Seminar Nasional Industri Bahasa (SNIB) 2018 and One-Day Tour in Padang, West Sumatra

As a part of my personal and professional development program, I’ve made a commitment to myself that I have to attend at least two seminars or trainings every year. Well, I’ve attended four trainings already, so…yay!  🙂 This month, I went to Padang, West Sumatra to attend the third Seminar Nasional Industri Bahasa (SNIB or National Seminar on Language Industry). It’s the farthest I’ve been for a seminar and my first time to visit Padang, so I was so excited to go. The SNIB organizing committee also provided a one-day tour for all participants and this excited me even more, hahaha, so I decided to stay for 3 days there.

I flew to Padang on the 14th from Kendari because I had an interpreting gig the day before. I had to fly to Makassar first, then to Padang. When I arrived at the hotel at around 7PM in the evening, I was quite tired. However, I couldn’t call the night off since I had to finish some translation work that was due at 9PM and I was starving. To cut a long story short, I met the translation deadline aaaand had my dinner. Phew….

Anyway, let’s quit the rambling. Here’s what I did in Padang in three days.

Day 1 – September 15, 2018

The seminar was held in the ballroom of the same hotel I was staying at, the Kyriad Bumiminang Hotel. It was supposed to start at 9AM, but due to unknown reasons it didn’t start until after 9.20. To welcome all participants and speakers,  several students of Politeknik Negeri Padang (PNP or Padang State Polytechnic) performed Padang traditional welcome dance. It was followed by singing the Indonesian national anthem, Koran recital, song performance by two PNP students, and prayers.

Next up is presentations by the four keynote speakers, Dr. Sugeng Hariyanto, Prof. Emi Emilia, Dr. Martini, and Ade Indarta, but the keynote presentations were not in that particular order. They shared their knowledge and experiences in the language industry. Dr. Sugeng Hariyanto teaches at Politeknik Negeri Malang (Polinema) and owns a translation company in Malang, East Java. He talked about interpreting and some best practices for interpreters. Before getting into his presentation, he invited a colleague, Ira Susana, to share with the audience about her interpretation experience.

Before Dr. Sgugeng HAriyanto’s keynote presentations, Ade Indarta, the Regional Language Manager of SEA, HK, and TW for Netflix shared his experience working for several major international companies, like Facebook, SDL, and Netflix.

I also met another fellow translator, the humble and kind Sutarto Muhammad, owner of Adibahasa Translation Studio.

With fellow translators, Ira Susana and Sutarto Muhammad

Left to right: Dr. Sugeng Hariyanto, Ade Indarta, Ira Susana, and me 🙂

I sat in some parallel sessions after lunch with Ira. Since we started a bit late, all presenters were given only short time each to finish their presentations and answer questions. Hm, I think the organizing committee for the next seminar should be more strict with the schedule so everyone had ample time to share and discuss their presented topics instead of being cut off midst presentation.

Overall, the seminar went well and was successful. It was the first time for PNP to host such a big event. At the end of the seminar, we were informed by the organizing committee that the Governor of West Sumatra had extended his invitation to all of us for a gala dinner at the Governor’s Office. Wow! Unfortunately, the Governor himself was abroad at that moment, so our host for that evening was the Head of Education Office of West Sumatra. Nevertheless, the dinner was terrific. The food was great and we got to enjoy another famous traditional dance of Padang during dinner. Too bad I didn’t take pictures of the meals served. I couldn’t wait for the next day to join the one-day tour 🙂

Here’s a picture from the gala dinner and a couple short videos of the dance performance. Yes, only one picture, because I was too busy eating and chatting, hahaha!

Day 2 – September 16, 2018

The next day, all participants who would go on the one-day tour gathered at the hotel lobby at 7AM. We departed at around 8AM and the plan was to visit Pagaruyung Palace in Batusangkar, Bukittingi, and back to Padang. However, due to time limit, we weren’t able to go to Bukittinggi. I promised myself, next time I would definitely come again and visit Bukittinggi.

On our way to Batusangkar, we passed Pantai Padang (Padang Beach) and Air Terjun Lembah Anai (Lembah Anai Waterfall).

The journey to Batusangkar took about 3 hours by bus. Once we arrived, lunch was prepared by the organizing committee. Can you guess what was for lunch? Yep, it’s nasi Padang, hahaha. We had our lunch in one of the pavilions that surround the palace and spent about two hours walking around and inside the magnificent four-story palace, enjoying the beautiful, green scenery around it and taking pictures.

The palace was packed with tourists that day, as it was Sunday. I didn’t take pictures of myself wearing the Minangkabau traditional costume because I couldn’t stand queueing with so many people in the rather humid weather. We left for our next destination, Danau Singkarak (Lake Singkarak) in Solok. Since we didn’t have time to visit Bukittingi, the organizing committee decided to make a quick stop at Danau Singkarak to take pictures.

Our tour ended with shopping for souvenirs 🙂 We stopped by a famous souvenirs shop, Toko Oleh-oleh Hj. Aufa Hakim in Padang. I bought some keripik balado, ground  arabica coffee, keripik ikan bilis, and pisang sale cokelat. After shopping, the bus took us back to the hotel. I really enjoyed the tour, the food I ate, and the spectacular views I saw along the way.

Day 3 – September 17, 2018

It’s my last day in Padang and my flight was at 10.20 in the morning. After checking out of the hotel, I went straight to the airport to catch my flights to Makassar and Jakarta, then Bali. I had previously booked a perfect flight at 2PM that day because I wanted to explore the city a bit before noon. Since there was a misunderstanding with the organizer of my interpreting gig in Kendari, I had to cancel my tickets and booked new ones 😦 Apart from all the fuss, I really enjoyed this trip and plan to go again next time.

Have you been to Padang before? Which places did you visit and what do you think of the experience?