Off topic: Ideas for translator contest prizes? Thread poster: LingoTrust
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Our company was playing around with the idea of offering a contest for translators.
I'll leave out the particulars, as we're still brainstorming the concept of the contest.
However, I wanted to get your opinion as a community of translators, what sort of prizes would interest you most to engage in the translation contest? Please keep in mind we're a small company, so Hawaiian vacations would be off the table.
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
| | | | | A typical reply would be money. | Jan 23, 2014 |
You can consider prizes like Trados or another newest CAT; 1-year membership at a leading translators' organisation (ATA etc.) and/or Proz; publication of the winner's translation (if the winner would like to translate a book, you can sponsor such a project and publish it when it's ready).
If you cannot afford offering Hawaiian vacations, you can at least offer an iPad (connected to unlimited Internet) or a Kindle with free books and vouchers to buy more books. You might consider finding a... See more You can consider prizes like Trados or another newest CAT; 1-year membership at a leading translators' organisation (ATA etc.) and/or Proz; publication of the winner's translation (if the winner would like to translate a book, you can sponsor such a project and publish it when it's ready).
If you cannot afford offering Hawaiian vacations, you can at least offer an iPad (connected to unlimited Internet) or a Kindle with free books and vouchers to buy more books. You might consider finding a sponsor to make the prizes more appealing.
Some agencies offer regular translation work to winners, but their rates are too low to be viewed as a prize worth fighting for. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | The award itself, actually | Jan 23, 2014 |
Depending how exactly ambitious the project is, I think the winning translator would probably benefit the most from the contest having a solid and credible feel and being publicised. Otherwise it depends what exactly your company does, but if you deal in courses and learning materials, that could be an interesting avenue, too. A beginner would benefit from being assigned a mentor in the form of a senior inhouse translator. Also, you could purchase something from a client at a discount price or i... See more Depending how exactly ambitious the project is, I think the winning translator would probably benefit the most from the contest having a solid and credible feel and being publicised. Otherwise it depends what exactly your company does, but if you deal in courses and learning materials, that could be an interesting avenue, too. A beginner would benefit from being assigned a mentor in the form of a senior inhouse translator. Also, you could purchase something from a client at a discount price or involve a client in the project. This is a far analogy, but some law firms involve corporate inhouse counsel from the client companies in their pro bono work. This makes their relationships more durable.
[Edited at 2014-01-23 20:06 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Gerard de Noord 
France
Local time: 10:40
Member (2003)
English to Dutch
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| My opinion as a Dutch member of the community of translators | Jan 23, 2014 |
Dear company,
My Northwestern European opinion is that you would be demonstrating extreme bad taste and lack of global marketing skills. Agencies organising contests for people they rely upon to make a living. Fire the marketing manager!
Cheers,
Gerard
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Vitals
Lithuania
Local time: 11:40
English to Lithuanian
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| Just brainstorming... | Jan 23, 2014 |
The first things that come to my mind out your possible budget:
* Flash drives,
* microphones,
* (prof.) earphones,
* software like "Translation Office 3000" and other not-too-expensive useful programs,
* buy some good seminars from Proz.com and offer them for free to winners
* Proz.com membership (say, 50% covered by you for winners)
* Mini-projectors
* Mini scanners
and many more.
All these come in handy fo... See more The first things that come to my mind out your possible budget:
* Flash drives,
* microphones,
* (prof.) earphones,
* software like "Translation Office 3000" and other not-too-expensive useful programs,
* buy some good seminars from Proz.com and offer them for free to winners
* Proz.com membership (say, 50% covered by you for winners)
* Mini-projectors
* Mini scanners
and many more.
All these come in handy for a proactive translator-interpreter.
If you need more ideas than just these, let me know via email.
Sincerely,
Vitaly ▲ Collapse
| | | | The Misha
Local time: 04:40
Russian to English
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| How about a bottle of good single malt? | Jan 23, 2014 |
Big one!
| | | | neilmac
Spain
Local time: 10:40
Spanish to English
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| Free membership | Jan 24, 2014 |
Suggested inspired by the nagging message at the top of my screen: "Your ProZ.com membership expires in 11 days"....
Which makes me feel like replying "My bank account will probably be empty in 10 days"!
| | | | Phil Hand
China
Local time: 16:40
Chinese to English
For me, the most valuable thing is a line to put on my CV, something that future prospective clients can check. Publish the winning entries with as much fanfare as you can muster.
