Episode Transcript
[00:00:03] Speaker A: Hello and welcome to Localization Today. This is where we explore how language, technology and community converge to unlock ideas for everyone everywhere. I'm Eddie Arrieta. I'm the CEO here at Multilingual Media. Today we're going into one of the language industry's most anticipated events, Gala's World Ready Conference.
Now we're talking about World Ready, where we'll ask a crucial question. How do we prepare for a world defined by rapid technological change, economic uncertainty and regulatory complexity, while ensuring, of course, that both our products and our people are ready for whatever comes next? To explore that, I'm joined by Allison Furch, executive Director of the Globalization and Localization Association. Alison leads GALA's international efforts to advance professionalism, collaboration and innovation across the language services and technologies industries. Alison, welcome and thank you for joining us.
[00:01:10] Speaker B: Hi. Thank you. Thanks for having me.
[00:01:13] Speaker A: Thank you for joining us. After a busy period of time for you. You were just mentioning and giving us tips as well about. About traveling and getting things done while traveling. How was that, how was that period recently for you with traveling?
[00:01:28] Speaker B: It was great. Although I have to say that as I get older, the jet lag's getting harder. So I tried a few like biohacks to adjust a little bit before my trip and it worked. So I think I'm now going to be following that protocol for every big trip.
It was, it was a good trip and it ended with a two day Gala board meeting in Barcelona, which was super productive. And for me it was fun because I hadn't been to Barcelona since I was 17 years old, which is a long time ago. Yeah. And it was really fun to see that city with fresh eyes.
[00:02:03] Speaker A: That is really great to hear. And of course, a few different announcements from Gala recently. Of course, those trips that you were having, we're informing you about those and we're helping you align everyone around the different topics. Tell us about World Ready and the new change. I have to admit, personally, I loved it. I loved it. I think worldready, it's great and I can't wait to see how it evolves. Congratulations.
[00:02:33] Speaker B: Thank you.
So, right. World Ready is the new name for the Gala conference. And the Gala conference has had an official name. It's just that it was so long that people didn't use it. It was the language of business.
Business of language. And so the board last year started thinking about just the amount of pretty radical change happening, which I find astonishing because I've been here for 15 years and I think we've been talking about like the breakneck pace of change since I got here. But really, truly, I think we can all agree that the last three years have been even faster and more impactful.
So we've been talking about that as a board and talking about how GALA needs to meet the moment, you know, both in our everyday programming that we do year round and also in the big annual event that we do and that a lot of people look forward to and count on as a big part of their professional development. So we talked about a lot of options and we settled on World Ready because we're trying to imply the global nature of things. We're trying to imply preparedness, we're trying to. I think there's a little bit of fun in there, like slight superhero undertone to World Ready.
And so I'm really excited about the conference. And also I think that we're going to see some of the kind of approaches to the categorization of topics and the focus, this multidisciplinary focus.
We're going to see that trickling throughout some of GALA's other programs, too.
[00:04:18] Speaker A: And that's very exciting because you're talking about the conceptualization behind World Ready and how the title of the event is a projection of a conceptual transformation that have gone internally at gala. What else can you tell us about that transformation? In terms of content pillars, in terms of areas of focus? What developments can we expect to see there?
[00:04:43] Speaker B: That's a great question. Isabella is still working on her content strategy plan for 2026, and I don't have it in front of me, but I do know that in general, what we're seeing now is a need for, like I said, a multidisciplinary approach.
There's a lot of ways to describe this, and you've got like, the Lang Ops Institute wants to call it Lang Ops. It's, you know, language operations. It's. It's language technology, it's language services, but it's also a lot more than that. And we feel as if it's becoming just more highly integrated into elements of business like product development, product management, marketing, of course, UX and UI design, UX research, customer service. You know, all these different facets of running a global business or going global or being global.
