Polyglot hosts the first Australasian Association of Language Companies networking event

Polyglot hosted the first AALC event in the head office in Sydney on March 05, 2014. After welcoming words from Polyglot to distinguished peers and leaders of the industry in Australia & NZ, Tea Dietterich, AALC President, presented AALC’s vision, values and mission. AALC ‘s mission is to promote and defend the interests of LSPs (Language Service Providers – Translation and Interpreting companies).

AALC-First-Networking-Event-March2014

AALC has a vocation to promote & advance the important roles of language services and explore and develop industry best practices as well as promote fair competition between all language companies. AALC advocates for the interests of its members with other industry group representatives, the Commonwealth of Australia and NZ and other institutions as well as upholding and supporting the professional interests, status and rights of all associated members.

The Event was a great success with impeccable timing a few weeks ahead of Globalisation and Localization (GALA) conference in Turkey later this month where AALC members will be the voice, eyes and ears of the LSP community in Australasia.

To find out more about Polyglot’s Language Services and role in the AALC, please contact Adrien Monet at: Adrien@polyglot.com.au

Have your say on the Queensland Government Language Services Policy

Cultural Diversity Queensland is reviewing the current Queensland Government Language Services Policy, released in 2011. You are invited to have your say on the current Language Services Policy and provide feedback on how it can be improved to better meet the needs of culturally diverse Queenslanders with limited English proficiency to assist them to access the full range of Queensland Government and funded non-government services.

The new Queensland Cultural Diversity Policy released in December 2013, identifies that a lack of English language proficiency can be a significant barrier to economic independence and participation within the community.  A key priority of this new policy is a review of the Language Services Policy.

If you wish to provide feedback on the current Languages Services Policy, please visit the Language Services Policy web page, complete the questionnaire and return it to Cultural Diversity Queensland by Monday 31 March 2014.

It is expected that a new Language Service Policy will be finalised in mid-2014.

For further information, please contact Cultural Diversity Queensland on (07) 3224 5006 or email CDQ@datsima.qld.gov.au

Note from Wayne Briscoe, Executive Director, Cultural Diversity Queensland. 

AALC Sydney Event

Date: 5 March 2014
The Australasian Association of Language Companies (AALC) Inc. represents the interests of language services providers in Australia and New Zealand. It acts as an independent, collective voice for a highly competitive industry in the face of challenges on commercial, political and economic fronts. As the peak representative body for language services companies, we bring members together to allow them to positively influence the commercial, technical and regulatory environment of the language services industry.The AALC invites you to join us at our inaugural networking and discussion event.

This is your chance to listen to industry topics, meet and network with AALC board members and other language service providers, learn about AALC and join us in strengthening our industry in Australia.
Venue: Generously offered by our event sponsor – Polyglot, 25 Burton Street | Glebe NSW 2037
Date: 5 March 2014
Time: 2pm – 6pm
Tickets: Members – Free, Non Members – $30
RSVP by 26 Feb: info@aalc.org.au

AALC Launch Event

More details and dates coming soon. Stay Tuned!

Introduction to translation software

You are in the cross-fire of clients and vendors. Clients want to cut costs, vendors want to increase prices, and you’re here to add value for both, while making a profit as well. Angelika Zerfass will give you an overview of CAT Tools available for LSPs and demonstrate the memoQ Translation Environment Tool. Tea Dietterich, CEO of 2M Language Services, who are currently running a memoQ server is at hand to contribute with their experience of actually implementing and starting to work with the server.

This is your chance to ask all the questions you have and hear from one of the world’s prime CAT tool trainers who will be visiting Australia in November this year to give a variety of workshops.

Learn about some of the benefits of using CAT Tools including memoQ:

