Newsletter - Events
IUC 31 Post-event Report
Stacy Bersbach, Globalization Partners International
The 31st Internationalization and Unicode Conference (IUC 31) was held on October 15 in San Jose, CA. Attendees consisted of a mix of software developers and academics, globalization consultants and IT managers.
The IUC 31 hosted 229 attendees this year, approximately 30% growth in attendance above recent years. Many of the speakers had presented at previous IUC events, and the sessions were extremely well attended; if a person didn't arrive to a session early for one of the coveted spots at a table, they were left standing. Some people were even sitting on the floor for the most popular sessions. This was the case for the session "Hints for Designing International Web Pages and Internationalization: an Introduction."
The conference sessions ranged from very technical to beginner sessions of the "how-to" variety. Although the more technical sessions showed strong attendance, the other sessions such as "What Your Boss Needs to Know about Internationalization" presented by Pierre Cadieux and "Web I18N: Standards and Best Practices" presented by Tex Texin seemed to be conference favorites. Although these sessions may appear to be designed for I18N beginners, practitioners of every knowledge level attended. They were technical enough to give even the veteran professionals something new.
In my opinion, the IUC 31 is beneficial event for GALA attendees. The networking and learning opportunities were rich and exciting, with many attendees were actively involved in animated discussions about Unicode and globalization. In addition, the amount of information available was also quite useful. From a handful of Unicode guru's who were willing to answer questions in the hallways to the range of formal presentations with ample Q & A time, I think this conference is a must attend.
Stacy Bersbach works for Globalization Partners International, a GALA member company.