Elia’s ND for Executives Catania – In review

This year, Elia’s Networking Days for Executives was held at The Romano Palace Luxury Hotel in picturesque Catania, Sicily. Commit was represented by our Chief Strategist Spyros Konidaris and our CEO Vasso Pouli.

The event featured two tracks, one on the Translation industry and company strategies and one on Financial strategies, and we attended both.

The first track was dedicated to the overall company strategy for LSPs and what the future has in store for the industry. During the first day, the two moderators, experienced and savy professionals, Kimon Fountoukidis from Argos and Dominique Hourant from TransPerfect laid down the main issues faced by today’s LSPs, including, but not limited to, organic growth and M&As, differentiating USPs, growth pathways, competition challenges, and many more. The second day was devoted to the attendees; several of them took the podium and opened up to share their personal experiences in many of the topics discussed the previous day. The track really took off with this exercise as sharing is really at the heart of this event and what provided the best value for all. After two full days, we left with many things to think about and apply to our company strategy.

The event also included a panel discussion with Iris Orriss from Facebook, Richard Brooks from K International, and Geert Vanderhaeghe from Lexitech. The discussion was representative of our industry as it included the opinions from both the buyer and the supplier side, especially with Geert being relatively new in the industry. Amazing takeaways here as well as the conclusion was that no matter what the size of the LSP, value is there to be added in providing services to the client.

The second track, Financial Strategies: The Golden Quest, was delivered – very successfully indeed – by Gráinne Maycock, VP of Sales at Sajan, and Robert Ganzerli, seasoned industry expert and former owner of Arancho Doc. Though rich in presentation content, the track very soon took the form of an open discussion and honest sharing of best practices, where P&L, EBIT(DA), accountability, monitoring, KPIs, budget, operating (whatever) and taxes suddenly seemed appealing and interesting. Corporate and financial strategy was at the heart of the track and reminding us that there is no size that fits all. So, it was indeed both a relief and a challenge to realize that we must make our own and make it our own! Ooh, and Minions were a very nice and fitting touch – those who were there know.

We spent 2 full days sharing knowledge, hearing different opinions and networking – we wonder what’s in store for the next edition of ELIA’s Networking Days for Executives next year!