We feel as if now language is going to be integrated into those separate parts. We're happy to see this, like, shifting left of kind of the language, but it means that the people in our industry who've been really great specialists in, in linguistics and language technology are going to have to buff up their skills and in become conversant and become at least have a basic understanding of these other functions and roles inside a global business. So I think what we're going to see in terms of content is a replication, I know we're going to talk about it in a minute, but of some of these notions of market ready, tech ready, people ready, language access ready, compliance, while we're calling it risk ready. But compliance is a big part of that. And I think we'll see those themes emerging in our, in our content and in our programming.
[00:06:31] Speaker A: And that's, that's really fantastic how you are also making that connection between readiness and language.
So it's, it's, it seems like for, for there to be proper readiness, at least conceptually from, from what you're bringing, for, for, for there to be proper readiness, there needs to be confidence, communication.
And at the heart of that communication is language. There needs to be language and there needs to be language exchanges. There would probably be something there to be said about culture and the impact that culture has and the redis that you were mentioning.
Are there any of those that are particularly interesting to you? Meaning we're coming from this transition where perhaps we were not thinking about this topic and now we have this opportunity to look into technology multilingual we find exciting to see how we are using the technologies, how the conversations are evolving. In your case, for those readies, are there any of those that are particularly attractive to you?
[00:07:36] Speaker B: You know, one that we don't have on the conference program but that will undoubtedly address is this notion of culture ready. Because a lot of people are saying it, that as language service providers evolve into this next iteration of, you know, this next evolution, they are going to have to be real specialists in, in certain areas and be, like I said before, generalists in this understanding of, of the functions of global business. But culture ready is something that I think the people who have been working in this industry a long time are prepared to deliver on this understanding of cultural nuance, cultural appropriateness, what lands or hits culturally, especially when it comes to marketing language, for example. So I think what I've always said about this industry and one of the things I love is that people are multilingual and multicultural. They're well traveled, they're sophisticated, they're open minded. And I think that all of that can come into this notion of culture ready. So I hope that we're going to see some of that because that's one of my favorites. I studied anthropology a million years ago as an undergraduate and so I hope we'll do some of that tech ready is obviously really interesting, but we're, we're happy to see us moving beyond this like super AI focused, you know, just a hyper focus on AI and moving beyond some of the. Yeah, just some of that hype into the other practicalities of tech ready. I think this sounds dull, like risk ready. And, and risk can mean a lot of things. But look, compliance is going to be big. Compliance and regulatory requirements is going to be, I think, big. And that's where some language service providers could potentially shine as experts in that area. Those are a couple.
[00:09:30] Speaker A: And I love how you are also framing it because it reminds me of some of the conversations we've had in our other podcast, Lang Talent, which talks about the future of work and also the evolution of work. And one of the conclusions we've had this year is there is, I level, an upscaling process going on. There are localization managers that are becoming very quickly like AI executioners. AI, I don't like the word experts, but connoisseurs. And where three years ago we had no AI connoisseurs of any form, and now we have different professionals, some that can adapt and really use the tools to their advantage and others that will not be able to do that. So that's a, that's a huge conversation. I want to zoom out again, again, world ready then as a concept with these nuances, very interesting companies. Because at the end of the day, the bottom line is world ready because we're not ready and because we have to be world ready. So companies are not world ready probably because they have many things to resolve internally. What are the biggest challenges that with this new approach you are starting to observe in the company's and that probably the conference is going to look to solve through the content and the programs throughout the year?
[00:10:53] Speaker B: Well, I'm not, you know, I'm not an expert myself. I'm not a localization expert, but I think what I'm hearing from people that I'm talking to is that the challenge is managing the complexity and the challenge is connecting the dots. Translation used to be pretty simple and the way it was structured was, you know, it was often at the end of the process and you'd take your files and you'd throw them over the wall and the LSP would translate them, they'd throw them back over the wall. Done. Moving on now with the way operations are set up, there's so much more complexity. I'm happy to see that it's shifting left, that companies are thinking about it much earlier in the process.
In product design, in UX and UI design, in everything.
I think though, that and the technology obviously, which some maybe think of as a panacea, they're discovering. Okay, it's not a panacea. Even if I can drop something into DeepL, I have no idea about the quality. And you know, it's, it's a complex process, it's a complex design. And so I think that that's where the opportunity is. It's in managing the complexity.
