TEDxMadrid transcription marathon

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The first TEDxMadrid transcription marathon took place in the ImpactHub in Madrid, on November 8 2014. It was hosted by the TEDxMadrid organizer and Senior TEDx Ambassador, Antonella Broglia, and her teammate Javi Garriz. We asked them to share with us how and why they decided to embark on this adventure.


Why did you decide to host a transcription marathon? What was the goal you had in mind?

In 2013, the transcription and translation of our 20 TEDxMadrid talks took one year (!!) and a lot of effort, so we were able to finish the work before TEDxMadrid 2014 only because Ivana helped al lot.

Javi and myself did almost all the work (especially Javi who is the OTP person with more experience in the TEDxMadrid team).

Also, we felt we were not prioritizing enough the translation of our talks, we were not been creative, we always defend the idea of an event in Spanish language but then we did not do enough to spread the Spanish ideas to the world.

The goal was to launch a clear message to the community, the speakers, the audience, and ourselves: translations are a priority. And to distribute and accelerate the work, plus building a community of translators around the event.


Who were the people who participated (were they already OTP volunteers, how did they apply, how many)?

None of them but one was already an OTP member, they were members of the TEDxMadrid audience, and we launched the invitation to participate in the marathon the very day of the event. That is the key. We had 90 volunteers, we selected the 22 we needed, then they became OTP volunteers, all were accepted in the TED team (a process of 4 weeks, all together) and finally we met last Saturday 8th of November to do the marathon.


What are some of the learnings from the experience?

Call for volunteers the day of the event, they love the talks and they will feel super motivated. Once they are in Amara, make them feel special, because they are; it is a worldwide fine community of generous people. The marathon format works because they feel pressed by the presence of others to finish their hard work even if it takes 11 hours (like in our case).


What would you say to other organizers who are thinking of subtitling their talks, and would you recommend others to host a marathon?

Guys, alone sucks. Launch your call at your event, take care of the volunteers one by one, have good food, give translations a priority, and make the marathon fun, they will never forget the experience, they will make friends, and you will have a lot of work done.

Also, it is a great idea to connect the volunteer with the particular speaker of the talk he/she subtitles; they will feel incredibly important, and there would be amazing outcomes from that. For example, one of our volunteers has been invited to visit the speaker’s workshop facilities. There’s no bigger reward than that.

And more importantly, I have Javi in my team, he is the best co curator plus he took time to become an OTP contributor to understand 100% the tool and the subtitling process, you need a person like him in the team or anything of the above won’t work or even happen at all.