SlatorPod

Simon Constable, Global Language Services SVP of Visual Data Media Services (VDMS), joins SlatorPod to talk about dubbing, subtitling, and the pandemic-induced transformation of media localization. Simon starts with his route into the media & entertainment and languages space, where his international experience spans 25 years. He delves into VDMS ’ localization services and the dynamics betwee...

Olga Beregovaya , AI Innovation VP of Welocalize , joins SlatorPod to talk about all things AI , natural language processing ( NLP ), machine learning ( ML ), and machine translation ( MT ) related. Olga begins with her journey into the language services and technology industry, where she currently leads AI innovation for Welocalize . She unpacks some of the broader applications of AI, ML, and NLP...

First up, Florian and Esther share key takeaways from SlatorCon Remote, which hosted 13 guest speakers and drew in over 300 attendees. Esther talks about the Video Localization panel, where Chris Reynolds, Tom Livne, and Fardad Zabetian explored the similarities and differences between speech and text outputs. Next, Florian follows up on the Content in the Age of AI panel, where Konstantin Savenko...

Rebecca Petras, Spokesperson for non-profit Red T , joins SlatorPod to bring awareness to their advocacy for the protection of translators and interpreters in high-risk settings. Rebecca shares details of her professional background in journalism and discusses how she began her journey in the language industry through the humanitarian sector. She talks about the current situation of interpreters i...

Slator’s very own Senior Research Analyst Anna Wyndham joins the Pod to give a sneak peek into the latest Slator Pro Guide: Language Operations . The 40-page guide is packed with data from public and proprietary sources, including 11 interviews with language service providers (LSPs) at different stages of growth across Europe, Asia, and North America. Anna unpacks the five key areas of the report...

In a guest-centered episode, Ivan Smolnikov , CEO and Founder of Smartcat , joins SlatorPod to talk about the company’s journey as a tech-powered SaaS platform. I van discusses his not-so-typical professional background and how he got into the language services and tech industry. Since 2016, he has been focused on building Smartcat into an accessible SaaS platform with a marketplace of suppliers....

Elizabeth Compton, CEO of LanguageLoop , and Claire Mullins, National Translations Manager at the Australian language service provider (LSP), join SlatorPod to talk about the company’s digital and organizational transformation. Elizabeth recalls the LSP’s early days from 1978, and the decision to rebrand to LanguageLoop . She touches on the role of the Victorian State Government as shareholder. Sh...

In this week’s solo episode, Florian and Esther discuss the language industry news of the week, kicking off with a sneak peek into the brand new Slator 2021 Video Localization Report. Months in the making, the report provides an innovative look at the high-growth medium of video. Florian shares news of TransPerfect’s best quarter ever (Q2 FY21), which saw the US-based Super Agency reel in an extra...

Marko Hozjan , CEO and Co-founder of translation startup TAIA , joins SlatorPod to talk about his company’s journey from launch to their recent series A. Marko discusses what brought him into the world of translation from a background that spans everything from economics and leadership, to language teaching and…sailing.  He talks about automation and machine translation and the need to remain focu...

Cecilia Maldonado, Director of Strategic Accounts at Latamways , joins SlatorPod to talk about the language industry landscape in Latin America and her term as President of Women in Localization . Cecilia recounts her path to joining the language industry and the many hats she wore over the past 20 years. She touches on the two-year process of merging SpeakLatam and Two Ways Translation Services ,...

Christophe Djaouani , President of newly launched Toppan Digital Language, joins SlatorPod to discuss the Japanese corporate giant’s plans to become a leader in translation for regulated industries. Christophe shares his career journey; from his days as project manager at RR Donnelley to how he worked his way up to Executive Vice President at SDL. He introduces the members of the Toppan Digital La...

Synthesia CEO and Co-founder Victor Riparbelli joins SlatorPod to discuss the company’s approach to operating and developing the world’s first and largest platform for video AI generation. Victor talks about Synthesia’s journey and the rapid progression of media technology. He unpacks the role of academia in the company, where PhDs and professors make up nearly 50% of staff. The CEO goes over the...

In this week’s SlatorPod, Florian and Esther discuss the language industry news of the week, with BLEND’s acquisition of GM Voices , a voice and audio localization provider known for producing the original Siri for Apple.  Following RWS’ appointment of a new CEO , Keywords Studios announced the retirement of CEO Andrew Day , with Jon Hauck (CFO) and Sonia Sedler (COO) stepping up as interim CEOs w...

