Raising the bar for translation conferences: My thanks to Michael Benis for organising the excellent "The Translator as Strategic Partner" conference in London last weekend. I gave a short presentation on the impact of Content Management Systems on the translation world (or should that be, on the isolated world of the translator?), and I took part in a couple of panel discussions.

But above all, I had fun. Thank you, Michael.

And Michael practiced what he preached, too, by forming strategic partnerships with ProZ, with the Institute of Translation and Interpreting, and with the Chartered Institute of Linguists. This paid off handsomely, with almost 300 head of cattle ... um... I mean, with almost 300 translation professionals at the conference. And they came from all over! There were plenty of British translators there, but there were also plenty of translators from across Europe, and a couple from the USA as well.

We even had fun weather: On the Sunday morning there was an almost-romantic snow flurry. And as I headed home, I noticed a very confused, solitary snowdrop peeping through the grass in a churchyard opposite Euston station. Snowdrops in November... whatever next?