The videos from May’s conference are now available here.
The one I would most recommend would be Tod Harris’ discussion of translation. (It is part of the panel discussion, beginning at 41 minutes in.) He presented all sorts of interesting information about how the Church handles the translation of the Book of Mormon into other languages. Phil Barlow was very provocative; he pointed out what he sees as some of the dangers of a project like the BYUNTC. Eric Huntsman was his standard brilliant blend of charisma and scholarship.
Wait a minute there. Didn’t someone called ‘Julie Smith’ present there as well?
Haha, stephenchardy, yes, but hers didn’t make the top three most interesting presentations, so I didn’t mention it. :)
I just watched the Tod Harris one you suggested. That was indeed fascinating.
I’m not sure the framework for Church translation into languages other than English totally works as a means of critiquing the BYU Rendition, since it is an English rendition of the Greek text in parallel with the KJV. If the KJV, both in its own right and as a major source for the wording in the BoM et al., is viewed as sort of the gold standard, then any movement away from the KJV is likely to be suspect. And yet in my view such movement is indeed necessary to some extent to make the Rendition more readable in modern English. I guess I don’t totally buy the Church’s position that the KJV is inherently doctrinally superior. That seems to me an artificial conclusion from the fact that KJV language forms the base of so much modern revelation.