Armand Brevig, Managing Director of Procurement Cube , joins the pod to discuss how language service providers (LSPs) can work with Procurement at large enterprises. Armand touches on the rationale behind a consultancy firm like Procurement Cube. He talks about how they find clients and goes through the typical company profiles they assist. He then shares how translation services fit into the comp...

Interactio Co-founder and Chief Business Development Officer Simona Andrijauskaitė joins SlatorPod to discuss the Lithuanian startup’s journey. Simona talks about how the pandemic boosted demand and changed their primary market, with institutions needing technology for multilingual communication. She relates how it was all hands on deck at the remote simultaneous interpreting (RSI) platform, as ye...

Samuel Läubli , Partner and CTO at TextShuttle , joins the pod to talk about the ins and outs of a language technology provider, and the current state of machine translation. The CTO touches on his background in Computational Linguistics and decision to go back to the academe in 2016. He gives his take on the current state of machine translation, particularly weaknesses around sentence-by-sentence...

Vistatec CEO Thomas Murray joins the pod to discuss the company’s international presence, the tech and business environment, and managing growing content volumes. Thomas shares his insights on how geographic spread and the follow-the-sun model are important in serving clients. He explains why the language service provider (LSP) prefers organic growth over M&A, owing to the quality and longevit...

Vasco Pedro , CEO of Unbabel , joins SlatorPod to discuss the company’s growth journey — from identifying the initial use case to raising USD 60m in Series C funding in 2019 , and beyond. Vasco outlines Unbabel’s translation pipeline and underlying technology. He describes the importance of the human-in-the-loop model and the ability humans have to impact the output of machine learning (ML) models...

On SlatorPod this week, Florian and Esther discuss the language industry news of the week — and share the exciting agenda for SlatorCon Remote , which is just around the corner.  Florian briefly discusses the breaking news of Appen shares taking a beating , causing trading to halt. Esther talks about Canadian LSP TRSB’s acquisition of local rival Anglocom . According to TRSB CEO Mary Kazamias, Ang...

Florian is starstruck this week as Rachel Carruthers (Head of Internationalization and Localization) and Michael Levot (Localization Program Lead) from his favorite SaaS tool, Canva, join SlatorPod. Rachel and Michael join the Pod from Down Under to talk about Canva’s hub-and-spoke model for Localization, which enables them to run a “[expletive] massive” localization operation across no less than...

Spence Green , CEO and co-founder of tech-enabled language service provider Lilt , joins SlatorPod to talk about the journey from research concept to enterprise-scale AI translation agency. Having raised USD 25m in Series A funding in early 2020, Spence recalls hiring researchers, developers, and enterprise sales professionals , and the benefit of the monthly standups Lilt holds. Spence touches on...

Papercup CEO Jesse Shemen and Science Advisor Simon King join the pod to discuss how they develop synthetic voices to make videos accessible in multiple languages. The two talk about the underlying components of the Papercup workflow and outline the role that technology as well as humans play in the creation of multilingual videos. Simon, a Professor of Speech Processing at the University of Edinb...

Florian and Esther discuss the language industry news of the week, where they compare the stock performance of the handful of publicly-listed LSPs both year-to-date (Q1 2021) and from the start of 2020.  Florian calls out ZOO Digital and Keywords Studios — both of which are up more than 60% from January 2020 — and the two talk about Appen’s fall from the dizzying heights of mid-August 2020. Floria...

Babylon Health Content Design and Localization Lead, Michela Simonelli, joins the pod to talk about hyper-local digital content, localizing high-touch health materials, and the growing telehealth market. Michela shares her professional journey prior to Babylon Health, which saw her spend 11 years “agency-side” in multiple language service providers (LSPs).  Michela discusses how content design int...

Language I/O Co-founders Heather Shoemaker (CEO) and Kaarina Kvaavik (CBO) join the pod this week to discuss their newly announced Series A round, channel partnerships with CRM systems, expanding beyond their core multilingual customer support offering, and the future of subscription-based pricing models. The two duo join SlatorPod fresh off their USD 5m funding round , which was announced on Marc...