A Day at the SDL Roadshow Brussels

On Tuesday, I attended the SDL Roadshow that was hosted in Brussels. A long-time user of Trados, I didn’t really need any convincing of the usefulness of the tool, but since I had attended a few of SDL’s free webinars online, I figured it would be interesting to see what their live events were like. I wasn’t quite disappointed!

The event started out with a swift overview of the company in pure corporate style. Shiny Powerpoints were displayed and promotional materials were ready on our seats upon our arrival. We, Belgians, are much more introvert and low-key when it comes to promoting our services, so that was quite something to see firsthand!

A number of sessions were on the agenda that day, focusing on productivity, quality and personalization, which are all key cores of the new Studio 2015. Despite the fact that the first presentations were quite shy on the substantial information side, we later got the chance to see the real stuff: a preview of what the new version of Trados will look like!

I’m not usually of the early bird kind, but this one looks like it’s worth the investment. Indeed, the AnyTM app will now be an integral part of the CAT tool, which means that you will be able to use any translation memories regardless of the language combination of the project you’re working (yes, I can hear those of you who work with language variants sigh in relief!). Another promising addition is the ability to work with scanned PDFs which I bet will be quite time-saving for legal translators who often have to deal with contracts. Not to mention the improved Insert Symbol feature which will be much quicker. Of course, the value of all this will certainly depend on what your workflow looks like and which languages you work with.

In addition to the novelties, the SDL speakers also shared a few tips and tricks with us. We got to learn more about the Open Exchange platform for example – which, I’ll admit, I’ve never used before despite the number of gems it offers!

On top of keeping up to date with the innovations of the industry, the event was a good opportunity to meet new people. Let’s face it, having an online presence is not everything, and that’s particularly true in my country. Case in point: most of the translators present in the room aren’t active on social media on a professional level.

Any of you who already has attended an industry-specific event will agree with me: it just gives you a wonderful fluffy feeling to be in a room full of translators, of language geeks like yourself. It was really nice sharing experiences, opinions and tips and tricks! Ever since I got back from the roadshow, my head is buzzing with new ideas for the business. I don’t know what it actually was at that conference that made such a big impact on me, but it certainly was full of (good) surprises!