As promised, here follows my report of the powwow we held in Toronto on August 31st, 2002. There are no names in this report as not everyone is necessarily fond of being mentioned by name on the Internet and I feel this should be respected.
Being a rather new member, I had no idea of what to expect from a powwow, nor did I really think of participating in one.
But then, someone suggested a powwow in Toronto on August 31st. I didn't indicate any interest. Nor did anyone else. A while later, same situation. When I checked again a third time, I decided everyone was waiting for everyone else so I decided to sign up.
A while later, I decided to check everything checkable in the options list. Fortunately, no one took me up on the host offer. The world seems to be divided in two camps. I very much like sleeping on my hardwood floor, but the rest of the world seems to be in the other camp.
Suddenly, people started to sign up and it became time to think about what we would do and where we would do it.
Korean food in Korea town was suggested. This is a multicultural city after all. And then, a private room was suggested. Armed with these requirements, I went looking for a suitable place and was happy to find out that just about the only 'real' Korean restaurant on Bloor Street also had a private room. I negotiated a buffet style dinner for 20 people, and that was it. Because Korean food is not well known, buffer style seemed a good idea, as everyone would then be able to taste a variety of dishes.
Unfortunately, we had not taken into account that August 31st was also Labour Day weekend and it soon became apparent that the goal would not be reached as quite a few people had to cancel. In order not to bankrupt everybody, I cancelled the buffet dinner. This is definitely a lesson to be remembered.
When the big day came, we were told that the air conditioner didn't work in our room so it seemed safe to stay downstairs. However, as more and more people started coming in, the air conditioner seemed to work anyway and we decided to go upstairs.
We improvised a buffet style dinner by ordering a number of different dishes with chap chae (a potato starch Korean noodle), fried beef, a kimchi dish (a Korean style sauerkraut with lots of red pepper), and bibimbap (rice with vegetables and egg). And of course, there were a number of typical Korean side dishes such as kaktugi (diced radish kimchi) and bean sprouts. It turned out to be quite delectable, but of course, I am not exactly impartial since I love Korean food.
One of the advantages of organizing a powwow is that you usually decide the agenda. Since it was my first powwow, and because of previous experiences, I decided that there would be no agenda except for having a good time and getting to know each other. After all, themed reunions are often quite stiff, until everybody forgets about the theme and starts to mingle. Since there was no theme, we didn't need to spend time forgetting about it.
In the end, there were more of us than expected. There were 13 proz.com members and four guests. Some people came from close by, others had traveled quite a bit. For example, someone had traveled two and half hours by bus from London. Afterwards, I accompanied her to the bus terminal as it is very close to my place. We had a mango-peach smoothie in the local Second Cup and off she went.
Toronto is a multicultural city and it became obvious that the translation world is just as multicultural. We come from all over the world and speak and translate the most exotic languages.
It became obvious that while many of us may join proz.com with high hopes to find jobs, these hopes do not always materialize. However, proz.com appears to be probably the most 'fun' translator sites and people have more than elsewhere the feeling of belonging to a community which, in combination with the discussion fora and the kudoz-system, is such an enriching experience that people want to stick to proz.com.
A powwow is definitely a great way to meet each other in the flesh, to exchange mutual and not-so-mutual experiences and to network. Quite a few business cards were exchanged and new contacts made.
It emerged that it might be a good idea to turn our powwows into a regular event. As our community grows, this is a very interesting idea. We would start to know each other more closely and in that case it might be a good idea to start our meeting with a presentation of one of the members. We each have our pet subjects or specialties and listening to someone who is excited about a particular subject can be very enriching.
All in all, the powwow was a very interesting experience and is definitely something we will do again!
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