LocWorld 27 Event Sessions

This workshop will include interviews with localization industry professionals who will share some of their experiences that improved their cultural intelligence across multiple countries. We will examine five basic cultural scales that have the biggest impact on your cultural intelligence and effectiveness in the workplace: equality/hierarchy, direct/indirect communication, individual/group orientation and risk/caution aversion. Considering these five scales we will look at how cultural intelligence can be developed across organizations and what it means to be culturally intelligent in any country. These interviews will be interspersed with discussions that aim to further explore each participant’s experiences and challenges. And finally we will share activities that will enable attendees to facilitate further discussion with their global teams when they return home.

From the innovative flavors of agile to classic models such as PRINCE2 and Waterfall, localization is a business of continuous adaptation and daily risk. Packed with information and case studies, the first edition of this unique forum in Asia will bring together world-class experts and knowledgeable audiences for the hard talk on the challenges and trends behind the integration of localization as a first-tier requirement — in both cutting-edge environments and in more traditional processes and technologies. Register now for a glimpse into the present and future of localization and discover how to bring together magic and algorithms in your everyday workflow.

This agile localization workshop is aimed at in-house localization staff who want to improve their processes and overall efficiency in the delivery of quality internationalized products. It will introduce practical and hands-on strategies and techniques for localization teams, using real case studies and highlighting scenarios with specific difficulties and targeted resolution and critical points. With this in-depth and wide-ranging workshop, you will have a broader perspective on how to implement your localization processes in the ever-changing tide of requirements and customer expectations while still making every word count. Limited to 20 participants: reserve your spot now.

With the rapid growth of the internet, cloud computing and big data, interconnection and interworking have been realized across the world. Advancing mobile technologies have also brought new vitality and energy to the language service industry; new technologies and products such as cloud translation platforms, smart device translation and cross language/semantic searching and analyzing have appeared with increasing momentum. The ecosystem in the language services industry has been disrupted and reformed, while a new business model is gradually reshaping the industry.

Hottest web 2.0 concepts, collaboration and interaction, decentralization and flat, distributed/virtual team, crowd sourcing, agile approach, global and live information sharing and unlimited communication are popular terms in finance and economic reports, management meetings, company strategies and daily chat. What do these terms mean to the localization industry? Is there anything we can do to synchronize our industry with web 2.0 concepts? In this presentation we will try to explain how web 2.0 and new technologies are reshaping the future of our industry, and what strategies we can use to build a technically driven organization and synchronize with the new tendency.

Interested in a unique track at LocWorld? Are you ready to join the conversation and discussions? Again, we are holding an “unconference” at LocWorld. Never heard of that? An unconference consists of participant-driven sessions, decidedly without the conventional format of a conference. There are no PowerPoint presentations and no sales pitches! There are only topics the group votes on. There is no agenda until the participants create one on the spot, at the beginning of the meeting.

Successful companies often decide to expand beyond national borders. China is the natural choice for international growth, both as a country of origin and a dynamic market. However, building the international team and implementation of the parent’s company culture and processes is not an easy task. Usually a lot of translation and document adaptation is performed in a relatively short time. In this presentation we will discuss common challenges and possible solutions.

Wearable technologies and the Internet of Things expansion let us now see an incredible future for intelligent micro devices that will provide language assistance through translation, text identification, fast information retrieval and so on. These devices are particularly needed for exchanges between Asian and Western countries. SYSTRAN has spent decades at the forefront of research in language technologies, and now makes them available as independent and embeddable modules. The new Linguistic Development Toolkit provides developers and manufacturers with the most advanced language processing features anywhere to build language awareness devices covering the complete range of processing from the text acquisition (voice, image, electronic flow) and text analytics to translation or text generation.

In this presentation we will dare to look ahead, far ahead, at a number of novel ideas for future localization tools.

