One Week in the Life of the GALA Conference

The Globalization and Localization Association (GALA) is the largest global non-profit association within the language industry. GALA provides resources, education and research for companies working with translation services, language technology and content localization. GALA’s open, collaborative environment drives innovation through open-minded discussions and debates about the opportunities and challenges facing our industry.

As a CEO/business owner in the language industry I am always looking for opportunities to develop my own knowledge and grow my company, so attending the GALA conference is a must if we want to keep up with the fast changes in the industry.

Day 1

GALA Localization Project Management Training was a full-day workshop, during which we dove deep into localization of project management. We used a variety of tools to analyze a set of files from a hypothetical localization project. The entire translation process was simulated, and the following project management areas were covered:

• Project definition and file assembly
• File analysis
• Project scope, timeline, and budget
• Pseudo-translation
• Project specification and guidelines
• Localization kit
• RfQ
• Bid evaluation & vendor choice
• Vendor activities
• Change monitoring & control
• Project troubleshooting
• Deliverable receipt & validation
• Final product build
• Testing
• Post-mortem meeting

Day 2

Day 2 included five sessions about the constant changes in the language business and how to maintain localization standards with the proliferation of mobile devices. These sessions covered the importance of localization and how to harness all the latest general technologies and language technologies to help with managing terminology.

Day 3

The third day was filled with face-to-face interaction, learning and sharing, called “agile” conferencing. These sessions promoted industry discussions and development of common ideas and methodologies. The three sessions were:

• The Client Side: What are the functionalities buyers really need from a translation memory or translation management system?
• The Middle Ground: What are the functionalities a multilingual service provider really needs?
• The Work Floor: What are the functionalities a single-language vendor or translator really needs?

All three sessions had a leader that moderated the conversation and maintained focus for the benefit of the group.

Day 4

The final day of the conference was filled with an activity called Knowledgefest, a full morning of roundtable discussions. After hearing all of the presentations throughout the GALA conference, participants got a chance to openly discuss various topics and share knowledge to help each other within the language industry. It was a great and fitting end to a successful GALA—and a last chance to enjoy Miami’s beautiful weather!

This year’s conference took place in Miami, Florida. Previous venues have included Cancun, Prague, Lisbon and Monaco. To learn more about GALA, follow them on  Twitter.

Tags: global events, interpreter, technology

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