ATA-TCD 10th annual conference sum up over at the Global Watchtower
There’s a great post over at the Global Watchtower by Rocío Txabarriaga summing up some points from the 10th annual conference of the American Translators Association Translation Company Division (ATA-TCD) held this past weekend in Quebec City, Canada.
I’m going to briefly comment on a couple of points:
The need for stronger marketing practices and investment in web-based strategies and visibility.
This comes as no surprise. The freelance market thrives on the visibility afforded by the Internet.
Many of them use blogs and social networks to provide value and resources to both peers and clients, while at the same time getting their name up there on Google searches.
This builds authority on a near personal level, in a time where anomynous and corporate is fading rapidly in the consumer’s opinion. Still, the bigger LSPs have a more monolithic structure, that cannot respond fast enough.
Being a big middleman in the market, that is bringing translators and clients together through proprietary technological instruments, isn’t clearly enough. Not at a time where there are virtual places that assure a direct communication. Again, like I mentioned in a previous article, it’s all about perceived value. Bring your added value to the discussion and make sure it stands out.
The need to update strategies and recognize the shift in both content and work methods
Crowdsourcing, virtual teams, social networking and PM technology are all here to change the rules of the game.
There is no point in dismissing them, they aren’t going anywhere. All of these have to be integrated in a structured way, in order for a positive change to occur. I think Rocío conveys this in a very precise manner:
““However, the most important take-away that requires change from most LSPs in the marketplace was this: Embrace technology, or else.
Be sure to check out the article and subscrive to the Global Watchtower newsletter: I find it to be a rather valuable source of insight. Also, please leave a comment on this article so we can discuss this further.