06/03/2019

The together conference stands for community. For working together to create new perspectives and goals and to master challenges…

After all, the language industry can only be shaped and strengthened for the future if all of its members actively talk to each other. With this in mind, oneword took part in the European Language Industry Association’s together conference for the third year running. The motto “Mastering Digital Transformation” transformed the World Trade Center in the Catalonian capital into a lively knowledge and discussion forum on 21 and 22 February. The freelance translators, language service providers and industry and technology experts that attended met in Barcelona, the founding location of Elia, for the first time in four years.

However, just because the conference was returning to where it all began did not mean that it was about being nostalgic: quite the opposite. Looking to the future was high on the agenda of the numerous specialist presentations and events. The keynote address “The digital mindset: Beyond the technological fads” by Prof. Javier Zamora, expert for information systems at IESE Business, set the tone for this year’s Elia together. The scientist pointed out the immense progress that has been made in the fields of artificial intelligence, digitalisation and automation. According to Zamora, networked thinking goes hand in hand with this technological development. This is an incredible factor for success, especially in the language industry, now and in the future.

Prof. Javier Zamora, expert for information systems at the IESE Business School (Source: Elia)

Represented by our partner managers Nicole Sixdorf and Vanessa Materna, oneword took part in important discussions on rapidly advancing digitalisation and technology in the language industry. Our colleagues’ aim was to raise the necessary questions and to contribute their own ideas on process automation, post-editing and the potential of machine translation. Of course, it was also important to effectively expand oneword’s network of qualified, future-thinking partners in order to meet the changing needs of our customers.

The trip to Spain also gave our two partner managers the opportunity to meet our Spanish oneword colleagues and discuss how the collaboration was going. Since 2017, oneword has had a small in-house team of translators in the greater Barcelona area. This is advantageous for oneword’s customers: The team of expert, experienced and long-standing oneword translators is on the ground in the target country providing translations into Spanish. 

In the middle of the Barri Gòtic gothic quarter in Barcelona, they also focused on working together towards a quality goal to continue supporting oneword customers with innovative language technologies, individual process solutions and intelligent service tools. After all, successful and future-proof translation management is only possible if you have a solid community of language and technology experts.

Always worth a visit: La Catedral de la Santa Creu i Santa Eulàlia in Barcelona (source: oneword)