Being a generalist who understands that complexity and then having some specialties perhaps and some expertise to say we really shine here. But we're going to be able to help you manage all of this complexity and become the, you know, kind of global organization that you are trying to be.
[00:12:23] Speaker A: Thank you for, for sharing that perspective. This for those that might be listening all of a sudden and have forgotten what we're talking about. We're talking about WorldReady, the conference by Gala, and we're talking to Alison Furch, executive director at the organization at Gala. Clearly we are in now the call for papers for next year. Can you tell us about 2026? What's world ready? We want to participate. What's, what's happening?
[00:12:52] Speaker B: Yes. So first thing I'll say is the deadline. The deadline is at the end of the month, the end of October, and we are looking for proposals. There's several different types of sessions that we want. Soapbox is really cool. That's kind of, you know, eight minutes to say your piece, start a conversation, start a fight, start a debate. There's some quick ones, like 30 minutes. There's panel discussions, there's workshop deep dives. So there's different types of depending on how you like to present. There are the different tracks which we alluded to.
Market ready, tech ready, people ready, risk ready, Language access ready. I think I might be forgetting one. So box anyway. And what we're really looking for is shared stories. Listen, if anybody submits a proposal and says, I have it figured out, I am the expert, I probably won't get invited because we understand that everybody's still working it out right now and we want to hear real life implementation stories, successes, failures, how you've changed your business model, how you're using tech in an interesting way, how you're working with clients in a different way. Those kinds of topics that are essentially from practitioners learning and sharing what they've learned. And it's open now, it's open to anybody. We're, we have a program committee of volunteers that vets, reviews all the proposals and vets them and then constructs the program. So now's the time to think about it and submit.
[00:14:30] Speaker A: And now it's the time. Now it's the time.
If, of course, if I'm thinking about sending a proposal, I probably would like to also know, if not, what do you expect to be the experience of those that are going to Berlin that they take out of world ready 2026?
[00:14:52] Speaker B: Well, there's a lot about the conference, the Gala conference, that's staying the same because it's very popular, it's got a great reputation, people like it. We don't want to break, we don't want to fix what isn't broken. We do want to continue to innovate, which we try to do every year. Just small tweaks to make it better. So what people can expect is high level professional development.
They're going to learn things that are useful to them, to their teams and to their business.
They're going to have great social interactions and networking opportunity. They're going to have cultural exposure and engagement opportunities to experience Berlin and Germany. And hopefully my hope is that they're going to walk away feeling optimistic and feeling inspired. You know, let me just pause for a second and say some of the truths that are, you know, companies are struggling. Small language service providers, many of them are struggling right now. You know, full disclosure, Gala is seeing, you know, a decline in membership at our lowest tier, our smallest level. And I've heard from a lot of owner operators that they're struggling to pivot and adapt and change. And so this is not all like sunshine and roses gets hard. And people are in some cases choosing whether to, you know, retire and pivot or to fight through it and try to remain successful.
So I would say that we want to provide some sense of direction and hope and inspiration for anybody who's there to feel like, I can do this, we can do this, we can succeed at this. We've got the right tools, the right people, the right attitude, the right connections. We can do this.
[00:16:41] Speaker A: Direction, hope and inspiration. That's what we hear Alison Furch telling us. We're going to be getting out of Gala World Ready Conference. I think it's great. Of course, you've also talked about the program around the year, and I don't think everyone it's very familiar unless you're part of the association of what's outside the conferences.
Like you said, it's attractive, it's cool, people know about it. Could you tell us a little bit more about, you know, what you mentioned the Trickle down effect of world ready now into how the year is going to develop for gala.
[00:17:19] Speaker B: GALA wants to position itself as the educational leader in this space. You know, we have, I would say, a bit of an advantage in that we have a really rich community, super smart, very experienced professionals. We're also growing that community beyond traditional language services and technologies to include folks from adjacent, if you will, adjacent sectors. Consider, you know, UX and ui, product development, marketing, privacy regulation, so compliance. We're bringing in experts and we want to really be the educational leader for people who are needing to upskill and reskill and stay abreast of changes and trends. We have a number of programs, so many of them are for members only and some of them are open to non members. But we have special interest groups those are member only. Those are focused on a variety of topics. Some include, you know, inclusive language and terminology, AI use cases, interpreting and interpreting technologies, for example, audiovisual localization.
