Smartling Releases ‘Move the World with Words’ Book at Global Ready Translation Summit

Coffee table book and $100 million commitment to industry aims to recognize the human element of global commerce

Smartling, the premier software and translation services company that established the Enterprise Translation Cloud category, today releases its first-ever print publication, the “Move the World with Words” coffee table book, at the Global Ready Translation Summit in New York City. Alongside the launch of the book, Smartling is also announcing its commitment to investing $100 million in translator pay and language services over the next five years. With this investment, Smartling is committed to keeping translators at the center of the industry, despite technological advances.

“Professional translators are here to stay,” said Jack Welde, Co-Founder and CEO of Smartling. “Customers are creating more specialized content that requires the human touch, so we are investing in our translation services offering to match these needs in two ways: 1) by focusing on the human side of translation, and 2) by developing content series like Global Ready Translation Summit to provide best practices to localization teams worldwide.”

Before the year 2000, we lived in an analog world where products were more important than content. This enabled the translation industry to develop in a services-oriented way, which ultimately disconnected the buyer from the translator. This was further perpetuated by the consolidation of language services providers over the years. A survey of 100 translators conducted by Smartling reveals the negative impacts this continues to have on their satisfaction with the industry.

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For digitally transformed businesses, and with advancements like iPhone, content became as important as the product. Companies are now forced to think differently about translation because of the sheer volume of content, and the role it plays in driving the customer experience. The aforementioned survey also revealed, from the translators’ perspective, what could be done to improve the quality of their work: supplying the translators with more visual context, and greater communication between the customer and the translator ranked highest and second highest, respectively.

For this reason, the Global Ready Translation Summit (a one-day conference focused on celebrating translators while providing tactical advice to companies on how to improve translation outcomes) is designed to educate companies on how to future-proof their translation strategy while recognizing the translators localizing content as key contributors to the global economy. Some of the Smartling translators who regularly localize content for global brands will also be in attendance to allow attendees to meet the people behind the work, and learn how to best collaborate on projects in the future. All attendees will also receive a complimentary copy of the brand new Move the World with Words coffee table book, which provides a behind-the-scenes view into the daily lives of 12 Smartling translators worldwide.

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Move the World with Words will be available on Amazon.com starting on International Translation Day, September 30, 2019, to honor the global community of translators.

“Translators are at the heart of Smartling,” said Adrian Cohn, director brand strategy and communications at Smartling. “We chose to illuminate the lives of translators not only because we think it is the right thing to do, but also because it is the right thing to do for our customers. If we can connect our customers with the translators responsible for taking their product to international markets, we collectively will be better positioned to move the world with words.”

In developing the marketing campaign and Move the World with Words book, Smartling selected Elisabeth Brentano, a freelance photographer and storyteller, to document the translator’s personal and professional lives. Elisabeth is credited as the author and photographer of Move the World with Words. Adrian Cohn is the editor and author of the Forward, and Jack Welde, co-Founder and CEO of Smartling, wrote the afterword.

“While there is no doubt that the profession is changing, there is little doubt that translators are far from extinct and invisible,” said Judy Jenner, entrepreneurial linguist and co-founder of Twin Translations. “This book beautifully shines a light on the talented linguists who make a significant contribution to the global economy from their keyboards and fascinating workplaces around the planet.”

Smartling’s Global Ready Translation Summit in New York City follows a pre-release event held in London on Sept. 17.. Attendees of both events will also receive a $2,000 credit toward one of Smartling’s most valuable professional services, Linguistic Asset Management. This service assigns brands with experts to continuously manage, maintain and optimize translation memory, glossaries and style guides, making the most of all existing materials.

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