Theme: Quality and Terminology Management, and Business Terms and Conditions for Translation and Localisation Services

 

2009 marks the 20th anniversary of the Polish round-table agreement, followed by free elections that started a political and economic transformation in all of Central and Eastern Europe and the Baltic states. 2009 also marks the 5th anniversary of the accession of Central European and Baltic states to the EU. Therefore the TM-Europe 2009 conference, traditionally organised in the heart of Europe, will have a special feature on managing quality, terminology, and translation management in the EU institutions.

In the 2008 TM-Global Translation and Localisation Market Survey customers and providers alike reported that consistent high quality was the number one factor they take into account when managing processes or selecting a vendor, yet they had problems pin-pointing how quality is defined, measured and manifested. Over the past 3 years, the EN15038 standard has become acknowledged as the industry quality standard, and a lot of progress has recently been made in developing TBX as an ISO standard. The industry is definitely witnessing a significant revival in terminology and quality management development. Apart from the usual business management focus, quality management and terminology management as well as the client-vendor relationship are the key issues the TM-Europe conference is going to address.

The programme for TM-Europe 2009 will explore a wide range of issues from the world of translation and localization services from a management perspective. Conference highlights will include:

• The conference will kick-off with a power-workshop on translation and localisation technology delivered by Daniel Goldschmidt and Jost Zetsche, while the second track will feature a Translation Showcase event where the leading industry technology providers will present their latest tools and solutions.
• This year's Warsaw Pact Debate will feature an in-depth discussion between customers and translation companies on how they do business together, what are the mutual expectations and problems, and how can the relationship be redefined in terms of a win-win model.
• There will be a panel and a number of presentations on terminology management (from Mark Childress of SAP and Rodolfo Maslias, Head of Terminology Coordination at the European Parliament Luxembourg, among others).
• There will be a panel and a presentation on quality management.
• Traditionally for TM-Europe, there will be some very useful presentations on management. One on using benchmarks to develop management reports for internal controlling and cost-management (a follow-up on Andre Pellet’s previous management research), and another follow-up from Dave Smith of Lingua-Lynx on the different approaches to selling translation in the US and Europe, new sales channels and refined customer relationship management that can be profitably employed for business development.
• Post-Conference events on Saturday (3rd of October) include 2 Special PSBT Workshops. A Selling Translation Workshop and a Translation Tools Workshop where Doug Lawrence of Amicus TransTec will do a follow-up of his famous workshop on using networking and the most effective internet tools for marketing and selling translation and managing customer relationships. The other will be a practical workshop on using translation tools, where Jost Zetsche of International Writers' Group will give an overview and then a boot-camp workshop on a selection of the most popular translation tools, the pros and cons of using a particular tool, trouble-shooting and all the other aspects of using technology for translation, and Gabor Ugray of Kilgray will give an overview of the newest MemoQ 4.0 functionality followed by a user Masterclass.

The conference is supported and sponsored by some of the industry's undisputed leaders. Alchemy Software is the Platinum sponsor. The other sponsors include: SDL (Gold Sponsor), Atril (Gold Sponsor),Plunet (Silver Sponsor), Kilgray (Reception Sponsor), XTRF (Bronze Sponsor), MAart Agency (Conference Bag Sponsor)and Multilingual Magazine (Media Patron), CNGL (Industry Patron) and LRC (Industry Patron).

TM-Europe is a specialist event focused on executive and practical management issues, improving skills and meeting business challenges of the global markets. We welcome any suggestions and comments about current and future events, and other ventures that may promote management and quality standards as well as best practice, and help promote the translation and localization industry in general.

Important Dates:

•   July 2009 - TM-Global Translation and Localisation Industry Survey Part 1
•   August 17, 2009 - Early bird registration ends
•   Early September 2009 - TM-Global Translation and Localisation Industry Survey Part 2
•   September 18, 2009 - Registration ends
•   1-2 October 2009 - TM-Europe 2009