GALA Blog

One of the biggest complaints about industry conferences that I hear from LSPs is the small number of client participants.  But that dynamic can be corrected easily–and can make a huge difference to the value you get from a conference. 

Here is what I did at GALA 2009 to bring more client participants and to increase the chance of winning their trust.  It worked for me…and, as I explain, I am doing even more for GALA 2010.  I truly enjoyed the  GALA conference in Cancun and am looking forward to Prague.  The locations are great, the content excellent, I see friends in the industry, and I meet new people, too.  But this strategy of bringing in prospects also provides direct benefit back to my company, TOIN, and makes the entire conference even more valuable. 

My simple program is to invite prospects to the conference where they can get beneficial information, and we can build a trusting relationship.  For GALA 2009, I invited four prospects. One of them became our client. All of them told me that it was one of the best industry conferences they had attended. They also told me that GALA did a great job bringing mature vendors, who don’t hover around the client people.

Through this experience, I learned that the GALA conference is beneficial for our clients. So for GALA 2010, I have invited 50 clients/prospects, so far. I am getting a few ‘thank you’ responses. It’s good to know that I can bring some good information to my clients and prospects. TOIN is sending invitations to around 100 more prospects.

I hope all GALA members come to GALA 2010 and invite their clients and prospects because I believe it will raise their credibility to their clients and prospects. I certainly benefited from the last conference.

I look forward to seeing you all in Prague!

P.S. For those who are attending GALA 2010, please send me a Linked In message. Let’s have pre-conference discussions to warm ourselves up. We can e-meet before actually meeting in Prague.

CALL FOR SPEAKERS

GALA 2010
The Global Community: Capturing Customers Worldwide
10-12 May 2010
Prague, Czech Republic

www.gala-global.org/conference

Deadline for proposals: 10 January 2009

The Globalization and Localization Association presents “GALA 2010: The language of business. The business of language,” two and a half days of learning and networking. GALA 2010 brings together suppliers, technology providers and consumers of translation and localization services to collectively share, discuss and debate the latest advancements in localization, language and global content delivery. The theme of this year’s conference is “The Global Community: Capturing Customers Worldwide.”

THE AUDIENCE

GALA 2010 is a high-level program that brings together professionals who are building the Global Community. Attendees include seasoned translation, localization and language technology professionals as well as professionals interested in learning more about expanding globally. Localization managers, content developers, global marketers, scholars, and students – the next generation of content creators and consumers – will all benefit from this conference.

GALA conference attendees value openness, risk-taking and diversity of thinking as they tackle real issues in taking content global. They want substance and knowledge that they can immediately put into practice. Our attendees are looking for fresh – and practical – ways to solve their current challenges and for ways to propel their businesses forward.

AUDIENCE EXPERTISE

This program is targeted at professionals with mostly Level 2 and Level 3 knowledge and experience. Please tailor your proposal to one of these groups.

• Level 1: Assumes the participant has little or no knowledge of the areas covered.
• Level 2: Ideal for the participant with a general knowledge of the basic concepts and general practices within the topic covered.
• Level 3: Developed for the participant who has a thorough knowledge of the general concepts and practices within the topic covered.

SESSION FORMAT

GALA 2010 will have sessions that take one of three formats/durations. Please consider which session format would most effectively deliver your content:

• 90 minute learning labs or facilitated roundtable discussions
• 50 minute presentations
• 7 minute “speed presentations” as part of larger “speed learning” sessions. These sessions are intended to showcase one fabulous, concrete take-away for the participants.

CONTENT LEADERS (PRESENTERS)

This conference is about sharing ideas in all areas of language technology and localization business operations. We strongly suggest that localization executives submit a proposal. Tools providers and language service providers are encouraged to co-present with customers to make the sessions dynamic.

The GALA promise to our conference participants is to provide exceptional experiences, a vibrant community, and essential tools that will make them and their companies more successful. We are looking for proposals that have….

• Relevant ideas for a savvy audience
• Concepts that stretch thinking and provide new approaches to language technologies and services
• Content which is delivered in an engaging way and which draws on the experience of the attendees
• Creative approaches to presentation with exercises that engage the participants
• Examples and case studies of real successes (and successful failures!)
• Practical tools and that can be applied immediately to participants’ business operations

SELECTION PROCESS
Your proposals must be submitted by 10 January 2009. You will receive a confirmation of your submission. Each submission will be reviewed by a team of GALA volunteers and staff, and you will be notified by 30 January 2010 of the status of your submission.