  • shorten turnaround times.
  • work with clients and translators using other tools.
  • track new version of translation documents easily. Many Language Service Providers have ongoing projects with constantly changing source materials. In these projects, the source materials are often stored in a content management or version control system. To keep track of each update to source materials, you do not only track those changes that were implemented in the documents, but also monitor  the CMS and assigns changed and new content for translation.
  • have full control over translation projects. A translation workflow history can shed light on how efficiently work is done. The AuditTrail you to track the time spent on translation by storing major and minor versions of the documents, and all details about assignments, reassignments, reimports, etc. Translators can see the reviewer’s changes, and the reviewer can see what translators change back. You can see a complete progress report, or any other historical data.
  • devise unique workflows. You can easily pre- and post-process any file at any stage in XML format. Using the unique concept of views, you can also create new virtual documents from specified segments coming from one or more documents, allowing you to have the repetitions translated first, for example, or to split or join documents.
  • cut translators’ training time. You can set up projects for your translators, saving them the effort of project configuration.
  • manage licenses. You can issue licenses to your vendors and take back licenses anytime. Vendors can purchase and use their own license to work on your projects, or you can assign them one of your mobile licenses.
  • use software that translators like. While most translators are reluctant to use server-based translation tools, memoQ is a popular tool among translators, many of whom choose to use it for their own work even when they are not involved in a server project.

Angelika Zerfass is an independent trainer and consultant for translation tools, located in Bonn, Germany. After her studies at the University of Bonn (degree in translation Chinese, Japanese and Computational Linguistics) she worked for the Japanese Embassy in Bonn and from 1997 to 2000 for Trados Germany as a training and support specialist. During that time she worked in Japan, Ireland and the United States to support Microsoft projects using Trados tools.

In 2000 she went freelance to run her own business focusing on training for translation tools (mainly memoQ and Trados), technical support and consultancy on tools and translation-related processes.

Please note this is a Members Only event.

Event Details:

This event has now passed and is available in Members Resources.

Localization World Conference

Localization World is coming to Bangkok, 24-26 February and AALC has arranged for our members to receive a 10% discount on the full conference fees. Localization World is the leading conference for international business, translation, localization and global website management.
The conference will be held at the Millennium Hilton Bangkok Hotel.
There will be sessions for people new to the industry as well as seasoned professionals.
More information may be found at: http://localizationworld.com.

WA company celebrates milestone

Translators International, the West Perth based company founded by Jerzy Brodzki, is celebrating its 30th year providing language services.

The mining and resources industry has played a big part in the success of Translators International and Jerzy has up to 160 translators and linguists available to help him meet its demands

Apart from the commercial work, Translators International assists WA Government instrumentalities involved in commerce, trade and tourism.

Jerzy says his office is the only one in  WA offering full simultaneous conference equipment. This means that business people visiting Perth and conference organisers do not have to bring technical equipment with them.

“Perhaps the major development in our profession during my time in business has been the establishment of the Australasian Association of Language Companies,” Jerzy said.

“It is a privilege and pleasure for me to be elected vice president of this new organisation.

“I am confident that those of us who are founding members will enjoy the benefits of the unification of language companies.” “We are enjoying our 30thanniversary and we foresee a bright future with the AALC,” Jerzy said.

Anne-Marie Colliander Lind: Effective sales techniques in the language services industry

This webinar will introduce you to the concept of NOT selling translation but selling what is going to generate translation. The basic sales techniques and the pros and cons thereof will also be covered as well as an introduction to few new ideas. We will highlight that is doesn’t always comes down to pricing – sometimes presenting prices in a different way can give your company a competitive advantage. Anne-Marie will share some real-life examples from government tenders and corporate RFPs where creative pricing has turned out to be a winning concept.

Anne-Marie  Colliander Lind is a recognized force within the European language industry landscape. She has spent the last twenty years helping multinational organisations solve their language issues by occupying executive positions at leading service, technology and market research companies. With experiences from industry leading companies such as Interverbum, TRADOS Scandinavia, Semantix and Common Sense Advisory, Anne-Marie has an insight from all aspects of the  translation and localisation industry.
Anne-Marie is a consultant, advisor and coach, assisting companies in their growth and development strategies. In addition, she organizes industry events and is a volunteer for Translators without Boarders.

ABOUT ANNE-MARIE COLLIANDER LIND

Anne–Marie Colliander Lind is a recognized force in the European language industry landscape. She has spent the last twenty years helping multinational organizations solve their language issues by occupying executive positions at leading service, technology, and market research companies. With experiences from industry leading companies such as Interverbum, TRADOS Scandinavia, Semantix and Common Sense Advisory, Anne-Marie has an insight from all aspects of the translation and localization industry.

Anne-Marie is a consultant, advisor and coach, assisting companies in their growth and development strategies. In addition, she organises industry events and is a volunteer fundraiser for Translators without Borders.

Please note this is a Members Only event.

Event Details:

This event has now passed and is available in Members Resources