A new team member… : we’re very happy to welcome Delphine, GxP’s first intern!
Delphine comes from France and is finishing her 5-year translation studies (Masters degree) at the ESTRI in Lyon. Her working languages are German and English into French. She’ll also be helping with the Alexandria platform and with the TriKonf organization. She’ll be staying with us until Mid-September.
Let’s give her a warm welcome! ;)
GxP Language Services announced the first Tri-National Translation Conference (“TriKonf 2013″) to be held on October 19th and 20th, 2013 in Freiburg im Breisgau (Germany), under the motto “Professionalization & Interoperability in the Translation Industry”.
“In recent times the media have constantly featured reports about so-called universal translators or what wonderful things machine translation can now do for us”, explains Siegfried Armbruster, owner of GxP Language Services. ”This hype is spread by groups who want to convince potential sponsors to attract even more investment in their projects. What is overlooked again and again is the fact that qualified human translators and interpreters are still the only guarantee that linguistic content is adapted correctly and understandably into another language. With this conference, we aim to provide translators and interpreters with a platform that not just makes them familiar with the latest developments, but which also facilitates joint discussion in order to prevent too many customers being impressed by these surrealistic fantasies. When used correctly, technology can accelerate the translation process and improve its quality. Exaggerated and irresponsible use of translation technology however leads to unusable results. As long as the alleged cost reductions in the translation process have to be paid for by quality reductions in the final result, every customer should ask themselves whether they can really afford cheap(er) translations.”
For more information, visit the conference website (available in English, German and French): http://trikonf.com
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The 2013 Translation and Localization Conference in Warsaw is on!
Jointly organized by Localize.pl and TexteM, this event is one of the most important international events in Poland and Eastern Europe. With attendees and speakers from all around the world, as well as a variety of cutting-edge topics, the conference will take place March 23rd and 24th.
GxP Language Services will be attending and presenting again in 2013 (read Anne’s report about the 2012 event here) – Siegfried will present “Medical translations – What is the difference with other specialty fields and what is required to achieve top quality?” and Anne will present a case study on Social Search engine optimization.
We are very much looking forward to attending again, meet potential translators to collaborate with and see our Polish friends again!
Complete info and registration on the confernce website: www.conference.localization.pl
Last weekend, I attended the annual ProZ.com France conference in Lyon, which was not only a great opportunity to return to the city where I studied and lived for five years, but also to see the French translation crowd again – many I hadn’t seen since the Nice conference in 2009, the Paris event in 2008 or for some, even the Aix en Provence conference in 2007! We had a great time and the atmosphere was relaxed and happy.
The event was the opportunity to give a presentation on Internet Marketing for the first time ever in French – which is quite amusing when you think about it, given that I am French. Anyway, it was also the first time that I spoke to a French audience on those topics and I was curious to learn about the relationship between social media tools and my own fellow translation country(wo)men. Although the group was very small, the presentation was extremely interactive – just the way I love it! Actually, forget I said “presentation”. It was a discussion, and a very interesting and lively one at that. It was a pity I didn’t have more time – again, I know! How time flies when you’re in good company with interesting questions and feedback.
The topics I presented were 1. Twitter (how to use it to gain visibility and boost your online reputation) and 2. Facebook – privacy issues to protect your personal life and reputation on the Web (unfortunately not enough time for that one, we had to rush through it, but we covered some main points presented in this article and in this one in very basic terms).
Here is the Twitter presentation (in French) available for download: Twitter presentation FR Lyon 2012 -
- many thanks to the attendees. I hope you enjoyed the workshop and more importantly, that it helped you in some way. That was, after all, the objective. And as promised, if you have any questions or need anything, just send me an e-mail!
Thanks again to John for once more giving us the opportunity to meet, exchange and party. I’m really looking forward to the 2013 French conference!
We had a nice surprise the other day: one of our Twitter accounts has been listed in Neil Payne’s list of Top 100 Translation people to follow on Twitter: our @Translate_News Twitter feed! You can find the entire list here.
The GxP team is happy and grateful to be in the same list as many amazing people who rock the translation industry on Twitter!
Last weekend I attended the ProZ.com International Conference 2012 in Barcelona. It was really fantastic seeing old friends again and making new ones, and to finally have a chance to see some of the wonders the city of Barcelona has to offer.
The conference was also the opportunity to give my presentation on social media marketing and online reputation – 1 hour is terribly short to cover the topic, but some basics were thrown at the audience and hopefully all attendees got something to chew on. The purpose, as outlined in the introduction, is not to make anyone a Social Media expert (and in an hour, that’s impossible), but rather to help translators in the decision-making of investing in that marketing strategy – or not – by giving them as many elements, pros and cons as possible to help them decide whether it’s something their own business could use/need - and of course, for those who decide it may be something for them, make them curious to find out more and take the next step.
