French inspire Lumière London

London lit up...

... both with lights and smiling faces. 

London's first light festival fascinated both tourists and Londoners alike. The French-inspired Lumière London had everyone marvelling at light displays across the city. Even Sunday's early morning snow and a cold winter's night couldn't keep them off the streets.

I started my walk between light displays at Oxford Circus. It was great to be able to walk around Central London unimpeded by traffic. Sometimes progress was slow due to the sheer numbers out on the street - despite having all the road and pavements to walk on.

Normally if you lay down on your back in the middle of Oxford Circus, you can expect to be flattened by one or more double decker buses. Some spectators braved the cold road surface to get right underneath 1.8 London by Janet Echelman. The changing colours were glorious from any angle.

Light display hanging over Oxford Circus

Heading down Regent Street, I found my favourite musical light display, Keyframes. I loved the moving light figures on the front of Liberty House. This display was originally created by Groupe LAPS for the famous Fête des Lumières in Lyon, France.

Another Lyon creation appeared further down Regent Street and in Piccadilly. I found it fascinating to watch the movements of  Les Luminéoles. The fish floated and swooped above our heads, gradually changing colour. It was spectacular sight against the night sky in a very familiar street.

Further on down, there was another surprise... an enormous, noisy elephant. You could even see Catherine Garret's Elephantastic from the rear in Piccadilly. Eros and the lights in Piccadilly Circus aren't used to being upstaged by an elephant.

I struggled to make out the pictures on the more usual type of son et lumière in Piccadilly. When I reached St James Square, my smartphone went on strike. It refused point blank to take any more photos in front of Chatham House. It would not be coaxed back into action.

Sea of plastic in Trafalgar Square fountain

                                                                         

By Trafalgar Square, I realised that I could use my iPad camera instead. There were plastic bottles floating in the fountains. I preferred my native city's illustration of the perils of plastic in our oceans. I saw the Bristol Whales lit up at night last year. By 2050, the seas will contain more plastic than fish.

Bristol Whales at night

Highlighting plastic in our oceans

 

The Neon Dogs on The Strand were so popular that it took quite a while to get to the front. The brightly-lit dogs even had a few neon bones.

A longer walk took me to Westminster. It was amazing to see the familiar façade of Westminster Abbey displayed so differently. The lights picked out all the statues really well. 

Spectacularly lit Westminster Abbey

Next stop was Leicester Square. Here I found Shakespeare surrounded by a garden of light. 2016 marks the 400th Anniversary of his death. 

Shakespeare's statue in the middle of Leicester Square, London

The cinemas in front and to his left displayed Star Wars and The Hateful Eight. I wondered what he would have thought of such modern entertainments.

Shakespeare's view of Star Wars in Leicester Square

My last stop was in front a brightly-lit ballgown. As one bystander commented, it was a bit see-through to actually be worn.

Brightly lit ballgown with changing colours

It was well short of midnight. After such a fairytale night, this Cinderella's feet were aching. So she headed home. By tube, not pumpkin. 

Brazilian Dance Spectacle

The Brazilians are well-known for worldwide for their colourful and exuberant carnivals and parties. Giving a Brazilian flavour to a family celebration evening seemed the perfect recipe. We celebrated in style by attending Baila Brazil at the Royal Festival Hall.

On Saturday 15th August the Balé de Rua dance company staged their final performance in London. Oh yes, it was loud, colourful, energetic and exuberant. The show was as The Scotsman described:

"Stunning. If only, I'd had a sixth star at my disposal."

Baila Brazil has travelled the world since it opened in Sydney, Australia. Over 500,000 performances in 13 cities later, it was London's turn. The company has come a long way. Born of an art project in the favelas, its dancers were discovered at the Biennale de la Danse in Lyon in 2002. Today's professional dancers all trained in the project's free schools.

I was somewhat nonplussed at the beginning. A troupe of male dancers dressed as women was totally unexpected. For the majority of the evening, they were more scantily clad than the two women. That made a pleasant change.

The dancing was simply amazing. I didn't realise that the human body could even bend in such ways - let alone dance in them.

Alexia Falcão Lopes had a great voice. She kept going throughout the noisy, unrelenting show without showing any strain in her voice. She even sang centre-stage without flinching as acrobatics were performed about her ears.

The range of dancing was incredible. I particularly enjoyed the breakdancing. I don't remember seeing a show before in which so much was danced upside down. The head-spinning on a raised platform was breathtaking.

A number of cultural influences seemed to be at play in the dances. The slavery scenes were particularly powerful. They stood out for their change of tone and pace.

I lost track of how many encores there were. The performers didn't want to stop singing and dancing. They still had energy and enthusiasm to burn. They came out into the audience to dance. We all clapped and sang along as invited.