So special interest groups are super focused. You can imagine it's very community oriented learning.
We have Gala Academy and next year we're going to do three Gala Academies. Those are basically courses that are conducted over the course of three weeks, you know, maybe every Tuesday, for example, for 90 minutes. And they're going to be focused on. So it's all going to have a focus on AI like AI and project management, AI and account management for example. There are also open to the public and everybody, we have articles on a huge range of topics and our resource center has loads of those that are free to everybody. We also have a webinar series which has been ongoing forever and ever and ever. Maybe about twice a month now we're doing a new webinar. Everything gets recorded and put into the resource center. So you can do some pretty advanced searching in there to find out what you can have access to. We do this year we've been doing some roadshows which is in person, small in person events. Some of them are focused. We did a client only roadshow in the Bay Area a couple weeks ago. We're doing one in Sao Paulo in Brazil at the very, very beginning of November. So these are all educational opportunities. They are also some networking opportunities. And these themes that we've been discussing are going to permeate and kind of work their way through all of these programs. And you know, the ultimate goal is to make our community feel future ready, to feel future proof, to feel world ready and to be able to support their clients and customers to do the same.
[00:19:56] Speaker A: And you've mentioned it, I think when you Talked about direction, hope, and inspiration. All that you can think about is the future.
And you've mentioned future ready and helping the industry stay future ready. Definitely. There is an optimistic view from gala. Could you tell us a little bit about the elements that help you be that optimistic? Why. Why do you feel right now hopeful, inspired, and with a sense of direction?
[00:20:25] Speaker B: Because it beats the alternative, honestly. I mean, personally, I'm an optimist by nature. We have quite a few other optimists on the board of directors. But I think that when you're. You have a couple of options, you can stay where you are and continue kind of doing the same thing. But when everything else around you is changing, that's foolish. We see a bit of an existential crisis for this industry.
You know, things are changing so radically that the traditional model, it's not going to work anymore. I mean, maybe it'll work for a little while. Give it two years. Maybe nobody has a crystal ball, but this is what we're estimating. So your options are to think, oh, well, we're going the way of the, the newspapers and we should just give up and quit. Let's just go find something else to do in this new brave world. But that's not why GALA is here. You know, GALA is here to serve and support the people and the companies working in this to be successful and to level up. And so in order to do that, we really have to believe that there is a future for these companies. And so then we say, okay, well, what does that future look like? You know, the short answer is nobody knows. But we're going to keep trying, learning, adapting. You know, it's incremental innovation. We're doing it, too, just like our companies, our member companies and professionals are doing it. So I don't know. You know, there's not really a choice. So you either work toward survival and thriving in a new future, or you quit.
[00:21:55] Speaker A: And that is, and that is a. That is a great way to put it. I, When I would talk to my children, we always talk about being the captains of our own ships and, you know, being able to, To. This is an approach to, to life that translates into an approach to business, an approach to innovation. It's either you direct that future or you just react to what comes to you and it's given to you. There's different ways of looking into it, and that's.
There's so much diversity in that. But we, I think, I think we both know which of the. Of the two tends to figure it out, adapt and thrive.
[00:22:38] Speaker B: And like, I like the way you say, you know, are you responding? Are you reacting? Are you being proactive? And we know that it's a combination of those things because no, we're not calling all the shots. Right? This is, this is a collaborative group effort. Enterprises call a lot of the shots. And so there is that notion of reacting and responding that's required. We say it's, it's nice the way you say that with your kids. We always said in our family, like, okay, are you going to be a complainer or are you going to be a problem solver? And complaining is okay as long as you do something about it.
[00:23:08] Speaker A: Right, right, right, right. And we have the one, the stocks would say, don't, don't have anyone hear you complain, especially yourself, which is the funny one, because nobody might hear us complain, but internally you are like all the time complaining. And that's not the way you are completely right. I'm really happy to hear a lot more about world ready Berlin 2026.