The presentation felt relaxed and was quite interactive. I don’t like to push the Q/A at the very end, attendees can just interrupt me if they want to rebounce on something I just said. IMO it is simply more comfortable and informal that way. Hopefully people feel this as well, because it not only creates a relaxed atmosphere, but it also makes the presentation more lively and ultimately (hopefully) fun. And well, egoistically, I have to admit it’s much more fun for me as it makes each presentation different from the previous one and the audience has often really interesting, original and unexpected questions, comments or experiences to share. So, no routine. As always, I wish it could have gone on for another 3 hours – and hope attendees do as well! ;)
A really big thank you to all of you for our attention and patience, I hope you all left the room with a clearer idea of this wide Internet marketing world and some (more) elements at hands to make your decision – if that’s the case, then I did the job in Barcelona (if that’s not the case, feel free to contact me via e-mail and shout at me ;))
Anyway, here is the pdf of the presentation, feel free to download it: Barcelona_Conference_SMM_Presentation
An interesting thing happened during the session and in the plane back from Barcelona – or at least I consider those thoughts interesting. It occured to me that, compared to a year ago, I was focusing less on actual Social Media and always more on SEO, online reputation / online presence – that was the case at the Germersheim University a few weeks ago when I gave that same presentation and, to an extent, at the conference in Warsaw in April. This is definitely material for a future article (and sooner than later), but for the past 3-4 months, it seems social networks themselves are loosing the importance they had a year ago in online marketing – they are still important, no questioning that, but SEO and online image in general seem to grow more and more important. Social sites actually always were SEO and online reputation tools but this was maybe not always clear, or hidden behind the WOW factor of social sites. I have this feeling that perspectives are changing – client don’t ask “How can I be on Facebook for my business?” anymore because it’s Facebook and it’s hype. They ask today “Why would I be on Facebook for my business?”.
Interesting shift in perspectives here – but again, this is material for a future article.
In the meantime a big thank you to Patricia for the organization of this great conference, and a big thank you to all – it was simply fantastic being there with all of you. See you next year at the Porto 2013 Conference!
We are pleased to announce that we will be travelling to Paris from May 21st to 23rd to attend the Hit Paris and the Hôpital Expo Trade Shows this year again.
Here’s the HIT Paris editorial from Stéphane Pic-Pâris, Event Director
Simultaneously an Exhibition and a Conference, Hit Paris has firmly established its position as the leading event dedicated to technologies and information systems applied to health.
Information systems have become a crucial factor in health organisation strategy. Long limited to management and office automation applications, hospital IT systems have now become routine tools of the trade and decision-making aids.
For 4 unifying and cross-cutting days, from 22 to 25 May, 2012, Hit Paris and HOPITAL EXPO remain the first – and leading – business event bringing together buyers, decision-makers and users, as well as institutional and industrial players around the central themes represented by the implementation of shared information systems hinged around patient care and electronic communication.
Exhibitors will therefore have a wealth of opportunities for direct contact with their core target having gathered for the occasion.
This 6th edition of the event will be an opportunity for participants to understand, learn, debate and share their experiences – in the form of workshops, lectures, business paths – focusing on the challenges posed by digital technologies and services.
2012 objective:
Modernise and simplify exchange.Make HIT Paris more open to community medicine and private-practice health professionals/Reinforce Community-Hospital communication.
In 2012, Hit Paris is further consolidating its image as a showcase for cutting-edge technologies and a catalyst for projects and is proposing a number of events and novelties: Hit.TV, the Hit Cyber Café, new business paths, the Hit Awards, new themed spaces, innovative and dynamic services that you can discover on the pages that follow.
Source http://www.health-it.fr/index.asp
Complete info about the event: http://www.health-it.fr/
We’re upgrading our office CAT-Tools ;)
After a rich week in Berlin at conhIT 2012, off to Warsaw for the weekend where I was a guest speaker at the Translation and Localization Conference 2012 (“Konferencja Tłumaczy”- don’t ask me to pronounce it in Polish! ;))
It has been around a year and half since my last Translation industry event and it was truly a pleasure to see familiar faces again and meet new ones. The event had the good idea of offering bilingual tracks: throughout the weekend, we had one room with English presentations only, while the other room featured only Polish contents. Given my non-existent Polish, this was very welcome!
The general subject areas of the conference were Computer-Aided Translation (how far can we stretch CATs, how do we manage CAT resources, segmentation, data formats, consistence and cohesion, virtualisation, dictation instead of typing and other pivotal issues in the area of computer-aided translation), audio-visual translation and localization (computer games, dubbing, subtitling, copyright and related rights, going rates, audio-description, accessibility of films and theatrical performances and other cutting-edge developments on the audio-visual translation market), legal and specialist translation (from fascinating case studies to popular debates on certified translation (and sworn translators): new strategies, food for thought and the big picture, the business of translation and interpretation (hard data on freelancing, VAT and flat rate tax, as well as translation and localisation agencies. Expert insights on marketing translation services. (Down-to-earth, tried and true advice and fresh perspectives).
I made some interesting contacts and above all, we had very interesting discussions around a cup of coffee at breaks – discussions about the Polish market but also about the way the industry is going, particularly about machine translation (MT). The overall shared opinion was the fact that MT was now inevitable and that it could be a translator’s best tool in terms of quality and productivity – when used wisely and with a strict quality-control procedure as well as the need to implement confidentiality measures. In short, the consensus was that MT was not completely mature yet – but will be very soon and that the industry should get ready to embrace it.
