Localization World - An Oxymoron?
Posted on Fri, Oct 02, 2009
Today's post is from Lionbridge VP, Kathleen Bostick, who's encouraging you to check out Localization World...
Many of you in the translation industry have participated in, or at least heard of, Localization World which is held twice a year, summer in Europe and fall in North America.
For those of you outside the translation/localization industry, the name itself can be puzzling. I tweeted about it a couple of months ago and someone tweeted back that Localization World was an oxymoron. I think he's right. Sometimes we're so wrapped up in our own industry that we forget what it actually means to those outside or just new to the translation and localization industry.
I have been involved in Localization World since it started over 6 years ago. Each time we take the feedback from the attendees and improve the conference for next time. Its evolution from a small one-track conference to four tracks with over 500 people has been exciting to see.
This fall, the four tracks are "Managing Global Businesses," "Managing Global Websites," "Advanced Localization Management," and "Localization Core Competencies." There's something for everyone regardless of expertise or role. Given today's focus on expansion into international markets, I can't think of a company interested in selling their product or services internationally that wouldn't find interesting and relevant content. There are also some great networking opportunities to meet with your peers and gain insight and ideas from what is and isn't working for them.
This year we have two great keynote speakers, Dave Luhr, COO of international ad agency Wieden & Kennedy, and Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired magazine, who will be speaking via live broadcast from New York. There is also a Social Web Localization panel moderated by Danica Brinton with panelists Regina Bustamante (Plaxo), Ghassan Haddad (Facebook), Joaquin Moreno (XING AG), Nico Posner (LinkedIn).
Lionbridge presenters include Paula Shannon, our CSO, SVP and General Manager, who will be hosting a panel "Volatility, the New Norm." The panel includes Iris Orris (Microsoft), Wayne Boreland (Dell), Minette Norman (Autodesk) and Tim Young (Cisco). Paula will also host Ulrike Irmler's (Microsoft) presentation on the "Localization of Windows7." I will be hosting Wayne Boreland's Case Study presentation on centralizing the translation efforts of Dell.com, as well as presenting Social Media strategies at the Localization Business Roundtable.
More details on the event are located at http://www.localizationworld.com/lwsv2009/program.php. Let me know if you're coming, I'd love to meet you. I'll be tweeting from the conference under @Lion_MktgVEEP with #LWSV.