Newsletter - Events
Localization World Montreal and GALA Montreal Events
Laura Brandon, Globalization and Localization Association
This autumn’s Localization World in Montreal brought together over 450 participants from 29 countries (October 16-18, 2006) for a three-day conference packed with workshops, networking events, a healthy exhibit hall, and a line-up of sessions focused around the theme of how to maximize translation memories and other technologies.
GALA members were present in full force. Now in its fourth year, the conference saw its highest attendance to date for the North American edition of the series. The event also hosted one of its most sizeable exhibition halls thus far, with close to fifty exhibitors showcasing industry products and services from workflow and translation systems to LSPs and LSP resources. GALA hosted a number of activities at the event, including a member networking cocktail, the GALA Annual Meeting, a group exhibit of eight companies, two conference sessions, and prize giveaways from two dozen member exhibitors.
Program highlights included sessions such as “Business Strategies for Localization Companies,” a panel discussion among four GALA member executives. The group shared their candid thoughts on the delicate balance between long-term strategies for healthy localization companies and the reality of market forces, which often push companies to live from project to project. In “Garbage In, Garbage Out: Going Back to the Source,” panelists drove home the imperative value of source content assets, where companies should be focusing more of their energies before localizing.
GALA hosted its annual meeting on the pre-conference day, a gathering which is always a pleasant opportunity for old and new members to meet, learn about GALA’s current activities, and discuss issues and challenges they share in running their companies. A total of sixty-two people from forty-five member companies attended the half-day meeting. The association announced results from the 2007-2008 GALA Board elections, welcoming Kim Harris, co-owner and managing director of text & form GmbH (Berlin) and Arancha Caballero (TSG, Spain), who was re-elected to serve a second term. The membership also extended a warm and heartfelt thank you to Aki Ito, outgoing chairman of the GALA Board. Aki’s tenure with GALA helped launch GALA’s first event in Tokyo and led to an increase in Japanese membership, raising Japanese member companies to the association’s third largest group. More importantly, Aki’s involvement with GALA truly embodied the “spirit of collaboration” that the organization has come to represent, particularly through his motto of “You’ve got to get involved to get benefits.”
The conference was host to a number of enjoyable social events, from the stylish opening night reception atop the highest building in Montreal (la Place Ville-Marie) to a rustic evening at la Sucrerie de la Montagne, where the group indulged in song, dance, maple syrup and a savory family-style meal (served to almost 500 people!).
I look forward to seeing GALA members at future Localization World conferences. The next event will take place March 20-22, 2007 in Shanghai, People’s Republic of China. The March conference will be the first of the event series to take place in Asia.
Laura Brandon is the administrator for the Globalization and Localization Association.