Entitled “Social Media Marketing for Translators: a must or a should?”, my presentation took place on Sunday morning with a small and lively group of translators with a broad background. There were many “young translators” (beginning in the industry) and experienced ones, curious about finding out whether this new marketing trend could apply to them and could work for them. I hope that the colleagues who attended left the conference room with their own answer “Yes, Social Media marketing may be something for me, I want to know more” or “Nope, not for me.” At least that was the goal of this presentation, my aim was to give them some keys to help them decide. At the end of the day, as I specified many times during that hour with them, every translator is unique, every business is unique, and they all should see this presentation as a buffet where they just pick up what suits them, their needs and their goals. The presentation went well, there were quite a few questions and I had some very good feedback, so I guess the buffet formula worked for those colleagues!
It was also a fantastic opportunity to discover Warsaw and its gorgeous Old Town – a very enjoyable tour with two locals who know the history of their city by heart.
It was an excellent weekend, informational, interesting, fun (and incredibly hot, 30°C in Warsaw!) – thank you Agenor and Jacek of Localize.pl ;) , Maria Szpor and Anna Konieczna-Purchała of TexteM and their teams for organizing this great conference!
Visit the conference website and the Facebook Page with the photos and feedback – and hopefully see you next year for the 2013 Conference! :)
We were in Berlin these past few days to attend the conhIT 2012 Trade Show. It was a very interesting event that allowed us to stay up-to-date with what’s going on in the Healthcare IT industry, strenghten existing contacts and make new ones (it was also a great opportunity to (re)discover the city of Berlin and we were extremely lucky with the weather!
A 20 per cent rise in trade visitors, a 12 per cent increase in exhibitors and two fully booked exhibition halls: those are the preliminary results of this year’s conhIT – Connecting Healthcare IT, which closed its doors on Thursday in Berlin. More than 5,357 trade visitors from 46 countries, including high-ranking delegations from Europe, Saudi Arabia and Korea, came to conhIT to find out about the latest developments in Healthcare IT. The Industrial Fair, Congress, Academy and Networking Events all gave exhibitors and visitors daily opportunities to exchange views, broaden their knowledge and put forward their own topics.
“The exhibition halls and Congress rooms were filled to capacity on all three days of the event and the mood among exhibitors and visitors was very positive“, said Bernhard Calmer, Chairman of the Board of bvitg – German Association of Healthcare IT Vendors e.V., which five years ago founded conhIT. “The number of events over the three days was impressive. Whether at the Industrial Fair, the Congress, Academy, Innovation Forums or on the themed tours and hospital excursions – all the events were very well received. The level of political interest and involvement has also increased.”
Representing Messe Berlin – the organisers of conhIT – project manager Ursula Baumann
added: “It is nice to receive so many positive comments from exhibitors and visitors. The significant rise in numbers from abroad, in terms of both visitors and companies, shows how important this event is to the industry.” The share of visitors from abroad rose by 15 per cent, doubling last year’s figure.
For gmds e.V. and BVMI e.V., the partners of conhIT, the event was also a resounding success.
“This year’s conhIT fulfilled our high expectations“, said a satisfied Dr. Carl Dujat, president of BVMI e.V. “The unique overall concept of this integrated industry event proved to be right and many individual meetings with visitors, exhibitors and organisers confirmed this. conhIT has finally come of age and established itself as the leading Healthcare IT event. That is an outstanding success.”
That impression was echoed by Prof. Dr. Peter Haas of gmds, president of the conhIT Congress: “With this year’s programme we were able to address all the target audiences and organise a Congress that focused on all the important topics in healthcare IT.“
“conhIT has grown to an impressive size. The only way it can still expand is by attracting new audiences and greater numbers from abroad“, added Prof. Dr. Paul Schmücker, 1st vice-president, gmds e.V. ”Events such as the career workshop, the job exchange and the get-together with students, young professionals and exhibitors were all very well received. One of the highlights was the presentation of the conhIT award for young professionals for the best diploma presenting practical ideas.“
bvitg e.V. and FÜRS LEBEN, a trust managed by Deutsche Stiftung Organtransplantation (DSO), took the opportunity at conhIT 2012 to provide information on donating organs. Every visitor receiving a ticket was also given an organ donor pass. The DSO provided information at its stand and talked about the trust’s new app at a panel discussion. “It is essential for us to have modern and reliable information technology“, said Prof. Dr. med. Günter Kirste , medical chairman of Deutsche Stiftung Organtransplantation. “We need it to ensure the successful and smooth coordination of organ donations and to maintain a permanent dialogue with hospitals.“ In the opinion of bvitg, one way to streamline the exchange of information would be to make an organ donor pass part of the electronic health card.
The next conhIT will take place on the Berlin Exhibition Grounds from 9 to 11 April 2013.
Source: conhIT website, Press section, Press releases – conhIT 2012 Closing report, 2012/04/27. Original press release here.