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| Reward both the pro and the person | Jan 24, 2014 |
Phil Hand wrote:
For me, the most valuable thing is a line to put on my CV, something that future prospective clients can check. Publish the winning entries with as much fanfare as you can muster.
Having a page on your website which bigs up the contest as much as possible, that the winner(s) can put a link to on their ProZ profile etc.
And throwing in a (can be small) "luxury", cf. others' suggestions, would be a feelgood incentive.
| | | | | Bravo, Gérard! | Jan 25, 2014 |
Gerard de Noord wrote:
Dear company,
My Northwestern European opinion is that you would be demonstrating extreme bad taste and lack of global marketing skills. Agencies organising contests for people they rely upon to make a living. Fire the marketing manager!
Definitely!
My Eastern South-American opinion is the same.
Envision yourself entering a fleet cab, and seeing a notice (and a trophy or medal) that your driver won the 1st place in the company-sponsored demolition derby. How tight would you fasten your seat belt?
A translation company's message should say, "we only hire the best, and leave the others to competition". There is no point in driving these best translators to exhaustion in order to find the "primus inter pares". Each one of them should be among the best in the entire industry.
A contest on Proz is okay. It's like any sports competition in a club. Proz is not reselling the contestants' services, it's merely providing an e-venue to display and promote them.
[Edited at 2014-01-25 11:32 GMT]
| | | | Alex Lago
Spain
Local time: 10:40
English to Spanish
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| Not a translation contest | Jan 26, 2014 |
José Henrique Lamensdorf wrote: Gerard de Noord wrote:
Dear company,
My Northwestern European opinion is that you would be demonstrating extreme bad taste and lack of global marketing skills. Agencies organising contests for people they rely upon to make a living. Fire the marketing manager! A contest on Proz is okay. It's like any sports competition in a club. Proz is not reselling the contestants' services, it's merely providing an e-venue to display and promote them. [Edited at 2014-01-25 11:32 GMT]
I have to agree with my two colleagues unless this is not a translation competition but some other sort of contest which is not work related, in that case it might actually be a fun way to interact with your service providers.
However asking for prize suggestions without giving us any idea of what the budget for prizes is seems a bit pointless to me, how can we offer suggestions if we don't even know how much money you can spend and how many prizes you can give out. Are we talking about 10s, 100s or 1000s (or more to spend), are we talking about 1, 2, 3 or more prizes?
| | | | | Yes, just a fun contest | Jan 27, 2014 |
Thank you for the suggestions.
Yes, this would just be a fun contest, something extra that translators can voluntarily take part in.
There would be 3 winners: 1st, 2nd, and 3rd prize.
I think the suggestion for a CAT tool program is a good one for the 1st prize. 2nd and 3rd prize would be a little less money, respectively.
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| | 564354352 (X)
Denmark
Local time: 10:40
Danish to English
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| Are you kidding me??? | Mar 15, 2014 |
So, you get any number of translators to translate an app for one of your clients into their different languages. You tell your (potential) clients that they get all this work for free. All YOU pay for is a CAT tool and some minor prizes for three of any number of translators who potentially submit top quality translations for which YOU get all the credit and goodwill with potential new clients. And any number of translators who do not win those 'amazing' prizes will have wasted their time and g... See more So, you get any number of translators to translate an app for one of your clients into their different languages. You tell your (potential) clients that they get all this work for free. All YOU pay for is a CAT tool and some minor prizes for three of any number of translators who potentially submit top quality translations for which YOU get all the credit and goodwill with potential new clients. And any number of translators who do not win those 'amazing' prizes will have wasted their time and given your their work for free?
Or am I misreading the rules for this fantastic contest completely? ▲ Collapse
| | | | | That's the spirit of a contest | Mar 15, 2014 |
Gitte Hovedskov, MCIL wrote:
So, you get any number of translators to translate an app for one of your clients into their different languages. You tell your (potential) clients that they get all this work for free. All YOU pay for is a CAT tool and some minor prizes for three of any number of translators who potentially submit top quality translations for which YOU get all the credit and goodwill with potential new clients. And any number of translators who do not win those 'amazing' prizes will have wasted their time and given your their work for free?
Or am I misreading the rules for this fantastic contest completely?
Say you enter a marathon. You pay your enrollment fee, buy your running gear, go there and race through all those miles. The three fastest will win some plastic medal or trophy, all others will just have sprinkled the pavement with their sweat.
Organizers will have made a bundle selling TV broadcasting rights, advertising spots on the way, etc.
Nobody is ever forced to join. They may watch it on TV, on location, or merely ignore it.
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