Events & announcements

The 1st International XLIFF Symposium (http://www.localisation.ie/xliff/) will take place in Limerick on 22nd September 2010. This event will be the main pre-conference activity for the 15th Annual Internationalisation and Localisation Conference organised by the LRC.

The purpose of this symposium is to bring together specialists, tools providers, developers, TC members and researchers to discuss and share their experience with XLIFF (XML Localisation Interchange File Format). New trends will be presented, implementation cases will be demonstrated, and the future of XLIFF and its new version 2.0 will be discussed.

See: http://www.localisation.ie/xliff/

IGNOU’s (Indira Gandhi National Open University) School of Translation Studies and Training organised a two-day national seminar on translation and inter-cultural communication in New Delhi.

The seminar aimed to address the dynamics of transnational communication with a focus on the Indian subcontinent.

The inaugural session was followed by sessions on the Role of Translation in Multicultural Society, Journey of Ideas and Translation, the Indian Tradition of Translation and the Asian Tradition of Translation

From Friday 16 April to Sunday April, in Birmingham, ProZ.com will held a conference which is going to be a first on many levels.

For more information, please visit http://www.proz.com/conference/112.

Firstly, it will be the first ProZ.com Corporate day. Indeed, this event will start with a Corporate day which will aim at discussing issues concerning translation companies.

Secondly, this event will be in fact 2 events one after the other to build a bridge between outsourcers and service providers.

Thirdly, the entire event will be based on a brand new format: repeated workshops. Instead of passive lectures, delegates will have the opportunity to design their own time table and to have a proper hands-on approach.

Fourthly, all the key vendors in our industry such as Kilgray, Powerling, Star, Alchemy, Wordfast, Trados will be there together with many other very useful tools to our industry.

Fifthly, most UK professional bodies (ATC, ASLIB, ITI, NWTN, IoL) are supporting this event in one way or another. For instance, ITI and IoL are counting attendance to this event as part of the CPD of their members.

Sixthly, this event will be linked to full day in-person training sessions six weeks later and most vendors have agreed to provide special extended licences (up to 60 days) to the delegates so that they can really discover, use and train on the product before committing.

Seventhly, this event will also try to bridge the gap between seasoned professionals and students/beginners. The variety of workshops will make that people will be able to discover what is new and to ask the questions that concer them most. The workshop facilitators aim at providing a service to the community so that it will preserve its competitive edge.

Lastly, there are more workshops on offer than number of sessions people can attend, as such, people can truly create a conference tailored to their needs and interests. On Friday, 11 workshops are on offer for 5 sessions and at the weekend, 10 workshops are available for 7 sessions.

Hacène

DGT presents a study on the multilingual operation of the European Union, from the days of the Economic Community in 1958, with six Member States, to the present Union of 27 Member states, with 23 official languages. Right from the very start, the translation service has guaranteed European citizens access to the legislative and major political documents of the EU in their own language and enabled each Member State to contribute actively to EU policy making.

The conference will be broadcast live on the web at http://webcast.ec.europa.eu/eutv/portal/index.html(interpretation into French, English, German).

More information at: http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/translation/translation_commission_conference_note.pdf

Translation company Tiqua Translations issued a press release announcing that it had been selected by Tel-Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport to provide Hebrew, English, and Russian translation services.

For more info see: http://www.pr.com/press-release/216678

Across Systems, a company that produces “linguistic supply chain technology”, announced that it will exhibit at several events and “provide experts to educate globalization professionals on ways to increase productivity and simplify workflow processes.”

See: .NET Developer’s Journal

In 2010, The Korea Times will hold the 41st Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards. This annual competition awards English translations of works of contemporary Korean literature in two categories: fiction (including drama) and poetry.

See: Korea Times

Excerpt from an article at koreatimes.co.kr:

In 2010, The Korea Times will hold the 41st Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards.
This annual competition awards English translations of works of contemporary Korean literature in two categories: fiction (including drama) and poetry.
Applicants may submit one translation of a work of Korean fiction or drama of any length or of ten poems by the same poet.
Applicants must only submit one entry in any one category. Translations submitted must not have been published in any form prior to the deadline set for submissions.
Entries for The Korea Times Awards must not have been submitted for any other translation contest in the same year.

