November seems a while off yet, but a new translation conference has just been publicly announced: The Translator as Strategic Partner. November 2008 will be the first time this conference has been held, and it is exciting to see a new professional conference appear on the translation circuit. By mid-August, the organisers have received 168 delegate bookings, so this new conference certainly seeems to appeal to the translation and localization communities.

The Translator as Strategic Partner conference will be held in London, England on 22-23 November 2008 at The Camden Centre, which is conveniently located close to the new Eurostar terminus at St. Pancras. Here's the full conference programme. I'll be taking part in a round table discussion on translation (actually on the role of translation memory systems versus content management systems), so I hope to see you there!

My passion for Continuing Professional Development is matched only by my enthusiasm for the Tour de France. Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, I can combine both. For the next three weeks, I will have German TV on quietly in the background as I work, honing my language skills whilst at the same time keeping up to date with the world's greatest bike race. Bliss!

Declaration of independence: There has been a lot of upheaval in the translation tools market over the past handful of years. Several producers of translation memory tools (or CAT tools, if you prefer to call them that. Personally, I think a cat has four legs and a tail, but each to his own!) have been bought out. The market has changed quite radically.

So I was interested to receive a "Declaration of Independence" press release from Kilgray, the company behind the MemoQ tent (sorry, that is TenT - which is not something you sleep in whilst hiking, but a Translation Environment). In their press release, the MemoQ guys promise to keep their translation memory toolset independent. Controversial stuff, even if it is just a bit of 4th July fun! Here's their statement:

-------------
Kilgray Translation Technologies, a company dedicated to the development of translation productivity tools, re-iterated their commitment to being an independent provider of translation technology. July 4th 2008 is Independence Day for Kilgray. On that date they will sign a charter committing them to remain an independent technology provider.

“This Declaration is not just about throwing English-headquartered translation tools into the Boston Harbor. We see it as a positive charter of rights for Language Services Providers. This Declaration of Independence is a very serious commitment on our part to protect our customers' best interests. We believe it is important that any claims of independence by translation technology vendors must have real meaning. We also invite other technology companies who share our ideas on independence to join us in signing this Declaration,” - said Istvan Lengyel, chief operating officer of Kilgray.


This is Wimbledon week here in England. We're used to watching tennis matches, to moving our heads in order to follow the ball as it bounces back and forth across the net. I'll be interested to see if any other translation memory tools vendors choose to return this serve!