From the Content Supply Chain to a glimpse of the future

The collaborative day held by the AATC, Proford, tekom Austria and tekom Hungary was a cross-border event full of great tips about how to get the most out of our technology. Expert presentations covered the entire content supply chain and culminated in a lively panel discussion in the afternoon.

One big topic of interest: where is the language industry  going in the next few years? The scenarios discussed were quite diverse: from growing concerns about data security, a glimpse at new pricing trends with package deals, to the claim that we should be placing our energy in excellent human translations—since there is no money to be made in machine translation anymore and yet the need for high quality translation never seems to go away.

Another topic that was discussed with great interest:  what should we be teaching the next generation? The audience and panel agreed we should communicate what an exciting range of work is out there and how appealing (“sexy!”) the language service industry is. The job descriptions call for a much wider range of activities than one might expect. Skill packages new LSPs could use include everything from social interaction, countless cultural aspects to technology and innovation—few fields have such a broad variety of applications. With the right skills there are loads of work opportunities in the language industry. Yet, to quote Klaus Fleischmann: “The question in 5 years may not be whether there is work for the translators but if there are enough translators to do the work!”