Highlights from LocWorld47 Berlin

welocalize August 8, 2022

It was a long-awaited return to in-person events for the localization crowd and LocWorld47 Berlin did not disappoint. Steve Maule, Welocalize’s Director of Customer Success, took his first conference trip since lockdown and here are some of his highlights from his time in Berlin….

Steve Maule My first feeling at LocWorld47 was the thrill of seeing so many colleagues face to face. People are keen to get back to in-person conferences and there was a real energy at LocWorld47 Berlin. Everybody was ready to talk and ready to socialize. It was great to shake hands, hug, and do business in person.

Highlight #1: Session with the most ‘buzz’?

The Process Innovation Challenge (PIC). This ‘dragons’ den’ style interactive challenge is great. Teams pitch on Zoom before the event, with the finalists showcasing their ideas in-person live at the conference. It allows people to showcase process and innovations technology in the language industry. It’s a great format, gets people talking, and you do see some fresh ideas and perspectives.

Innovation (especially AI-enablement) is so important to our industry, anything that stimulates and encourages innovation is a winner.

But congratulations to the official PIC winner Andrea Ballista from Voiseed on his pitch on AI Voice Dubbing!

Highlight #2: Building a Localization Program. Everyone Experiences Similar Challenges

LocWorld47 Panelists

Hosting the session, The Six Key Ingredients to a Successful Localization Program with Naho Inuyama (Atlassian), Mariette Pepping (ServiceNow), and Harmut von Berg (GoTo) was a pleasure. Based on the questions and feedback we got from the audience, it’s fair to say that no matter how large or small your company or localization team, the challenges are the same in terms of team, talent, technology, process, quality, and governance. It was good to see a lot of localization buyers in the room, so the peer-to-peer sharing (which is so important at LocWorld) flowed well. There were a lot of heads nodding in agreement to the discussion.

Download Guide from the LocWorld session: How to Build a Successful Localization Program

Highlight #3: Building a Career in Localization

Once you get really into talking about scalable enterprise localization programs, you automatically chat with peers about careers. If you’re growing your localization team and program, and building that sphere of influence within your organization, career development goes hand in hand. And people still need guidance on how to manage successful programs and progress careers. Again, the face-to-face networking and peer sharing not only helps us reach global business goals, but also helps us map and achieve personal goals.

Highlight #4: Evolving Role of Tech Providers

There were a lot of language tech tools providers exhibiting at LocWorld47. Companies like Memsource and XTM, who Welocalize work closely with, are so important in the industry. Welocalize is technology agnostic, so it’s important to have strategic relationships with the main providers, working in the tech stacks. They’ve evolved to be consultants and solution providers, not just selling software licenses, especially as they’re working directly with the localization buyers – so the collaboration with the language service buyers is key to their differentiation in the global market.

Highlight #5: Overcoming a Challenging Economic Climate

We have gone from the COVID-19 pandemic and into tough economic conditions which impacts everything from talent acquisition through to budget cuts. From a localization buyer perspective, it makes it even more important to focus on return on investment (ROI) and for localization professionals and teams to be strategic enablers of global growth. This can be demonstrated with good, forward-thinking use of data and moving forward from the traditional view of translation as simply an operational cost. Localization generates revenue, creates amazing customer and brand experiences, and is important to global business growth and resilience.

Highlight #6: The Runners!

LocWorld47 Runners' Club

 

Finally, thank you to everyone who came to my early morning running club at LocWorld! I always pack my trainers as running is the best way to see a city when you have limited time. We did two runs on the Monday and Tuesday, meeting at 7am and so avoided the heat of the day. Good to take time to see the Brandenburg Gate, Holocaust Memorial, and Tiergarten on our 5km runs.

Look forward to seeing everyone at the next LocWorld!

-Steve


Steve Maule is Welocalize Customer Success Director.
You can connect with Steve here on LinkedIn.