Canadian Language Industry Harmonizes Policy, Technology, and Partnerships

[Harold Schiffman]

Canadian Language Industry Harmonizes Policy, Technology, and Partnerships
Nataly Kelly 26 November 2008



What do you get when you bring together a country's Commissioner of
Official Languages, translation and technology providers, and expert
speakers under the auspices of a language industry association? A
stand-out language industry event, that's what. This was the
combination of elements that combined to make the Canadian Language
Industry Showcase a success. Held in bilingual Ottawa-Gatineau at the
Hilton Lac-Leamy, the event was executed flawlessly by the Association
de l'industrie de la langue (AILIA). What made this event stand out
from the pack?

Language policy backdrop. The event kicked off with a keynote address
from the Honourable Graham Fraser, the Canadian commissioner of
official languages. Making sure that members of the industry
understand the overarching policy context for which language services
are required in Canada helps increase communication and understanding
between language service providers (LSPs), government bodies, and
members of the public.
Government participants. While individuals from government agencies
often attend language industry events, there seemed to be a large
percentage of individuals from provincial and city government at this
event, as well as a good sampling of folks from the Canadian
Translation Bureau, one of the largest translation organizations in
the world.

Technology focus. Canadian language technology vendors were out in
abundance, with the likes of Druide Informatique, JiveFusion,
LogoSoft, Multicorpora, NLP Technologies, Nunasoft, and Terminotix.
The Language Technologies Research Centre also exhibited at the event,
and a panel session on interpretation discussed technologies for
administering both interpretation services and interpreter
certification tests.
What we appreciated most about the AILIA event was this year's theme,
which highlighted "strengthening alliances in translation, language
training, and language technologies." Given our longstanding plea for
industry associations to adopt a partnership approach combined with
our complaint that during most years, there is an overload of events
in the language services space, this spotlight on alliances caught our
attention — in a good way, leaving us to end the fall conference
season off on a positive note.

http://www.globalwatchtower.com/2008/11/26/ailia-showcase-2008/


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