Interested in a unique track at LocWorld? Are you ready to join the conversation and discussions? Again, we are holding an “unconference” at LocWorld. Never heard of that? An unconference consists of participant-driven sessions, decidedly without the conventional format of a conference. There are no PowerPoint presentations and no sales pitches! There are only topics the group votes on. There is no agenda until the participants create one on the spot, at the beginning of the meeting.

In this presentation we will evaluate localization through the advertising of advanced European car companies, such as Audi, BMW and Mercedes, on the Chinese market. The content analyses sampling performed in Germany and China about car ads from 2002 to 2013 compares Chinese with German advertising colors to examine the localization strategy. Furthermore, the findings of the survey methodology demonstrate respondents’ opinions about the ad colors for the car. To summarize, the findings are the comparison of ad colors in Germany and in China for the same product through a table showing the influence on the sales numbers and the confrontation between existing and proposed ad colors.

How do we communicate with trillions of machines? We don’t. It is up to them to find ways to aggregate the information they collect and present it in ways that humans can use. It is the duty of the localization industry to lead the development of guidelines for these interfaces that implement best practices for clarity, cross-cultural understanding, accessibility and usefulness worldwide. In this session we will present examples of how this can be achieved while preserving and enhancing the value of the localization industry and its participants.

In this presentation we will tell you about the features of Chinese games localization. We will cover all major aspects of working with Chinese game text such as: linguistic features — the necessity of text adaptation, which comes from syntaxes and grammar differences between languages, interface localization differences and major line size differences; cultural features — problems with translation of names and titles, and adaptation of idioms and onomatopoeia; and technical features of working with CAT tools — features of working with tags and variables as well as arrangement of spaces. Discussions will be based on the real experience of kung-fu-styled massively multiplayer online role-playing game localization.

Interested in a unique track at LocWorld? Are you ready to join the conversation and discussions? Again, we are holding an “unconference” at LocWorld. Never heard of that? An unconference consists of participant-driven sessions, decidedly without the conventional format of a conference. There are no PowerPoint presentations and no sales pitches! There are only topics the group votes on. There is no agenda until the participants create one on the spot, at the beginning of the meeting.

With 243 million users, the internet is rocking India and changing people’s lives, and this number is rapidly increasing. About one billion mobile phone users are also set to change the face of traditional India to a hi-tech culture democracy. In this session we will talk about the background and rapid growth of the internet, how the internet has changed the lives of every Indian, things behind this revolution, and the existing and potential role of local languages.

In this presentation, we will share some of the automation practices and experiences in the HP Software Business Service Management product localization (L10N) project. We will present the challenges and problems we faced at the beginning of the project, especially under the agile development, quality assurance and L10N context, and how we designed and implemented our automation solution step-by-step for software L10N workflow processes. Finally, we will summarize the results after the automation implementation for agile L10N requirements.

With Alibaba’s record-breaking initial public offering, China continues to establish its position as the focal point in the future world of commerce. As China moves into a value-added economy, our way of doing business with and in China has to adjust with the times. Panelists will focus on what major multinational corporations in China are doing to communicate more effectively through functional, geographical and cultural barriers. Representatives from leading software, hardware and energy companies will discuss boundaries they’ve faced in their dealings with China and how we can overcome them.

Equipping a website or web application to run in multiple languages has traditionally involved retrofitting back-end systems and refactoring software to support localization. This can be an extremely expensive and time-consuming process, especially for systems that were not designed with this in mind. New approaches utilizing client-side technology, Javascript in particular, dramatically simplify this process, reduce costs and enable localization to be done in parallel with software development and content production.

In an increasingly competitive translation and localization market, it is only natural that larger language service providers (LSPs) strive to drive their sales across a wider scope of markets than the traditional ones, such as Western Europe and North America, and emerging economies present them with extensive growth possibilities as well as certain challenges. How does technology penetrate such markets? How does a client’s immaturity impact sales techniques and the decision-making process? In this presentation we will cover the issues encountered by one of the largest Eastern European LSPs while trying to enter other emerging markets.

