This year’s ALC conference was held in beautiful Boston. I must say I was very impressed by the elegant dynamism of the Bostonians during my first time ever in this historical city.
As usual, the conference provided a great forum for networking among language service companies, and for exploring leading translation technologies and new strategies.
ASTM International Standards Worldwide
During the first meeting of the conference I joined the other members of the Committee to discuss the draft articles for the Standards for Language Interpreting and Translation Services provided by Language Service Companies.
This standard specifies the basic policies, processes, procedures, and resources needed by a Language Services Company to provide the quality services required by clients. This standard aims at set terms specific to the language service practice for better quality assurance in languages services. Much work has been done in the past on defining clauses of this standard; but we still have a lot of work ahead to define the general requirements for language services companies.
Over three days, the conference covered many topics around the translation industry: Strategies for translation technology acquisition and implementation, working with sign language interpreters and the deaf community, using terminology management to improve quality, new technology for wireless interpretation, the industry survey.
Finally, the future was discussed during the Town Hall meetings: Exploring 2010: the Future of the translation Industry
Discussions with ELIA President Françoise Bajon
Françoise Bajon was in Boston to represent ELIA at the ALC Annual Conference. ELIA (European Language Industry Association) fosters a forum for the exchange of business relationships with fellow members and other related international organizations, and aims at promoting the concept of ethics and quality standards through the industry.
During the informal ELIA Networking Dinner, organized by Françoise Bajon, I had the pleasure to discuss with Françoise and her husband Patrick the issues in training recent college graduates as translators. Translation schools around the world provide a very academic curriculum that is often disconnected with the realities of the market. Language service companies are often forced to supplement with practical training on topics such as the standards of the profession, business practice, and new technologies.
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