Live from MemoQ Fest 2009: Day 2, morning session

The morning session today had two presentations discussing "integration" of MemoQ, though the definition of integration in one case was very loose (import of file analyses from MemoQ for quoting and invoicing purposes). The more interesting of them was from Benoit Desjardins of beetext in Canada who discussed the integration of their translation workflow management solution with MemoQ. I was still a bit groggy from last night's revelry and the long trip back to my hotel (the metro closes at 11:30 pm - oops!), and French accents tire me despite the fact I like them, so I actually fell asleep and almost out of my chair for that talk. But it was valuable information for LSPs looking for integrated solutions like that. I would love to see a comparison and contrast with the LTC Worx integration with MemoQ. LTC is a sponsor of the conference, and several staff from that company are attending, but there hasn't been any discussion of the integrated solution so far. Benoit tells me that a German implementation of the interfaces for customers, translators and project managers may be coming soon. When and if it in fact does come, it may be worthwhile for some of my customers to have a look.

Juliet Macan of Ic.doc gave a fine expert presentation on translation challenges and translation environment tools (TEnTs). I was quite impressed by the thorough, professional approach of the company as it was presented as well as their approach to training freelance translators in their team, which went as far in one case as flying Polish translators down to Italy for a week of training. Not many LSPs out there willing to invest in their human resources to that extent. Her analysis of the issues was extremely clear and well-organized and if I had to speak on the same topic, I'd probably shamelessly swipe content from her slides.

Gábor Ugray discussed Kilgray's development roadmap, strategies, team, release policies and other related issues. Like his presentation yesterday, the message was clear and the delivery was good and kept me wide awake. That's quite an accomplishment today.

The highlight of the morning for me was Daniel Goldschmidt's humorous presentation "No one ever got sacked for buying SDL" with role play segments involving Kilgray partner Peter Reynolds. It was a bit chaotic, and it probably had less content than I think it did, but it kept me awake and laughing, and Daniel made some bullseye shots regarding innovation and marketing tactics involving FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt - a favorite tactic of IBM and SDL). The talk was more inspirational than informative, but it was a great part of the program.

And now the afternoon session is about to begin....