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Another successful ELIA event took place at the beginning of this past October in the picturesque city of Krakow and Commit was there, as always! Once again, ELIA gave us the opportunity to connect with our fellow peers, exchange ideas, extend our business networks and catch up on the latest trends of the localization industry, in a friendly and welcoming environment.
The program included not only interesting presentations, but a number of entertaining social events as well that allowed all attendees to relax over a glass of wine – or more… – and enjoy delicious treats. The official unofficial cocktail at The Baroque, the cocktail and banquet at the Rynek Underground, a brunch of the Historical Museum of the City of Krakow, the dinner at the Wieliczka Salt Mine and the Adventure Game in Krakow’s Old Market were all equally exciting and fun!
However, we did find the time to attend several sessions that gave us enough food for thought until the next ELIA event. Here are some of the highlights:
Mika Pehkonen presented The Quality Myth – A deep dive into what our customers think and gave us an insight into the client’s perception of quality and F-Secure’s agile approach to the localization process. By using automated workflows and extensive scripting, Mika mentioned they have managed to reduce management costs, avoid delays in product development since localization is performed as the product is being developed, thus being able to simultaneously launch localized versions of any given product, get measurable results on errors and bugs that can be fixed on-the-fly and keep both vendors and clients happy!
In The Evolving Use of MT Technology, Kirti Vashee was quite persuasive on the benefits – yes, there are! – of machine translation, shedding some light on the most common misconceptions and the reasons why so many MT deployment projects actually fail. While there is still an ongoing debate regarding machine translation technology and its effects on the role of translators, pricing and the localization industry as a whole, Kirti chose to address the subject from an entirely different point of view, that of using MT technology as a business development tool and, admittedly, made a strong point.
In an interactive workshop, Bob Donaldson gave us a few useful pointers on Overcoming Common Barriers to Growth. In a nutshell, no matter how small or big your business is, the basic principles of business development are the same. You need to establish a proper organizational structure that will allow you to be prepared for the future, having the necessary, experienced and properly trained resources, or as Bob put it: Go “tall” before you go “wide”! Effective communication and cooperation between departments, suitable performance metrics, corporate policies that reflect your vision and delegation are some of the most important factors on your road to success.
Finally, the keynote presentation, The New Differentiator: ‘Below the Waterline’, by Dr. John J. Scherer and Amy Barnes, was by general consensus one of the highlights of the event. With equal doses of interaction, education and fun, the presenters captivated their audience’s interest from the very first moment to the last, providing an interesting view of what can actually be our differentiator in an ever so competitive market. We all know, from our personal experience as consumers that the way we feel is often what drives us to choose a specific product or service, even if the price is not the lowest one. So, achieving this sentiment in our communication and interaction with customers, employees, resources etc., or in other words finding that “sweet spot” where our needs are perfectly aligned with the needs of the others and the situation, could become a competitive edge over competition.
If you’re intrigued, don’t miss the chance to attend ELIA’s next event “Together 2016” in February, the first one to bring freelancers and LSPs together. And the “Focus” event in Mallorca next Spring, a brand new event as well, focused on LSP executives. Commit will be there!