What are the dates and what are your recommendations for those of us that are thinking about Berlin 2026?
[00:23:41] Speaker B: 12Th through 14th of April. And it's at a hotel called the Titanic Chasse and it's right in central Berlin. It's in a really great location. The Metro is about 20 meters down the road, so you can get anywhere fast.
The hotel is really nice. There's actually, I took a walk when I was there in May and there's a huge beach volleyball complex about half, half a mile from the hotel. And I keep figuring out, like, how could we plan some social event there?
I love beach volleyball. A lot of people know that. And trying to figure out if we could do a social there. But we're planning some tours. We're planning a really fun dinner at a cool place. We're going to have a little entertainment this year. And I think that Berlin's just a great city. It's a great city and it's easy to access.
So I hope that people are going to feel ready to join us and bring their challenges, bring their failures, bring their successes. Be ready to share. Gala has a reputation for being a very kind of sales light, non commercial, but very open conference where people are truly just exchanging ideas and problems and whatnot. So it's pretty magical. It's a lot of work, as you know, but it's great. We're looking forward to it. We're already hard at work, you know.
[00:25:07] Speaker A: Making things ready and, and it's, and it's fantastic. We're going to be Conference ready soon. Alison, we can't wait. We can't wait to get confirmation on the topics that will be covered in the conference. When do you think we could have another conversation?
Once, once you have things confirmed. Maybe by the end of the year, beginning January. By when do you think we'll have content?
[00:25:29] Speaker B: Yeah, but by the beginning of January there's going to be a lot of changes for us for Gala year end and a lot of announcements. And so one of those of course is the program. The program should be figured out within the first two weeks of January. I think Isabella and the committee said they would notify people by the 10th, maybe, maybe the 7th. I don't remember without looking. But the other thing that's happening at the beginning of the year is the board decided this in Barcelona, but we're going to begin offering an individual membership for we. We've just heard from a lot of folks, especially on the enterprise side, that they. It's very difficult for them to get approval, corporate approval for a corporate membership, but they do have professional development budgets. So we're really excited to be able to bring some of GALA's other programs to more people too, starting in January. So lots to stay in here and do in January, including program announcements. Registration probably will open before the end of the year because we know some people have budget that they like to use before year end.
Sponsorship and exhibit registration will probably begin in about a month. Like you said, we're getting conference ready.
[00:26:38] Speaker A: Fantastic.
We look forward to catching up later in order to understand more about what's going to be happening with the program. Alison, before we go, if there is anything you'd like to mention to the audience, anything you believe we shouldn't go without saying.
[00:26:56] Speaker B: Well, I would say a couple things. I hope that you all can embrace the same sort of message of optimism and hope and keep working, keep working, keep iterating, keep trying, keep failing, keep tweaking.
We have an amazing community that really supports one another. So don't ever feel like you're unsupported.
And of course, please remember that Gala is more than a conference. You know, we're a professional association. We offer year round content and programming and we want you to be a part of it. And I think you'll find a lot of value in being part of the Gala community. I have to say that.
[00:27:33] Speaker A: Thank you.
[00:27:33] Speaker B: I believe it though too.
[00:27:34] Speaker A: That is great. And I think, and I think everyone will value those words. Alison, thank you for joining us today.
[00:27:41] Speaker B: Thanks for having me, Eddie. It's great to see you and I know you've got a super busy fall, so all the best and stay healthy.
[00:27:51] Speaker A: Thank you for listening to Localization Today. Big thank you to Allison Furch for joining us and sharing how gala's World Ready Vision challenges the industry to think beyond tools and transactions and prepare be ready for the human, the regulatory, and the technological realities of global communication. You can submit your proposals for Galag World Ready Conference Berlin until the end of this month, October 26, 2025. The event will take place April 12th to the 14th of 2026 in the historical Berlin. Learn more at gala-global.org Catch new episodes of Localization today on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube. Subscribe, rate and share so others can find the show. I am Eddie Arrieta with Multilingual Media. Thanks for joining us and we'll see you next time.
