It is an exciting time for the world, as companies increasingly look to harness technology to break down communication barriers.
In the not so distant future, people will be able to access the same literature, books and texts in any language as organisations recognize the benefits associated with simultaneous releases of their products and services.
And what industry is well placed to take advantage of this? Yes, that's right, the localization sector will be able to offer a range of translation services to help organizations meet their goals in a cost-effective and efficient way.
To find out if Asia will be able to deal with the boom in localization, we spoke to Christine Luxton, conference and exhibits manager at Localization World.
A steep learning curve
According to the expert, who had a major role in organising the recent Localization World Asia event, which was held in Bangkok, Thailand between February 24th and 26th and sponsored by EQHO, Asia still has a way to go before it is ready for the expected upsurge in the need for localization services.
However, this is not a region-specific issue in her eyes, as she thinks that "probably nowhere are people ready for the boom in localization".
"There's a large learning curve as there's the cultural differences as well as the translation, script and graphical changes. I think that people are beginning to get savvy towards this, but it's not quite there yet," Ms Luxton remarked.
She pointed out localization service providers such as EQHO, who have expertise in a number of Asian countries like Thailand, Vietnam and India, will be approached by both North American and European organizations to carry out localization projects thanks to the skill sets they can cover.
Disruptive innovation
The theme of Localization World Asia was disruptive innovation, which is the practice of innovating to create a new market and value network. Ms Luxton said the organizers settled on this because every year it tries to pick a concept that has resonance throughout the globe.
She added it is a very hot topic at the moment, as localization providers seek to take advantage of big data and the cloud. As part of the event, a series of 'unconferencing' sessions were also held.
"In an unconference, people just sit down in a room and say 'What are we going to talk about?' They decide, there's no prescribed topic for the sessions and for a Western culture we're used to raising our hand, objecting and causing disruption, but it a little bit goes against the grain of the preconceived Asian culture. I think the sessions went well," Ms Luxton explained.
She has high hopes for the future of Asia and the conference itself. Previous host locations have included Singapore and Shanghai, as Localization World seeks to grow its presence in Asia.
The organizers are also looking at Seoul, Tokyo and locations in China as they look to plan the next conference outside of its traditional south-east Asian power base.
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