Finding New Perspectives: think! Interpreting Event to Link Translation and Interpreting

By Katharine Allen

Published: 16 January 2014

InterpretAmerica is partnering with the Globalization and Localization Association (GALA), the world’s largest association for the language industry, to produce think! Interpreting, which will run concurrently with GALA’s 2014 Language of Business Conference.

One’s destination is never a place, but rather a new way of looking at things.

So wrote American author Henry Miller[1] who is now considered a “literary innovator,” because he broke the rules by blending different literary forms, and in the process, created a new kind of writing.[2]

The many unexpected twists and turns through which InterpretAmerica has taken my partner Barry Slaughter Olsen and me can be likened to that blending. The 1st North America Summit on Interpreting, launched on a hope and a prayer in 2010 with the sole purpose of sparking connection and conversation between the often isolated sectors of interpreting, has frequently lead to a blurring and crossing of once solid lines of separation in our industry, sparking new services, new relationships, new possibilities.

This year, that “something entirely new” is think! Interpreting. InterpretAmerica is partnering with the Globalization and Localization Association (GALA) - the world’s largest association for the language industry - to produce think! Interpreting, which will run concurrently with GALA’s 2014 Language of Business Conference. This robust conference has, in the past, focused primarily on the translation and localization side of the language service business. This year, with the advent of think! Interpreting, conference participants will get a chance to explore the rapidly expanding interpreting sector in all its many facets.

It has been Barry’s and my job to invite speakers and craft compelling content for think! Interpreting that will allow the larger language services industry to become better acquainted with interpreting and help interpreting occupy its place in the broader spectrum of language services. Just as the interpreting profession has divided into separate sectors that until recently often had little exchange, the language services industry has been divided into separate markets and serviced by companies that, for the most part, focus on one specific kind of language service, translation, localization or interpreting.

The advent of social media—and especially of mobile technologies—is rapidly changing that paradigm. There is intense pressure to find large-scale solutions for the nearly real-time turnaround of translated communication, as well as an exploding demand for rapid access to interpreting services around the world. Clients, whether they be individual, corporate, government, or social service and healthcare based, do not want to go to one company for written communication and another for spoken, they just want their multilingual communication needs solved.

Hence, think! Interpreting. Sessions are open to all conference attendees, and like theInterpretAmerica Annual Summits of the past four years, this conference channel will provide a forum where key players can gather, learn, and foster greater connection, both among interpreting’s many segments and with the larger language industry as a whole. Istanbul, the conference location, has made possible a broad, international participation that promises a sharing of information and perspective difficult to find elsewhere.

think! Interpreting speakers have been selected, their topics set. Read on for a summary of what they will be presenting in Istanbul in March. (Full session descriptions can be seen here.) The GALA-InterpretAmerica collaboration has already given us, as Henrey Miller wrote, a "new way of looking at things," enriching our understanding of and access to the vibrant and transforming industry we call our own.

If you represent an international organization or a growing company doing business around the globe, join us for think! Interpreting to find out where technology for the delivery of spoken language services is today and where it is headed in the future. And if you are a buyer of interpreting services come explore the new “possible” through evolving technologies for delivering interpreting services, join us for think!

Interpreting to get actionable intelligence about what’s out there and what you can add to your service offerings to boost your bottom line. Istanbul is a long way from North America where our journey to raise the profile of interpreting began in 2010, but it is the road that will lead the larger language services industry to think! Interpreting.

Perhaps Jack Kerouac said it best: "Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life.”

think! Interpreting: GALA 2014, Istanbul, Turkey – March 23-26

KEYNOTE: Interpreting + Translation + Technology: The New Language Services Paradigm - Barry S. Olsen and Katharine Allen (InterpretAmerica)

KEYNOTE: Global Internet Connectivity: The Key to Expanding Successful Language Services Worldwide - Hervey Allen (Network Startup Resource Center)

When LSPs Think Creatively, Innovation Follows - Marcus Vaigncourt-Strallen (Interpreters-On-Call)

Google Helpouts: A Universal Link to Interpreting - Richard Estevez (CEO, Trusted Translations)

Magic: Bringing Simultaneous Interpreting to Virtual Meetings - David Frankel (ZipDX)

Universal Access to Democracy: VITS Successful Model for Multilingual Citizen Participation - George Bisas (Victorian Interpreting and Translating Service)

Interpreting at the Sochi Olympics: New School Approach – Pavel Dunaev and Andrey Moiseev (Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee)

Online Training for Language Professionals – Gaps and Opportunities – Latha Sukumar and Alejandro Gonzalez (MCIS Language Services)

Knowledgefest Topic 1: Technology and the Delivery of Interpreting Services

Topic 2: Is That Interpreting or Translation? Newly-Minted Hybrid Communication Models

___________________________________________________________________________________________ [1] Miller, Henry, Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch, (1957)

[2] Sipper, Ralph B. (January 6, 1991). "Miller's Tale: Henry Hits 100". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 26, 2011.

[3] Kerouac, Jack, On The Road (1957)