SAMVĀD REPORT

Highlights of SAMVĀD

Largest Gathering of Language Professionals in South Asia, organised by CITLoB

SAMVĀD, the marquee conference of language professionals in South Asia held on 6 October 2023, saw over 150 delegates and speakers from across the globe. Aptly themed "India Unleashed - Unveiling the Hotspot of Opportunities", the event saw over 30 global luminaries as speakers including the leaders of leading language industry associations and communities. Announcing the opening of the conference SAMVĀD, Biraj Rath, CEO of Braahmam, acknowledged the Title sponsor Crystal Hues, Silver sponsors Ailaysa, BITS and Braahmam and Bronze sponsors Accent and Mediawen. He also acknowledged the industry association partners ATC, EUATC, GALA, Elia, Juntos, Translated in Argentia, Women in Localization, LocLunch, media and research partners Slator, Multilingual, Nimdzi and the Chamber Partner, FICCI, leading trade association representing Indian businesses.

Welcome Address

The welcome note from CITLoB President, Sudheen M, emphasised the inevitable adoption of technology by the language professionals and highlighted that CITLoB has been engaging the language industry stakeholders consistently bringing knowledge-share, best practices and business growth-oriented sessions with domain experts.

On selection of the theme, Sudheen asserted that India offered the largest fastest growing market and most banked country in the world, with accessible population-wide digital public infrastructure, digital ID, digital first taxation system and consistent political environment with 600M casting their vote in a true democracy. Quoting Deloitte and BCG reports, he pointed out rising middle class and high-income group, which is expected to reach 300M and 29M households respectively and that in 2047 20% of middle class and 21% of workforce will be in India.

Keynote: Micro-Targeting India

Delivering the Keynote, international luminary of the language industry, Renato Beninatto, Chairman and Co-Founder of Nimdzi Insights LLC, emphasized on the adoption of micro-targeting and hyper-localization strategies to effectively communicate with people with diverse languages and cultures in India.

To Buy or Not to Buy

In the "To Buy or Not to Buy" session moderated by founder of BITS Sandeep Nulkar, the panelists, which included CEO of MOOL Abhinav Nayar, Senior Director of Deluxe Media Rakhi Sundar, Group Program Manager of Adobe Vidya Ramachandran and Program Manager of Uber Shalini Gupta, shared buyer-side perspective to the localization buying decisions.

One key takeaway from the session was their opinion in unison in looking at engagement solutions from service providers rather than translation and localization services.

Networking - 1

Engage with delegates from around the world.

Empowering Linguistic Diversity

Saurabh Kavaathekar, Vice President of Fidel Technologies, presented paper "India's Journey in Language Technology Advancements" which explored the linguistic diversity and the significance of localizing content in Indian languages to ensure inclusivity in the digital revolution.

Ailaysa - Expert Talk

In the Expert Talk session, Aazhi Senthilnathan, CEO of Langscape Languages Solutions, delved into the AI-powered Ailaysa, a multilingual and multimodal content development and localization platform, that redefines how content can be created, repurposed and adapted to any end-objective.

Indian markets: Localization strategy for Regional Growth

The session "Indian markets: Localization strategy for Regional Growth" by Pooja Agrawal, Senior Lead from Engineering team at Adobe Systems explored leveraging local market presence, localization for startups, proactive culturalization, and understanding cultural interoperability.

Building Cross-Border Ties

"Building Cross-Border Ties," a session with leaders of international industry associations led by the President of CITLoB Sudheen M included panelists Raisa McNab from ATC, Geoffrey Bowden from EUATC, Konstantin Dranch from Custom.MT, Maria Jesus de Arriba Diaz from GALA and Women in Localization, and Sarika Gulyani from FICCI. The panelists shared insights on the challenges and trends in the language industry, such as the adoption of generative AI, the need for talent development, the impact of inflation on pricing, etc. Highlighting the exorbitant cost technology adoption, Geoffrey Bowden emphasized the need for collaboration among the industry players. Sudheen added that collaboration with partners who have established technology capabilities along with credentials like ISO 18587 and ISO 17100 could ensure long-lasting partnerships.

what3words - Localization strategy for India

The session on "Localization Strategy for India" moderated by Geoffrey Bowden, gave deep insights into approach taken by What3words founder Jamie Brown for localization in multicultural, multilingual India. Jamie highlighted the complexity of addressing systems in India and how What3words, aiming to become the global standard for addressing, simplified location identification using geocoding system with unique three-word addresses in major Indian languages.