The drummers were brilliant. You could feel the rhythm pulsating through the floor,  your feet, ears and even in your heart during the show.

We could still feel the Brazilian beat and energy, as we spilled out smiling into a warm summer evening on London's South Bank.

Just can't wait for the opening ceremonies of the Rio 2016 Olympics and Paralympics. We'd all better start preparing our superlatives for the spectacles to come.

 

For information on Anglicity's content writing services, email karen@anglicity.com

Sales at the French CNET Conference

Eiffel Tower stands tall in March sunshine

Following UKTI's embassy event on Big Data, I remained in Paris for the French association of translation companies' annual conference. CNET (Chambre Nationale des Entreprises de Traduction) held the event in a five-star hotel near the Eiffel Tower. The conference title was Vendre Plus, Vendre Mieux (Sell More, Sell Better).

 
CNET's President, Pierre Bastos, opened the conference. Some faces were familiar from previous ATC and EUATC conferences. Participants had travelled from as far as Israel, Greece, Estonia and Finland. Most were French, with a fair number from Lyon as well as Paris.

EUATC

Pierre then handed over to Catherine Granell, CNET's General Secretary. She gave a presentation on the EUATC's forthcoming conference in Lisbon on 23-24 April. She stressed the value of networking with other European translation companies. She expressed her concern at how poorly France is represented at such international events each year. In 2014, just 4 French companies attended the EUATC conference, despite the fact that it took place in Juan-les-Pins, France. Over lunch later, a number of French participants said that they were considering attending the ELIA (European Language Association) conference from 16-18 April in Lyon.

Sales

There followed an excellent presentation on sales by Dominique Zouzou. Dominique is an experienced Sales and Marketing Director for major international companies. His presentation was well-supported with data and graphics. He demonstrated the change in sales approach required by today's clients. I was fascinated to hear confirmation that the marketer's task has increased, while the sales role is now confined to the very end of the cycle. 


Dominique supplied some interesting figures: 

• Sales is a thankless task with a 99% failure rate from prospects.
• 90% of sales prospects never reply to cold calls.
• 93% of clients today use internet research before contacting you.
• The sales process is 57% complete before you even know about it.
• 65% of the top sales performers use social media.

Dominique took us through the changing demographics. He explained the changing contact preferences of the different generations - from the Baby Boomers to the future's Generation Z. The data came from the US. I wondered if social networking was advancing at the same rate in France. (Networking over lunch in France seems as important as ever).

E-business

The next presentation Selling Translation on the Internet followed on neatly. Welshman Nigel T Packer of Pelatis Online presented in English. He advised participants that their translation teams would need new e-business and transcreation skills - or, (Nigel teased) UK e-businesses might cross the Channel and "steal" their work. He spoke of a new 10-week course at Swansea University, hopes for a Masters course and his planned masterclass at April's EUATC conference.

CNET Survey

Next up was Hugues Mantoux, CNET's administrator. He presented the CNET membership survey that first began in 2002. No official survey of the French translation market exists. Concerns about the number of active participants in CNET's 2015 survey casts some doubt on the validity of the findings and figures.

The French market appeared much smaller than I would have expected. There are relatively few new entrants to the market with most companies being mature and well-established. The average French translation business was experiencing a decline in its turnover, especially in Paris. Any industry growth seemed to be outside Paris. Concerns over payment delays and pricing are shared with the rest of Europe. There was a worrying 11% drop in internships.

Hungarian Agreement

After a very enjoyable lunch, Miklós Bán presented on how Proford, the Hungarian Translation Companies' Association negotiated an agreement with its freelance translator associations. There is much food for thought here for other European associations. With 15 years' experience in the industry, Miklós shared a perception that it is not always easy to work with French freelance translators. In Hungary, two agreements (one for translation and the other for interpreting) resulted in a 16-page document that transformed the business climate.

A lack of trust and understanding existed between Hungarian translators and translation companies. There was also a generational gap between the older and younger translators. Hungarians often still look to the state to resolve professional issues and conflict. Democracy and self-regulation are newer to Hungarians than the French. (I will return to this interesting agreement in a separate blog with greater detail and my own thoughts).

Translation Buyer's Perspective

Arnaud Kauer then gave a translation buyer's perception of a multinational's translation requirements. As I gave a presentation at ELIA Budapest in 2012 from my then translation buyer's viewpoint, I was very interested to hear his views. I noted some cultural differences in his approach to the subject. I also observed how his comments were received in the room.

Social Media

Juliette Eskenazi gave the final presentation of the day on social media, thus building on its demonstrated importance to sales today. She discussed Facebook and LinkedIn primarily. Facebook is the main French social network with 28 million users. There seemed to be some reticence in the room about social media, particularly from Brittany. Our speaker and her audience demonstrated the same difference in attitude between the generations as found in other countries.

