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The Road to XTM Live: Meeting Customer Demand at Speed and Localization Trends for 2023
The Road to XTM Live: Meeting Customer Demand at Speed and Localization Trends for 2023 illustration
Aleix Gwilliam
AuthorAleix Gwilliam

XTM Live 2023 is just a few weeks away, but we didn’t want to make everyone wait until April to learn from some of the industry’s top experts. For this reason, we decided to give everyone a little taste of what XTM Live is going to be about with the webinar, The Road to XTM Live: Meeting Customer Demand at Speed.

The webinar included a thought-provoking panel discussion on meeting customer demand at speed with Fei Liu, Localization Manager at RS Group, and Marco Rotelli, Senior Product Manager at eBay; two speakers who will also be on stage at XTM Live in London in April. It also included an interview with XTM Product Director Sara Basile discussing how language technology can drive business growth, and a chat with new XTM CEO Ian Evans on how enterprises are adjusting their global content strategy with new customer behaviors.

Another highlight of the webinar were the insights from XTM Live’s Mayfair and Park Lane sponsors, as they discussed what they thought would be the top trends in the language-technology space for 2023. Vincent Godard, CEO of machine-translation provider and Mayfair sponsor SYSTRAN, had a very clear idea of what the hottest topic in the industry would be: “Integration. Now most of the B2B tools are accessible online, customers and LSPs can maximize the value of technology by selecting the best tools and integrating them seamlessly. It has a real impact on productivity and reactivity.” 

It’s not just one or a few trends that will be happening this year. There is a technology push happening on all fronts in localization.”

Martijn Verver | Chief Communications Officer, Rigi

Integration will indeed be a key trend this year, as companies move towards a more composable technology architecture, connectivity between SaaS platforms is now more important than ever before, especially taking into account how we’ve seen a steep rise in the demand for localized content and shorter time-to-market goals. Stephanie Harris, Global Marketing Director at Argos Multilingual, a Park Lane sponsor of the event, argued we will see widespread adoption of these technological solutions: “The bottom line is that IT budgets are only going to increase in 2023. Despite uncertain economic times, this is something that companies are realizing is very important to their future growth”. In terms of the types of technology that we will see a rise in deployment, Harris highlighted a couple in particular: “We will see this increase especially in terms of cloud infrastructure and AI, as well as the latest [technological] innovations, both in the localization industry, as well as across the board with our clients.”

Martijn Verver, Chief Communications Officer at Rigi, one of our Mayfair sponsors, went beyond predicting a single trend dominating 2023: “It’s not just one or a few trends that will be happening this year. There is a technology push happening on all fronts in localization, not just for neural machine translation or new uses for AI, but also a shift towards or a wish for continuous localization.” Verver explained how the benefits of continuous localization will be top of the priority list for most if not all companies: “[Continuous-localization] platforms that create a highly efficient localization process enable lead times to be much more predictable which results in faster time-to-market for your localized products.”

Now most of the B2B tools are accessible online, Customer and LSPs can maximize the value of technology by selecting the best tools and integrate them seamlessly.”

Vincent Godard | CEO, SYSTRAN

With companies looking to build these more efficient localization processes, the focus becomes on which technologies to adopt and whether they will be able to grow with the company’s strategy. If you’re interested in finding out how companies are approaching this issue, Henk Boxma (CEO at Rigi), Vincent Godard, and Alex Matusescu (Managing Director at XTRF) will be on stage at this year’s XTM Live on the panel From Static Blocks to Building Blocks, discussing how to build a future-proof localization strategy for 2023 and beyond, a must-see session for anyone interested in how to build a durable technology stack.

A technology stack’s durability is tightly linked with its level of efficiency. For Vincent Rigal, Product Manager at our Park Lane sponsor Acolad, the key to technological efficiency is a solution that “combines agile workflow-management capability, proposition management, user-friendly portals and top-level connectivity to name a few [features]. All of them will be key to successfully achieving better automation, quality, and faster time-to-market, which is what companies are going to be looking for. Therefore, these characteristics are what we think are going to dominate 2023.”

Addressing the industry’s hot topics at XTM Live 2023

AI is of course going to be discussed in this panel and beyond, as it’s the topic on everyone’s lips at the moment. But while there is a lot of talk about it, its use cases and how it is going to be implemented come with a few more question marks.

XTM Live is the place where we’ll discuss how you are going to ride that GPT wave, how and if it transforms the way we work, and how or if we should address it.”

Pavel Doronin | Product Director, Intento

XTM Live is a great opportunity to get some answers to these questions, as not only will it include presentations and panel discussions on the topic, but you can also discuss approaches with fellow industry peers, which is one of the main benefits of the event according to Intento Product Director Pavel Doronin: “XTM Live is the place where you get to see your friends and colleagues from the language industry and discuss how you are going to ride that GPT wave, how and if it transforms the way we work, and how or if we should address it.” 

Intento, one of the event’s Mayfair sponsors, will also be presenting live on stage with its Director Andy Nikulin, who will be joined by TXTOMedia’s CEO Wouter Maagdenberg. They will be discussing another hot topic in the localization industry: Gendered Translations at Scale, a view into how to solve the issue of covering different gender types in localized content, an important topic that can make a real difference between localizing successfully or not in many markets around the world. It will be TXTOMedia’s first appearance at XTM Live as a Park Lane sponsor, and its VP of Sales and Marketing, Hans de Groot, explains why it’s an exciting prospect for them and any attendant: “At TXTOmedia we’re very excited about XTM Live 2023, not only because it’s a great networking opportunity but also because it’s a chance to see the latest technology in the language tech space.”

LanguageLine will also be present at XTM Live as a Park Lane sponsor, and its Language Solutions Director, Tom Shaw, shares his perspective on why the event is a must for every localization professional: “It’s a great event in our industry, as everyone is really passionate. There are people from different backgrounds, cultures, roles, client-side, and provider-side. Everyone is really interested in talking about hot topics here and now, but also brainstorming about what may come this year and beyond.”

XTM Live 2023 will focus on how to drive growth through advanced language technology, and it’s a great opportunity to learn from the industry’s top names through their thought-provoking and insightful presentations, network with peers from around the world and discuss your thoughts and vision with them, and find out about the present and future of language technology, so you can stay ahead of the localization game.

You can meet all our fantastic Mayfair and Park Lane sponsors at XTM Live 2023 and have a chat with them at their individual booths, which will be located at the entrance hall of the venue. Whether it’s finding a solution to take your technology stack to the next level or discussing the latest advancements in localization technology, it’s a fantastic opportunity to expand on your industry knowledge and contacts.

Get your ticket for XTM Live today and join us in London for the localization-technology event of the year. We hope to see you there!