GALA Blog

Social networks are the rage — nothing new there. In fact, two-thirds of online users access ‘member communities,’ which include social networks and blogs, according to research conducted this year by The Nielsen Company. They have even overtaken email as the fourth most popular online category, and they are growing twice as fast as any other category.
But are these sites just fun, and a great way to procrastinate, or are they useful in business? How are they being used in our world of languages and localization?

It turns out that the fifth most visited social network internationally, LinkedIn, is the most popular spot for localization professionals. As the ‘localization’ of LinkedIn continues (it is currently the most popular professional network in Europe with more than five million users and is available in several European languages, but it is not heavily used in Asia yet), so does its popularity among localization professionals. It is fast becoming the most popular place to post language/localization news, ask questions, discuss industry trends and conduct surveys.

A lot of the LinkedIn activity in our industry is through industry groups. A few of the most active networks are The Localization Professional, managed by Serge Gladkoff, with more than 3,000 members; the Localization and Globalization Fusion Society, managed by Common Sense Advisory, with more than 1,000 members; and, the Globalization and Localization Association’s new discussion group that already has almost 900 members http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=64313&trk=hb_side_g. All of these, as well as many others, can be found by conducting a search of LinkedIn groups (through the search field on any LinkedIn page).

Once you’ve joined some networks, you can display your industry knowledge by participating in some of the discussions. You can post news to all members of the group’maybe a new report you’ve conducted, or an article you’ve published (always provide the link). Recently I posted a question about RFPs in the localization industry. The answers I received helped immensely as I wrote questions on RFPs for an upcoming survey from GALA.

While these groups in LinkedIn and other social networks definitely build connections and help you with your job, the lingering question is value per minute. They can be quite time consuming’and a lot more fun than other work! The trick is to make sure the percentage of time spent on the networks is comparable to their value and not detracting from other critical business functions you perform. I’m still trying to strike that balance’anyone out there have it figured out?

“GALA 2009: The Language of Business. The Business of Language.” is our association’s first step towards creating a new “must do” industry-wide event. GALA is moving to emulate that which works well for the vast majority of successful trade associations. It is our goal to create an umbrella event that invites all segments of our industry into “the tent” so that we can learn and share and network with one another.

Our industry must move away from the current glut of far too many small overlapping and often repetitive meetings. Great meetings offer a broad palette of workshops, education, services and networking opportunities. Great meetings include the large and small players in the industry, and by their nature they bring larger and more diverse audiences to all of those partners in the industry.

It is ironic that our first step simply creates another meeting in an already overcrowded field; some observers have focused on that apparent contradiction. The simple truth is that you cannot get to step two without taking step one. I expect the GALA annual meeting will attract thousands of attendees several years down the road but you don’t just snap your fingers and put on a great event. You build it.

It is important to remember that this “new” event is the result of a long and involved survey and planning process on the part of GALA’s membership that came together in a 2007 document called the 2010 Plan. That document outlined core actions that our member companies determined were necessary for our association and our industry to grow. At the base of that plan is a belief that “a rising tide raises all ships” along with a desire from our membership to develop and manage our own industry events. We all know that we are still a low-visibility industry. We know that many thousands of potential end users would benefit from our products and services but they don’t know who we are or what we do. Great meetings not only allow us to communicate with each other, they allow us to tell our story to the world.

Our program committee of Aki Ito, Kim Harris, Hans Fenstermacher and Kevin Fountoukidis is focused solely on developing great workshops for this event. Our board and program committee are currently reviewing a remarkable group of potential keynote speakers. We recognize that modern associations address the needs of the entire person and we have made this meeting both user friendly and family friendly. It is a good thing for great meetings to also be fun. It is smart to be family friendly. And it is smart to be in a beautiful location that encourages networking and communication.

We are building something new here and I invite all of you to join us. I want you to be a participant but I hope you will also be an architect as you contribute your ideas as to how we will make GALA 2010 better, bigger and even more valuable to you individually. I hope to see you in Cancun.

Please visit our event Web site at www.language-of-business.org.

Best regards,

James F. Hollan III, CAE
Executive Director
Globalization and Localization Association