Two very full days in Paris came to an end. It was good to meet new contacts at the CNET conference and exchange contact details. I hope that some will become good future business partners and prospects. We said our farewells in the hotel's garden. We had missed the solar eclipse earlier in the day. The morning's mist had cleared. The Eiffel Tower now stood tall in a sunny, blue sky.

Karen Andrews runs
Anglicity Ltd. She is
a technical marketing

consultant. She offers

content writing,

editing and French to

English transcreation 

services.

Contact: karen@anglicity.com 
for further information.

Big Data with UKTI in France

UKTI event at the Residence of the British Ambassador in Paris

On 19^th March, I attended a very informative event at the Residence of the British Ambassador in Paris entitled:

 "How Big Data and Analytics are Energising Economic Growth - Accelerating Innovation, Building Trust, Powering Performance".

UKTI's Lyon-based team planned the programme to explore the business, social and technical challenges created by Big Data and analytics.

Sir Peter Ricketts, the British Ambassador to France, opened the day's proceedings and underlined how both Britain and France are at the forefront in the field.

The day comprised of 4 panel discussions in the morning and a series of roundtables in the afternoon. The event was very successfully chaired by David Reed of DataIQ and involved a well-selected blend of knowledgeable UK and French panel speakers and roundtable hosts.

The 4V's

In his introduction, David Reed referred to the 4V's of Big Data:

·      Velocity

·      Volume

·      Variety

·      Veracity

He stressed the pace of change and the importance of unlocking the value in data. Unstructured data is of no value whatsoever. We need to work out how to structure it. A new skillset will be required.

Female caution

There were many knowledgeable female panellists. It was generally the women who raised the main notes of caution and ethics in this new Big Data "gold rush".

The event covered so much ground that it is impossible to do the subject justice in a single blog. My main takeaways are summarised below:

1. Infrastructure will be key

Structuring huge amounts of data will be power-hungry. 

2. Doubts over ability of mature cities to expand

Global Switch datacenters commented that most mature cities are struggling with ageing infrastructures. No additional capacity in London; tough situation in Paris. You need a window of 3-5 years to get a reliable new electricity supply. (Major financial centres cannot afford to lose even a day's trading or want to risk resorting to back-up systems).

3. Structuring data

Data needs to be structured and segmented to unlock value for different demographics, locations and requirements.

4. Right "TechCity" location

Four key factors:

(i) TechCities need to be sited near universities producing graduates with the right skills from data science courses with very current industry relevance.

(ii) Access to local staff with technical know-how (examples of Barcelona, Toulouse and Montpellier given).

(iii) A supportive local Government

(iv) Must meet demanding bandwidth requirements (rural areas should not be excluded. Reverse of UK trend to live in countryside in France).

4. Verifiable identity and privacy

The ability currently exists to identify more than 50% of the world's population. It was suggested that identifying the remaining 50% could be achieved within 5 years. Accessed via worldwide agreements, but dangers and concerns exist over privacy.

5. Consumer at the heart of regulation 

Concern for the consumer needs to be at the heart of regulation. Only the right people should have access to given data. Access rights need careful segmentation.

6. Standards and good governance

Standards are important - ISO/IEC 27001: Information security management.

Significant numbers of organisations are simply not doing enough on security protocols.

7. Data security breaches

US requires that data security breaches are reported within 72 hours. Most companies do not realise that they have been attacked for 200 days. The average cybercriminal only needs one day to succeed. In 69% of cases, a cyberattack is detected by third parties - usually the customer with a fraud on his account.

8. Hacking of health and medical data

Major and powerful pharmaceutical companies are very keen to access data relating to medicines. There is a major concern about the security of medical data. Credit card details can be changed. Medical data cannot be changed if hacked. French example given of hacked blood tests with extortion demands. 

9. Potential role of innovation centres

Example of TUBA in Lyon to capture local ideas. Aim for a bottom-up rather than top-down approach. Success of the Lyon scheme should be unveiled in October 2015.

10. SMEs for innovation

There is concern over private sector involvement in research. Often findings do not make it into the public domain. Innovation needs to happen with SMEs. Is FrenchTech competitive approach one to be copied? Tech clusters already exist around the UK.

What next?

UKTI hopes to build a UK/French collaborative business campaign around the Information Economy. Plans are already afoot in Big Data and IoT. The new Eurostars scheme may offer French and British SMEs opportunities to collaborate.

If you would appreciate help with your technical communications, email karen@anglicity.com or call Karen on +44 (0)20 8581 9369.

Karen Andrews runs
Anglicity Ltd. She is a

technical writer and 

translator with over

15 years' marketing

experience. Anglicity offers

marketing consultancy and

content marketing with a 

particular focus on innovation.