About GALA

The Globalization and Localization Association (GALA) is a not-for-profit trade association connecting and supporting professionals and organizations in the global language industry.

  • GALA is future-oriented and human-focused 
  • We provide access to expertise on industry trends, technologies, and best practices
  • GALA is a community and a platform where people learn, share, and inspire one another 
  • We support the growth of professionals, businesses, and the global language industry

GALA serves an international community of organizations and individuals that enable communication and business across languages and cultures. GALA’s mission is to help our members succeed and to drive our industry’s development by building professional communities, sharing knowledge, and advancing best practices in the globalization sector.

GALA delivers programs, resources, and events that help our members understand and serve local markets worldwide. We offer a non-biased platform for information-sharing and collaboration and we build connections between industry stakeholders. GALA creates and supports initiatives that advance localization and globalization best practices and raises awareness about the value our sector brings to global business.

GALA’s members are organizations that communicate across languages and cultures. They deliver a diversity of services and technologies to support global communication; they function as stewards of global brands and designers of globalization strategies. As individuals, they occupy diverse roles ranging from CEOs to software developers, translators to sales managers, interpreters to consultants, and many more. Approximately 15% of members are Universities. The balance is comprised of 15% client organizations and 70% language services and technology companies. Visit our member directory.

GALA’s independent, nonprofit status and its global reach make it a trustworthy source of industry information and an excellent platform for evangelizing the importance of professional language services. Through GALA’s programs and insightful content, individuals become more knowledgeable, organizations grow and mature, and the global language industry makes gains in professionalism and prominence.

GALA was founded in 2002 by leaders from 15 businesses who recognized that language services companies needed an organization dedicated to their professional growth and to the betterment of the industry as a whole. Those 15 founding members expanded to well over 400 and now include organizations playing diverse roles in the global language industry: translation agencies, language technology companies, universities, consultancies, and global enterprises. Through the dedication of hundreds of volunteers and a small, but mighty staff, GALA has grown into the largest association in the industry with the broadest representation.

Learn more about membership and become part of our thriving, growing professional community.