Do you use all the social media tools to help you attract new clients? Social media has revolutionized the advertising market and allows you to reach a very targeted audience and convert them to fans and paying customers. In this session, we will learn concepts such as boosting content, sponsoring articles, promoting pages, A/B testing and curating information. You will also learn how 100 euros can take you a long way in social media marketing.

It is always exciting to have new friends on board, as well as their products, via acquisitions. However, just like the newcomers need time to get familiar with the existing staff, the acquired products also need to go through certain processes to obtain the similar look and advantages of their new "family members." In this presentation we will show you how we overcame various challenges along the way to make this happen multiple times!

Data exchange via Translation Memory eXchange (TMX) for translation memories and XLIFF for translation documents should be seamless because these are standard formats. But is it? In this presentation we will examine what can or cannot be transferred and reused via these two formats between translation memory tools.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is essential for the success of any business. SEO for global markets requires keyword "equivalents" for different locales, not "translated" keywords from the source locale. Further, organizing keywords into semantic hierarchies extends their use for faceted or directed search. Providing keyword support to content developers through prompting mechanisms ensures that content is SEO optimized from the start. These factors imply that developing and managing keywords is a form of knowledge management, not terminology management. In this presentation we propose a framework for a keyword management strategy to enable effective global SEO.

Global search and content discoverability is a critical business function; ensuring that your brand and content can be found online in local markets goes beyond great localization. For brands that are present in Asia-Pacific markets, the search landscape is not dominated by Google. Critical markets such as China have a very different search landscape where Baidu and Qihoo 360 are the dominant engines and where organic search is merged with paid search. It is critical that brands fully understand and embrace these platforms and develop very specific strategies for these markets.

In this session we will examine the VMWare View CART Globalization test project, which was automated by Beyondsoft. We will describe the portions of the manual test that improve efficiency and potential problems faced. The assessed areas to be automated will be discussed, as well as how the customized solution from Beyondsoft was developed. We will also outline the tools and framework used, and explain the efficiency gains from the automated areas.

In this presentation we will examine the ins and outs of the translation marketplace model — a business concept based on direct (without intermediaries) interaction between translators and buyers of translation services, the latest trend to hit the localization market. What does this shift from language service providers to the marketplace mean for industry players: buyers, vendors and translators? What are the must-have technologies for the marketplace concept to work? And what are the challenges faced by companies in the transition to the new model for localization? Case-based examples from three different industries (publishing, e-learning and tourism) will be provided to illustrate how to avoid pitfalls and set up localization using a marketplace approach.

Panelists will outline the reality of the changing content for localization in the context of continuous agile development, update and distribution. The effect of this is to have smaller and ever more frequent drops for localization. We will identify all of the issues this causes — and outline a range of solutions.

The XLIFF 2.0 standard was officially released last August, and given the significant improvements it provides it surely has turned the localization industry upside down. Or has it? In this session we will strive to inform the localization community about XLIFF 2.0 adoption in the industry and will also cover on-going development plans (XLIFF 2.x). We will present adoption reports based on research conducted by the XLIFF TC and we will give insights on how a big corporation like Microsoft benefits from co-developing and adopting XLIFF 2.0. After successfully publishing the major new version XLIFF 2.0 as an OASIS standard, the Technical Committee is now set on adding new features in a nimble way — every summer an updated version will be published (2.1, 2.2 and so on). Indeed, a backward compatible 2.1 version is well on track for publication in summer 2015.

While social and mobile media hold many insights to clients, most of them aren’t English-speaking users. The ability to link the two together to acquire better market intelligence becomes a key differentiator. In this session we will show you how to acquire high-level knowledge of the data feed from Twitter and normalize the input in English by invoking Watson machine translation services in Bluemix. One can then perform additional analytics to better understand the trends from all client bases worldwide.