Deadline for submissions: Sept. 1, 2010

Where: Mail to The Korea Times (newsroom)
Chung-gu, Chungmuro, 3-ga, 43 Chungmuro Tower Building
8th floor, Seoul, Korea

Prizes: Grand Prize in Fiction (or Drama) : 5 million won
Grand Prize in Poetry: 2 million won

For inquiry: Call The Korea Times Culture Desk (02) 724-2353 or write to [email protected]

Sitting in my hotel room in Berlin after a week of training and meetings with my sales team, I am working on my calendar for the next couple of months. Even though I am not a consultant anymore, many of my former clients and friends ask me which events they should go to, since there are so many happening in March and April.

Even though there are many good events, I chose the following three, for the following reasons:

WorldWare Conference – March 16-18, 2010 in Santa Clara, CA

This is a more technical event, with a great roster of speakers and participants (the usual suspects like IBM, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Cisco, and several more). The location is great (same venue as the last Localization World) and there are several sessions focusing on the ROI of Software Internationalization, some intended for those with moderate to advanced knowledge about the field (P2, P3, P6) and one workshop intended for management and executives new to the idea (W7).

I am particularly interested in session A4 on International Domain Names/SEO by ICANN. I also like that the keynote by Cliff Miller (An Entrepreneur in a Shrinking World), which gives the perspective of a small company, is followed by Bill Sullivan from IBM, giving the perspective of the very large company (From ROI to DNA).

Check out the program. And remember: A trip to Silicon Valley is never wasted.

Think Latin America – April 7-9, 2010 in Búzios, near Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

It is obvious that I wouldn’t miss an opportunity to go back to my home country, especially for an event at a fantastic venue like this. The program is designed to show what major brands like Coca-Cola, MGM Networks, VMware, Xerox, VeriSign, Nokia and others have been doing to conquer this market, where people are not only happy and beautiful, but increasingly rich and influential. As the program says: 21 countries, 2 languages, 1,000 ideas!

I am particularly interested in the sessions on Logistics (From a Niche Market to a Multi-Billion Dollar Business: Logistics Lessons to Localization Stakeholders) by Wagner Covos, of CEVA Logistics, and on Local Consumer Marketing (How to Leverage the Power and Influence of An Emerging Social Class with Increased Purchasing Power) by Marco Simões, from Coca-Cola.


ELIA Networking Days – April 15-17 in Istanbul, Turkey

I am so excited to go to Turkey. First because I have never been there, and second because ELIA (of which I am the vice-president) has put an awesome and very practical program together for these Networking Days. Even though every session is great, starting with the keynote by the Google Translate guys, I want to highlight three things:

• The Tools Track, which I am moderating, which will include presentations by the users – not the salespeople – of eight tools: Across, MemoQ, GlobalSight, WebWordSystem, Plunet, Worxs, XTRF, and Project Open;
• The Situational Leadership Workshop: How to manage and lead different individuals with different levels of skills, attitudes and motivation. The presenter, Ezster Avar, is extremely good (I participated in two of her workshops in Vienna) and this methodology is a great way to manage people.
• The session Taxation in Europe, by the Milengo CFO Tamara Nadeje, should give European companies ideas on how to save taxes.

See: Localization Industry 411

The Organizing Committee of the First UV International Conference on Interpreting and Translation: Education, Theory and Practice is pleased and honored to invite you to take part in the conference to be held at University of Vlora, Albania, on December 10-12, 2010.

The main goal of this international conference is to bring together scholars from all around the world to exchange ideas, share experiences and address current theories, issues and techniques that focus on interpreter and translator education and training, interpretation and translation theory and professional practice.

Abstracts for papers that deal with the following three areas are welcome:

• interpreter and translator education and training
• theory of interpretation and translation
• practical aspects of the translator and interpreter profession

Academic activities will consist of:

• presentations, given by academics and professionals able to make significant contributions to any of the three areas defined;
• 20-minute talks selected from all the abstracts submitted to the conference;
• posters, previously selected by the Programme Committee.
  Furthermore, there may be a round table panel (to be announced) on more specific aspects of interpreting and translation.

For more information or submission of abstracts, please contact:

Erida Prifti

[email protected]

Conference website: http://univlora.edu.al/personel/eprifti/conf_icit/

The International Mother Language Day, proclaimed by the General Conference of UNESCO in November 1999, has been observed yearly since February 2000 to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism.

