Beginning next Monday, CSOFT will be attending the Content Management Strategies/DITA North America conference in Providence, Rhode Island. We’re excited to be attending this event and you should be too. Here’s why:

CMS/DITA is a gathering of some of the biggest names in content management, including Adobe and CIDM. For those unfamiliar with the term ‘content management,’ according to TermWiki, it is the “process of managing, organizing, storing, tracking ownership of, and distributing information.” Given today’s technological advances, when people refer to content management they generally mean online and digital content. CSOFT will be there to promote our multilingual content and terminology management services, as well as our localization and globalization capabilities.

Today marks the first day of the three-day E-Learning Expo Paris conference, where CSOFT is exhibiting its e-Learning and multimedia localization expertise. As e-Learning courses continue to grow in popularity, this annual event has been concurrently expanding year on year. Let’s take a look at some e-Learning-related findings and other compiled statistics:

• Corporations save between 50-70% when they replace instructor-based training with e-Learning, with 85% of the cost for instructor-based training tied to delivery of information (instructor time, travel, etc.).

• From 1995-2011, the utilization of e-Learning in American corporations grew from 4% to 77%, a growth of almost 2000% over 16 years.

It’s hard to believe, but the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit is just around the corner! As mentioned a couple of weeks ago, CSOFT’s talented and hardworking President & CEO, Ms. Shunee Yee, will be attending, having been named one of the top ten Most Powerful Women entrepreneurs of 2012. Way to go, Shunee! With the Fortune summit kicking off on Monday, October 1, we at T for Translation would like to remind you of the event, and also let you know that Shunee will be speaking alongside Victoria Ransom of Wildfire and Alexa von Tobel of LearnVest. The discussion, which will delve into entrepreneurial business challenges and successes, will be moderated by Pattie Sellers of Fortune and will take place on Wednesday, October 3 at 9:55AM (PDT). Don’t miss it!

A popular topic of discussion – especially for those of us involved in the business of globalization – the global expansion of Chinese companies makes for some interesting conversation or, in this case, debate. Last week the British Chamber of Commerce in China and China-Britain Business Council co-hosted a debate which sought to address the ability of Chinese companies to ‘go global.’ Bringing in panelists from companies such as Lenovo and Weber Shandwick, the debate sparked an enlightening discussion that delved into matters of branding and historical challenges among others. See below for a quick breakdown of the debate and the arguments made.

Some exciting news on the home front here at CSOFT: Fortune announced last week the top ten most powerful women entrepreneurs of 2012, and we’re happy to announce that our rock star of a President and CEO, Ms. Shunee Yee, was recognized as one of these ten preeminent ladies!

The ten honorees have been invited to attend the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit in Laguna Niguel, California from October 1–3, 2012. As a world-renowned gathering of distinguished women in business, the Fortune Summit offers an opportunity for some of the world´s most business-savvy leaders to meet and further strengthen an already global leadership community. With the added combination of influential figures in government, philanthropy, education and the arts, the Summit should make for some thought provoking and relevant discussions. Watch out for more information on this as the event draws closer.

One global trend that has captured the attention of people all over the world has been the movement of business growth, innovation and activity from East to West, including, most recently, news coverage about Chinese oil giant CNOOC and its $15.1 billion dollar bid to buy Canadian Nexen, which could very well lead the way for other Chinese oil and gas companies, such as PetroChina and Sinopec, to begin more aggressive westward expansion. At CSOFT’s recently conducted 9^th Annual World Summit, a panel discussion on the precise topic of East to West business development took place, with dialogue also addressing brand messaging, international recruiting and training, and globalization strategies to name a few. Panel members, including David Zeng, vice president of Halliburton China, Will Knight of Microsoft Asia Pacific, Fortune’s Bill Powell and Shunee Yee, president of CSOFT, represented several different professional and cultural backgrounds, as well as views on what these global trends suggest about business development around the world. The discussion made for some incredibly interesting and insightful assertions, prompting further questions and debate.

Michael Anobile is a founding member and former Director of LISA (Localization Industry Standards Association) with over 35 years of experience in international marketing communications. After relocating his family to Switzerland in 1980 to become European Training Manager for Exxon Office Systems, he subsequently held a number of European and Swiss senior management and marketing positions in the field of language-technology and global business development.

A few weeks ago, CSOFT held its 9^th Annual World Summit, inviting guest speakers, industry experts and localization professionals from all over the world to engage in a series of presentations and discussions with the aim of mutual learning and sharing of industry knowledge. We were fortunate enough to have Michael Anobile present on “The History, Evolution, and Future of the Localization Business.” Michael graciously agreed to answer questions on some of the more poignant matters from his presentation, so check out the interview between Ross (CSOFT Marketing Writer) and Michael below, and prepare to be educated! 

Every year after the Summit, CSOFTers look around and ask each other how we’ll manage to top this year’s event next time, and this year wasn’t any different. An extraordinary week of fantastic presentations, lively discussions and stimulating energy, CSOFT’s 9th Annual World Summit blew us away! Our 2012 Summit blog series is underway, starting with a recap of Day One of the agenda, focused on “The World of Localization.”

Thought-provoking highlights from “The World of Localization” track:

• In her welcoming speech, our President and CEO, Shunee Yee set the tone for the day, sharing the quote “Culture is the foundation for any successful enterprise…” She demonstrated this phrase’s applicability to the localization industry by discussing how the work we do combines both culturally founded artistic elements and technological elements. She applied the Chinese cultural conception of yin and yang, necessary opposites that complete a harmonious whole, to CSOFT, stating that it is the “marriage of technology and culture” that makes our services not only possible, but the best that they can be.

• Michael Anobile’s presentation on “The History, Evolution, and Future of the Localization Business” provided the perfect follow-up to Shunee’s opening speech, as he clearly articulated the progression of localization from its origins, primarily in technology, to its current conceptualization as a tool of both culture and technology. Michael argued that the future development of the localization industry will be grounded in technological innovation, specifically mobile and internet technology, manufacturing and R&D; however, the most important factor in successful localization companies will be relationships.

After a few months’ sabbatical, T for Translation is back with some exciting new announcements to share. Over the coming weeks, we’ll reveal what we’ve been working on during our time away, but for now, we’ll leave you with this: the annual CSOFT World Operations Summit is right around the corner! A week of mutual learning, sharing and team building, this perennial tradition gives cause to celebrate the CSOFT family and all that we’ve accomplished together.

Inna Geller is the founder of Geller Translation Solutions, a firm focused on providing translation management consulting services for organizations in highly regulated industries. Prior to founding Geller Translation Solutions, Inna supplied 18 years of senior leadership for the translation/localization function at Medtronic, a Fortune 500 producer of medical devices. This certified Green Belt in Six/Lean Sigma methodology can be seen at many events around the world, where she speaks on topics for a variety of organizations like the American Marketing Association, Life Science Alley, the Society of Technical Communications and others.

Earlier this month, CSOFT hosted our 8th Annual World Operations Summit, a week-long event traditionally hosted at CSOFT’s World Headquarters in the heart of Beijing. During this event, we invite our extended team members from around the world—including linguists, clients and industry experts—for an intensive series of training sessions, presentations, teambuilding and localization-focused discussions.

This year, we were thrilled to have Inna Geller of Geller Translation Solutions join us as a guest speaker. Her presentation on translation risk management was so informative and precise that we asked her if she was willing to do a follow-up interview to expound her risk management expertise for the benefit of our audience. Lucky for you and I, she generously agreed! So check out the interview below to find out what the lovely and talented Inna Geller has to say about translation risk management.