Newsletter - Events
tcworld 2006: a GALA member perspective
Spyros Konidaris, Commit
I attended tcworld 2006, which was held in the beautiful city of Wiesbaden, Germany (November 8-10). GALA and GALA members were present to support the first global Localization Expert Forum and composed a significant group of international GALA exhibitors. This year’s event saw growth in attendance and exhibitors, and it offered new value to visitors with its growing international perspective.
tcworld 2006, organized by tekom in cooperation with GALA and OASIS, attracted over 2400 conference attendees, exhibition visitors and presenters, 300 more than in the previous year. As the premier event for technical communication in Germany, tekom offers a comprehensive program covering the chain of information development – from the creation and management of information to, increasingly, the preparation of media-specific product information in multiple languages. The event consisted of an expo hall and three days full of sessions – with the third day targeted exclusively at the German speaking-audience.
For the first time, tekom partnered with GALA to present an expert forum on localization. GALA lined up 20 topics and international presenters for The Localization Expert forum, presented as part of tcworld, the new English-speaking component of this long-established tekom convention. Sessions covered topics from global content management to translation for Central and Eastern Europe. GALA also contributed to the growing number of foreign exhibitors and visitors, fostering the internationalization of the convention.
In addition to the increase in attendance, the number of exhibitors grew significantly this year, as well. Ninety-eight firms showcased their tools and services in 2005, whereas the number grew by almost 50% to 142 exhibitors this year. Forty-six exhibitors came from countries other than Germany (30 were non-European, predominantly from the USA). Twenty-nine of the exhibiting companies were GALA members, eight of which exhibited as part of the GALA joint exhibit booth.
The large exhibit area included exhibitors mostly from the technical writing community (service and tool providers) with translation and localization companies scattered throughout. The GALA exhibit booth was in the foyer, which served as the entrance hall to the main exhibit area; this location proved to be problematic as most people traveled straight to the main expo hall rather than making a round in the foyer. Realistically, however, the rest of the GILT companies exhibiting in the main area seemed “lost” among the other exhibitors as well.
I was left with the impression – and this seemed to be the impression of other fellow GALA members – that attendees were new to localization and perhaps not yet “ready” to focus on localization. Despite the large number of attendees, the fact that the relevant track sessions were well attended, and the efforts to internationalize the event, it seemed that attendees were not well informed as to the integral nature of localization to information management. Of course there is a first time for everything and I feel that at next year’s tekom, things can and will be improved. There was interest in GALA, and we had a good number of inquiries about membership, activities, etc. Regarding the exhibitors, perhaps a common space for all the GILT companies and the GALA exhibit, plus some additional marketing activities would help attract people interested in translation and localization services.
Michael Fritz, Managing Director of tekom, and Matthias Caesar, GALA Board Member, see this first collaboration between tekom and GALA as a success and have begun planning for 2007. I, too, believe that GALA can continue to help make this event more international, bringing together the technical communication and GILT industries and providing a platform for clients to get a better grasp of the full cycle of preparing a product for the global market.
For more information, visit www.tekom.de/conference.
Spyros Konidaris is the founder of Commit, a language service provider from Athens, Greece, and member of GALA since 2002. He has a Computer Science background and has been active in the localization industry for 15 years.