The eleventh International Mother Language Day, on 21 February 2010, will be celebrated in the framework of the International Year for the Rapprochement of Cultures.

On the occasion of the Day, an International Symposium on Tanslation and Cultural Mediation is organized on 22 and 23 February 2010.

See: UNESCO website

This Wednesday (24 Feb), Dina Paglia of Acclaro will give a live, interactive webinar entitled “Translating Marketing Campaigns”. The session will examine best practices for adapting a marketing campaign for new language markets.

For information, see: http://pr-usa.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=336965&Itemid=96

The CTA has organized this session on social media, to which I’ll participate with a short presentation on blogging.

Monday, February 22, 6-8:30 PM, Social Media for Translators

This session will feature three CTA members to give you hands-on tips for making the most of social media in your business. Experienced blogger and techie Riccardo Schiaffino will talk about blogging and how to customize “off the shelf” blogging tools for your own use, Eve Bodeux will talk about using social networking tools such as LinkedIn and Twitter (and similar sites for your non-US countries) and Corinne McKay will provide information about blogging and podcasting as a marketing tool.

Location: Meeting Room L200, College Hill Library, 3705 West 112th Avenue, Westminster, CO 80031
Cost: $10 for CTA members, $15 for non-members.

The new interactive project for learning Ukrainian and Polish was presented in Ukraine and Poland. The project is dedicated to the 2012 UEFA European Football Championship that will be hosted by Ukraine and Poland, that’s why the courses pay special attention to football and fan activities. Materials for learning Ukrainian and Polish everyday phrases are presented in 25 languages of European countries. The linguistic section consists of 19 audio lessons, besides that, one can find a glossary with 5,000 words and printable guides there.

This is what organizers say about this initiative:

“EuroLang 2012” is addressed to participants, visitors and football fans coming to the European Football Championship, which will be hosted by Poland and Ukraine in the summer 2012.

Apart from logistical support (accommodation, travel, stay) the participants will need practical language guide and cultural information package, helping them to participate in Euro 2012 and move in hosting countries without communicative barriers.

The representatives of five EU countries take part in the project that is being implemented with financial support from European Commission – each party performs its own functions. Particularly, German partners are engaged in sports marketing. They develop advertising material as well as strategy of project information distribution in German-speaking countries.

The project team consists of representatives of the following organizations: Warsaw Academy of Computer Science, Management and Administration (Poland), Hasselt University (Belgium), ECET – The European Centre for Education and Training (Bulgaria), Himmel & Jord Gmbh (Germany), Villa Montesca Research and Training Center (Italy), Mescomp Technologies SA (Poland).

Source: http://abcist.com/en/news/cmd/view/id/16 (“Football Fans Won’t Get Lost In Ukraine And Poland”)

The 5th International Spanish Language Conference will be held in Valparaiso, Chile from 2 to 5 March, 2010.

For information (in Spanish) about this event:  http://www.congresosdelalengua.es/

The Globalization and Localization Association (GALA) is an international nonprofit association whose member companies specialize in language services, translation services and language technology. GALA member companies worldwide include translation companies, localization service providers, globalization consultants, internationalization specialists, and language technology developers.

The Globalization and Localization Association encourages local communication as an indispensable component to a global strategy and promotes collaboration between all companies working in the translation, localization, internationalization, and globalization industry.

GALA is inviting you to its 2010 conference: Read more

TM-Europe 2009 will be held on October 1st and 2nd in Warsaw. This year, the conference theme is Quality and Terminology Management, and Business Terms and Conditions for Translation and Localization Services.

In the 2008 TM-Global Translation and Localization Market Survey customers and providers alike reported that consistent high quality was the number one factor they take into account when managing processes or selecting a vendor, yet they had problems pin-pointing how quality is defined, measured and manifested.

The conference’s schedule covers an interesting range of topics, among which:

• a workshop on translation and localization technology (Daniel Goldschmidt and Jost Zetsche)
• a discussion between customers and translation companies on how they do business together
• a panel and several presentations on terminology management
• a panel and presentation on quality management
• a presentation on different approaches to selling translation in the US and Europe (Dave Smith of Lingua-Lynx)
• a post-conference workshop on Selling Translation

TM-Europe is the annual conference of the Polish Association of Translation Agencies (PSBT) and is organised by PSBT and TM-Global.
For more information on the conference visit www.tm-europe.org.