At GALA 2010, our attendees will spend two and a half days trying to understand the future of the language and content delivery industry so that they can build their businesses for tomorrow. GALA is seeking the most relevant and thought-provoking ideas pertinent to the localization profession. Our goal is to offer attendees knowledge and tools to do their jobs more effectively and to make their organizations more successful.

Key Topic Areas

1. Definition: Working with and being part of the changing global community
2. Creation: Why and how to create global content for local audiences
3. Transformation: Innovative approaches for communicating to local audiences worldwide
4. Facilitation: The backbone of the global community

Here are some of the kinds of questions that our attendees want to hear answers to:

• Will machine translation replace humans? Will Google make our industry irrelevant?
• How can I position my localization company for growth and success?
• What is the role of user-created content and its power for strengthening brands?
• As more content is created and distributed every day, how will companies make sure it is available in the respective markets on time, and for what device?
• What is the role of language and content in a quickly evolving and competitive environment? Who will succeed in delivering “their message” in the most innovative way?

Registration/Travel Info
Content leaders of learning labs and presentations are able to register for the conference at the reduced rate of EUR 400 and are responsible for all related travel costs. Leaders of speed learning sessions receive a coupon for a discount of EUR 100 toward registration fees.

Content Leader (Presenter) Briefing Prior to the Conference
Part of our commitment to creating a memorable experience for the attendees is to require content leaders to participate in a content leader briefing. This briefing will take place in the form of a webinar in April 2010 (date and time TBD).

The focus of these briefings will be on:

• Your role as content leader: factors for success
• Facilitating the learning experience: going beyond presenting content
• Engaging participants: tools and techniques

Download the complete call for papers and application form at this link:  www.gala-global.org/conference/GALA2010-CallForPapers.doc

Conference website: www.gala-global.org/conference

The Globalization and Localization Association kicked off the language conference season in September with its first-ever event. The organizers encouraged the speakers to think “big” and address technical and business matters from the perspective of the industry at large, not just from their own corporate or personal view. They generally delivered on this request and participants in the largely interactive sessions discussed the rapid transformation of the industry and the need to prepare for profound changes at both enterprise and functional levels. Besides the usual but valuable discussions about doing business, which technologies to use, and how to deal with perennial issues, talk of community within the language industry and beyond took center stage.

• Online communities exert great power, for the better. Craig’s List founder Craig Newmark keynoted the event, emphasizing that the site’s original intent to connect people in a virtual but strong community has survived despite its gargantuan growth and challenges like user fraud and abuse. He noted the site’s growing international presence and looked to the audience of language specialists for guidance. The attendees were interested in his advocacy of “personal diplomacy” and “bottoms-up democracy” outside his work at Craig’s List. In another session, Reinhard Schäler described the efforts of the The Rosetta Foundation and the crowd to empower minorities and populations in developing countries with access to information regardless of economic and political considerations.
• The language service community begins to coalesce. Over the last seven years, the language industry has balkanized into a variety of associations with overlapping mandates and memberships. At this conference, GALA reached out to fraternal organizations to mend the fractures. In a plenary hosted by Common Sense Advisory’s Don DePalma, this veritable Who’s Who of the industry focused on the challenges and opportunities for the industry. Panelists included Michael Fritz of tekom, Hans Fenstermacher of GALA, Arle Lommel of the Localization Industry Standards Association (LISA), Reinhard Schäler of the Localisation Resource Centre, and Jiri Stejskal of the American Translators Association (ATA), with Marla Schulman of the Association of Language Companies (ALC) joining the discussion.During that panel discussion and in sessions that followed, participants suggested convening representatives from associations to work towards eliminating fragmentation, combining conferences, and, importantly, developing a declaration of a human right to information in any language. While de-fragmenting the landscape and joining forces for bigger events are not new ideas, they gathered momentum in light of the rapid pace at which the industry is changing and a newfound willingness to cooperate. Overall, there was a sense of great anticipation as to what the near future may hold for GALA conference attendees and the language services industry as a whole.

For more industry insight from Common Sense Advisory’s analysts, visit the Global Watchtower.