Reading your Notes! Note Taking during Consecutive
Explore the foundational principles of notetaking as established by renowned interpreter Jean-François Rozan. These principles, including clarity, brevity, and consistency, will help you develop a system that works for your interpreting style. Know how to balance writing down key ideas and avoiding verbatim translation, enabling more fluid and natural renditions. Discover how incorporating sketches, diagrams, and symbols into your notes can help reinforce the spoken message, leading to greater accuracy in interpretation. Improve your ability to retain complex information and easily retrieve it during interpretation You will engage in interactive exercises, working with real-life scenarios and practicing various note-taking strategies. Whether you’re new to interpreting or an experienced professional, this seminar will equip you with powerful techniques to enhance your consecutive interpretation performance.
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H
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Katharine Allen and Bill Rivers, 10:00am – 11:00am
From Hype to Real-World Solutions:
The Interpreting Industry's Collaborative Response to AI
When ChatGPT launched in late 2022, the interpreting industry faced another wave of technological disruption. However, leveraging lessons from machine translation, stakeholders acted swiftly. The SAFE AI Task Force, with 600 volunteers across 11 groups, developed frameworks for responsible AI integration. This session explores findings from three major studies on AI’s utility, safety, and adoption in interpreting. Discover key insights from the 2024 SAFE-AI Guidance, including ethical considerations, regulatory gaps, and industry-wide initiatives to establish guardrails. Leave with practical strategies to navigate AI’s opportunities and risks while upholding professional standards and shaping the future of interpreting.
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I
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Katharine Allen, 10:00am – 11:00am
Leading from the Front: AI Adoption that Protects Language Access
At the crossroads of AI adoption and increasing professionalization, educational interpreters and translators are uniquely positioned to guide their districts in leveraging technology to expand—not replace—human-driven language access services. This session provides practical tools for leading technology assessment conversations while advancing professional recognition through certification, credentials, and advocacy. Learn how to develop AI evaluation criteria that preserve the essential role of qualified language professionals, create implementation protocols for AI interpreting and translation tools that comply with language access laws, and build decision-making frameworks for when and how to appropriately deploy these technologies. Walk away with strategies to position language professionals as the architects of AI integration while advancing certification frameworks—all in service of ensuring meaningful access to education for multilingual students and families.
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J
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Nora Díaz, 2:00pm – 3:00pm
AI on the Go: Mobile Tech for Interpreters and Translators
From classrooms to parent-teacher meetings, mobile AI is redefining what’s possible for language professionals in educational environments. We will explore cutting-edge mobile apps and AI-powered tools that support interpreters and translators on the move. Learn how to turn your smartphone into a portable workstation with practical use cases, recommended apps, and essential settings to ensure accuracy, security, and efficiency—no laptop required.
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K
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Stacy Brown, 2:00pm – 3:00pm
The Future is All About Family Engagement
In 2024-25 we have been working with the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) and Districts across Washington State to address the challenges of providing efficient and effective ways to engage families, particularly those from diverse linguistic backgrounds.
Through this work, we have developed an online platform that will monitor the effectiveness of engagements in schools called FamiliesLink. This tool addresses challenges by providing a comprehensive platform that facilitates and monitors communication and engagement between schools and families.
This presentation outlines the platform's capabilities, the challenges it addresses, and the opportunities it creates for educational interpreting and translation, thereby fostering inclusive and equitable educational environments.
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L
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Cecilia Berzunza, 2:00pm – 3:00pm
To Stress or Not to Stress, the Interpreter’s Dilemma
At the end of the presentation the participants will be able to identify the different types of stress and how it affects their performance during interpretation. They will learn practical strategies to reduce stress in an engaging and interactive way. Additionally, they will also have the opportunity to learn self-care practices to achieve wellness and adequate mental health in the fast pace world of interpreters. Participants will have the opportunity to share their own experiences and practices to help build a sense of community.
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