After a long break, HDKP is once again working together with universities throughout Croatia to bring our profession, conference interpreting, closer to students pursuing degrees in languages and/or translation/interpretation. Sandra Breznički Ucović, HDKP president, held the first presentation on 11 May, to an audience of third-year students of English language and literature at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Split. This was part of the Friendship in May programme, aimed at establishing contacts between the faculty and other institutions. The next day, our president was hosted by the students from the German department at the University of Zadar. The presentation was attended by students from the Department of French and Francophone Studies and from the Russian Department.

The HDKP tour continued at the Rijeka Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences; Nuša Torbica, the chair of the HDKP Admissions and Mentorship Committee, and Ivanka Rajh, member of the Committee for Professional Affairs and Cooperation with Institutions, spoke to the first-year graduate students. The lecture was also attended by colleagues from STIP, the Association of Court Interpreters and Translators from Rijeka. The last in this series of regional presentations was held on 22 May in Pula, at the Faculty of Humanities, Juraj Dobrila University, by Sandra Palihnić Jurina, member of the HDKP Steering Board, and Toni Luburić, president of the Court of Honour. The lecture was attended by undergraduate and graduate students from the department of Italian, English and Japanese studies.

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On Thursday, 18 May, the House of Europe in Zagreb hosted a panel discussion on career opportunities for conference interpreters in the EU institutions.

Apart from Tajana Zagajski, Head of the Croatian Unit at DG Interpretation of the European Commission, the panel comprised our members Andrea Montani, Coordinator of the Croatian booth in the European Parliament, Mirko Brodnjak, staff interpreter at the Court of Justice of the EU, and freelance interpreters Nataša Mance, Bruno Štefić and HDKP president Sandra Breznički Ucović. One of the panelists, Sonja Plejić, rejoined the ranks of free-lance interpreters after six years the European Commission.

The event was part of the More Croatian in the EU Campaign, vise.hrvatskog.u.eu, launched by the interpreting services of the EU institutions European Parliament Interpreters and EU Interpreters. As a special treat, participants could give interpreting a try in a real booth, with the support of Ana Ivanković, staff interpreter at DG Interpretation.

On Friday, 17 February 2023, HDKP held its annual assembly, the first physical gathering since the outbreak of the pandemic. As this year the Society members were to elect new officials, we were happy to see so many of them gather to elect the new Steering Board, Supervisory Board and the Court of Honour.

Sandra Breznički Ucović will keep heading the new Steering Board as president of our Society, Nata Hajdu was re-elected vice-president and Erna Ferendža Luburić will keep going as secretary. Sandra Palihnić Jurina was elected treasurer and will replace Elvira Mulić. The Supervisory Board has not changed its composition: Sanja Matešić, Zvjezdana Kastrapeli and Jasenka Šafran were all re-elected, as were the members of the Court of Honour: Toni Luburić, Goranka Antunović and Ljiljana Culjak.
The General Assembly thus elected the new leadership of the Society and adopted the financial plan and the general work programme for 2023. The members also discussed a number of topics relevant to our profession. Furthermore, the Assembly amended the Professional Conference Interpreting Standards and admitted Nevena Erak Camaj as a new member, whereas Iva Brajković was elected a new pre-candidate. We wish all the best to both of them and are looking forward to having them take part in the activities of our Society and join us in our efforts to promote our profession.

We kicked off 2023 with the latest edition of our consecutive interpreting workshop, which was organised jointly by the Committee for Education and Projects and the Committee for Admission of New Members and Mentorship System. The four-hour-long virtual workshop took place on Friday, January 13, and brought together around ten participants, giving them an opportunity to develop their consecutive interpreting skills by practicing with speeches prepared by members of the Croatian Society of Conference Interpreters. There were three practice groups, with English, German and Croatian as the main languages for interpretation. Feedback was given by the moderators, who were also members of HDKP. As the first reactions from participants were extremely positive, there is little doubt that a new workshop will be organised in the future and that we will once again have the chance to meet in a pleasant atmosphere and work together on honing our professional interpreting skills.

Although the circumstances were far from ideal, this year we managed to gather on September 30th to mark the International Translation Day. Unfortunately, the Zagreb Marathon was run on the same day and large parts of Zagreb were closed to traffic. As a result, many members were unable to join us in a café in the Upper Town. Those of us who managed to get there had a cup of coffee, some delicious cakes. We had a nice chat about the past, the present and the future. Hopefully more of us will be able to attend next year.