CSOFT Summit 2015 Breakout Session Recap

During the 11^th Annual CSOFT Summit, attendees of the official conference on September 17, 2015 were lucky enough to have 3 breakout sessions to choose from. The popularity of all three sessions was overwhelming, and there unfortunately wasn’t enough space for everyone to attend. Thankfully, we’ve managed to gather together a summary of all three sessions for anyone who wasn’t able to attend, or for those who simply want a reminder of what was discussed.

Creating Content for Chinese Companies Going Global — hosted by John Artman

Head Writer for CSOFT’s Globalization Department, John Artman, hosted a breakout session on the challenges in creating cross-cultural content, especially as Chinese companies look to break into global markets.

Using examples from around the globe, he presented the powerful ways that culture and language shape how we see the world.  John also gave the audience some examples on how East and West look at the world, in particular differences in medical vocabulary as well as methods of expression.

He focused on how understanding and prioritizing users’ perspective is crucial in creating all types of content as well as the power of great technical documentation.

Localization Maturity: The Journey Begins Now — hosted by Paul Liotti

Paul Liotti, Carestream’s Manager of Technical Communication and Localization, hosted a session on localization maturity. This presentation focused on defining the Model, identifying the challenges, and building a plan for success. He began his talk by explaining that process success is measured by how sustainable and repeatable the results are. A process model that is immature adds infrastructural stress which leads to waste in terms of quality, time-to-market and cost. In the Localization industry, the more mature the model, the more sustainable and repeatable the results are which will lead to higher quality, quicker turnaround and cost-effectiveness.

Paul Liotti concluded his session by defining the Maturity Model. A Maturity Model is a 5-level state of readiness: Reactive-Managed-Defined-Measured-Optimized. Progressing through these levels can be challenging as a number of outside influences can—and do—impact the maturation journey.

ÜbrTà& Tools — hosted by Mianmian Xie

In this session by CSOFT’s ÜbrTà Development Program Manager Mianmian Xie, ÜbrTà system updates were introduced from three perspectives: 1) killing manual works 2) empowering linguists and 3) utilizing ÜbrTà data to find business value. Everything from Auto-quote generation, smart PO Creation and ÜbrTà client portal to utilizing the RFQ analysis data, PO data and project data was discussed.

Attendees of this workshop also partook in discussions about how ÜbrTà can empower our linguists to improve their working tactics, especially in the era of sharing economy. Linguists talked about what Uber and AirBnB did right and how they can apply their success to the industry of localization. They also considered the possibilities of using the ÜbrTà platform where experienced translators can share their valuable assets including their TM/glossary and, most importantly, their knowledge and expertise so that they can help new translators work more efficiently.

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