Practical insights on doing business in India

Klaudia Fryc-Mallick, a certified intercultural trainer, and business consultant shared "Practical Insights on Doing Business in India" that focused more on relation-oriented approach including the value of cognitive trust, which is based on competency and task delivery, as well as effective trust, which is based on human relationships and rapport.

Swadeshi Tech

The session "Swadeshi Tech" moderated by Rucha L Sheth, Vice President of Nimdzi, showcased innovative Indian lang tech companies presenting cutting-edge technologies, highlighting exclusive features and insightful papers, which included Ami Hattangadi AVP of Process 9, Dr Subalalitha CN, founder of First Language Technologies, Mangesh Shinde Co-founder & COO at Ryan and Karan Singh, Project Manager at VSpeeq.

From a Freelancer's Lens

The session "From a Freelancer's Lens" moderated by Geo Manager of Women in Localization Sarita Desai, brought fresh perspective, with panelists Sanket Joshi, Aparna Sinha and Sejal Kunte who delved into pivotal aspects shaping their profession to thrive in a rapidly changing landscape with advent of technology like Generative AI.

Localization - The Next Generation

Vijetha D Jois, an eighth-grade student delivered the session "Localization - The Next Generation" sharing her thoughts on the importance of localization in the Indian market and how it connects different cultures and languages. She made a case for the government to include linguistic studies, interpretation, and sign language in the high school curriculum to promote language understanding and cultural appreciation among other benefits.

Role of Sustainability and ESG in the Localization Industry

The session "Role of Sustainability and ESG in the Localization Industry" included panelists Melanie van de Velde, founder of Big Tree Global, Biraj Rath, founder of Braahmam, Aazhi Senthilnathan, founder of Ailaysa and Sudheen M founder of Crystal Hues. Sharing her thoughts, Melanie encouraged industry to adopt practical strategies to comply with ESG. Biraj and Senthil highlighted the drain on water and electricity with increasing use of technology in everyday life. Sudheen M, reminded the motto of the recently concluded G20 Meeting "Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam", which translates to "one Earth, one Family, one Future" and suggested that the principles guiding the Sustainability and ESG are Empathy towards your ecosystem, Ethical conduct and Transparency in your functioning and that adopting such simple principles could help in meeting the ESG goals.

Award Presentation

The Awards session and recognition session hosted by Tanushri Choudhury, EVP of Braahmam and Founding Member of CITLoB, included the AI Excellence Award given to senior researcher Sudhansu Bala Das for developing MT system capable of translating between English and 15 Indian languages, not only from English to different Indian languages but also between the Indian languages. The Innovation of the Year was awarded to Dr. Shubalalita C.N, for her work in machine language localization. The Achiever of the Year was awarded to Crystal Hues Limited for their contribution to the language industry and impact created among the stakeholders, which was received by the organisation's Vice President Anirudh Mukola.

Vote of Thanks

Announcing the conclusion of SAMVĀD, Biraj Rath expressed his gratitude to all the speakers, sponsors and the committed team including the CITLoB Vice Presidents and Program Committee members Madhu Sundaramurthy, Global HR Director at Summa Linguae Technologies, Vidushi Kapoor, Co-founder at Process9 and other CITLoB Vice Presidents Deepak Sahu from Braahmam, Saumitra Mahajan from Flatworld Solutions, Kalyani Gadre VP-ALP, Rasika Gumaste and Avani Gandhi Assistant Secretary, and everyone else who put in so much effort behind the scenes to make Samvad a huge success his deepest gratitude.