The importance of keeping up to date
Although I don't consider myself a slave to the latest fashions and fads, the world is moving on, and freelancers who work in a bubble are in danger of getting left behind. Membership of professional societies provides one way of keeping up to day with the latest developments.
I am an active member of the European Medical Writers Association (EMWA) and occasionally contribute to their publication, The Write Stuff. Recently, I successfully completed their professional development program and I regularly attend their annual congresses. I am also an active member of the Mediterranean Editors and Translators—MET—a network dedicated to improving the quality of English language support services available in the Mediterranean. This organization encourages contact and networking between freelancers based in the Mediterranean region and also provides training workshops on a wide range of topics including statistics for editors and referencing (see this review I wrote in for the May-June 2008 issue of Science Editor, the official publication of the Council of Science Editors). In the 2008 meeting in Split, Croatia, in September 2008, I gave a knowledge update talk on clinical documentation (Abstract and ppt presentation) and organized a panel discussion on translation revision (Abstract).
I am also on the look-out for local training opportunies and, in July 2008, attended a 3 day course on Drug Development and Drug Registration in Europe, organized by the Complutense University of Madrid as part of their summer school program.
I am also a member of the Asociación Española de Farmacéuticos de la Industria (Spanish Association of the Pharmaceutical Industry—AEFI), whose publications helps keep me up to date with developments in Spain and the wider world.