In 15 years Alibaba Group has become the leading online and mobile commerce company. Over 40 million buyers from over 200 countries and regions do business through their thriving marketplace, platform and ecosystem. Language and localization are a main challenge in eCommerce. During this presentation we will focus on language solutions that support Alibaba in providing the best experience for online traders such as: the importance of localization and what to localize; the challenges of localization and when to localize; solutions to address these challenges; and steps to take for future planning.

As one of the fastest-growing smart phone marketers in the world, Lenovo continues its commitment to ensure the highest levels of quality to its expanding global customer base. Harnessing a global crowd of more than 50 testers across 25 markets (to date) collaborating in the cloud, Lenovo and Lionbridge are executing field and user experience testing in a very unique delivery model that is easily scaled to include connected homes, automobiles and wearables.

What does it mean when a company is globally ready and aware? In this presentation we will look at how important it is for a global company to be culturally respectful and authentic, as well as aware of and compliant to local regulations and requirements. We will talk about steps to raise global awareness within a company and show examples of where companies have gotten this right (and wrong). We will also look at how Microsoft has developed a program that emphasizes global readiness not only in their products, services and devices but also with their customers and partners.

In 2014 Adobe made several releases of its creative offering, the Creative Cloud suite of products and services. The completely new part this time consisted of several powerful mobile apps for creatives. These apps went from zero lines of code to shipping successfully across multiple markets in six months. During this presentation we will focus on factors that allowed Adobe's globalization team to ensure this success: from early strategy evaluation to the assessment of localization readiness, preproject planning, taking advantage of translation and automation technologies, structuring production and communication, and creating strong partnerships with language service providers.

There is an emerging consensus in the localization industry that our industry will confront a severe talent shortage in the coming years unless there is a focused effort to proactively create and manage the supply of professionally trained staff. To effect change, industry leaders, academics, trainers and certification experts need to meet to assess the challenges and to develop a sustainable strategy that will address job categories, education and incentives. In this session we will continue the discussions started in 2014. We invite people interested in collaborating to get in touch with us to join the effort. Advisory Board Members: Anne-Marie Colliander Lind (Inkrea.se Consulting AB), Ulrich Henes (Localization World, Ltd.), David James (Adaptive Globalization), Karl Kelly (University of Limerick), Rain Lau (Google), Andrew Lawless (Rockant Localization Training & Consulting), Teresa Marshall (salesforce.com), Iris Orriss (Facebook), André Pellet (ManpowerGroup), Reinhard Schäler (University of Limerick)   There is no fee to attend this session, but space is limited. If you are interested in participating, please contact Kris Wiegand and provide some background about yourself and your interest in participating.

Bring your sales and marketing challenges to this panel of experts and listen to their suggestions and potential solutions, LIVE! It will be an open consulting platform with experts in sales, sales management, sales training, marketing and public relations. Ask something, learn something, share something and take a lot home to act upon.

In this session three highly experienced industry experts will discuss advanced topics in localization including:

• Globalization consideration and practices in the Internet of Things
• Aligning XML work environments
• Translation memory tools — what they can and cannot do

Subjects covered will be fundamental problems that localization addresses such as components of localization projects, localization tools and localization project management. There will be time for questions and answers plus the opportunity to take individual questions offline with the presenters.

A highly experienced industry expert will illuminate the basics of localization for session participants over the course of three one-hour blocks. This instruction is particularly oriented to participants who are new to localization. Participants will gain a broad overview of the localization task set, issues and tools. Subjects covered will be fundamental problems that localization addresses such as components of localization projects, localization tools and localization project management. There will also be time for questions and answers plus the opportunity to take individual questions offline with the presenters.

China's internet companies straddle two very different markets: the relatively prosperous and developed cities of the eastern seaboard, and the lower-tier cities and hinterland provinces. With one foot in each of these starkly contrasting markets, Chinese tech companies have learned valuable lessons about how hyper-localization and serving the needs of traditionally underserved people can actually be a tremendous impetus for innovation. As the speaker will argue, these lessons have broad applicability far beyond China.