As previously mentioned, the 2019 UNConference event was held in Huntington Beach, California from January 17–19. Our colleague, Ian Shin, attended this 2-day event and would like to share his experience and thoughts on it. Here’s what Ian had to say:

“Out of all the conferences I’ve been to, this was my favorite. This conference was conducted under the tagline, “Conference that isn’t a conference: An Un-conference”.  It was focused more on talking about individual and industry-wide problems and solutions, and less about making sales. Also, the attendee count was pretty small – there were around 80 people as opposed to the usual 300-1000. But regardless of the small turnout, I was an event full of valuable connections and interesting discussions.

Most of the event was spent in 2-hour sessions where you would split off into small groups of about 6-10 people, in which you would discuss a specific topic such as: HR, Sales, or Technology.

A lot of time was also spent talking about ‘Dynamex’; a US legal case in 2018 that made it extremely difficult to classify an employee as a contractor. This affects the language industry the most, as we rely on freelancers in order to function. Luckily, translation is less affected than interpretation. We have to tread carefully, but it’s nothing that’s causing us concern at the moment – it really only affects the US right now.

Another interesting topic that was discussed was whether to pay an employee a flat salary or a base rate + commission. Many people expressed different ideas. The main argument against commission was that it might incentivize the employee to make a decision that benefits them personally, but not the company. One of the arguments on that was that it motivates people to work harder.”

We’d like to thank Ian for his feedback on this exciting event. We hope that his experience will inspire you to want to attend the UNConference for yourself. And if you are interested in attending any of the Translation Industry related events for this year follow us up to see where we are going.

Written by: Joshua Hector
1-StopAsia Marketing Team