Lisa Pietrangeli: Director, Global Client Solutions, Language Intelligence Ltd.

Presentation Abstract:

Localization is the process of adapting a product or service to a particular language and culture. Internationalization is the precursor to localization and involves the process of planning, designing, and implementing a culturally and technically neutral product which can easily be localized. Internationalization helps decrease translation cost and speeds up time-to-market by addressing crucial technical, aesthetic, cultural, and linguistic issues at project start-up. It also has the unique advantage of streamlining not only the localization of your content but authoring in general. 

This presentation outlines the internationalization process and describes five steps you can follow to successfully internationalize your content. The importance and benefits of selecting appropriate writing styles, creating a knowledge base, organizing your content, and writing in a topic-based method will be discussed in detail. In addition, this presentation examines the role technology plays in the internationalization process and addresses how you can get the most out of your structured and/or unstructured authoring environment.

In addition to these five steps, this presentation also takes a look at three real-world case studies which illustrate how companies have incorporated these best practices into their processes. Each case study provides a unique “current state” starting point as well as varied writing team organization, localization objectives, and resource availability.

If you are a technical communicator working with companies who target international markets then this presentation is for you. Come join the discussion and learn how to optimize your content management strategy and make your localization efforts more efficient and cost effective for your company.

Who should attend this event?

• Optimizing content and translation reuse in both unstructured and structured authoring environments. Even if you're working in Word, there are steps you can take now to improve the process and take advantage of content and translation reuse.
• Working toward single-sourcing starting with word selection through to implementing a content management system.
• Developing a content management strategy that includes everything from best practices in authoring to content storage and reuse.

Presenter's Bio:

As Director, Global Client Solutions at Language Intelligence, Lisa Pietrangeli works with clients to develop internationalization strategies for all stages of the content development process, including authoring, terminology management, XML implementation, translation and output finalization. Her experience working in many areas of the business, including project management, resource selection and management, localization consulting, quality management and management of the localization project management staff, allows her to approach translation challenges from diverse perspectives. With this insight, Lisa is able to help clients streamline their process, allowing them to set the stage for higher quality translations with increased consistency, quicker turnarounds, and better cost efficiency. Lisa holds degrees in Art History, Spanish, Italian and certification in American Sign Language. She has been with Language Intelligence since 2000.