My view is that the last session at memoQfest was fixed. At 4 PM on Friday the management of Kilgray had a question and answer session with the attendees of our third user conference. Jost Zetsche was chairing. In theory this is the session where the user can strike back, ask awkward questions and make demands that Kilgray improve its software.
However, by this stage of memoQfest the attendees were tired but happy and had already had their fill of wonderful ideas. The result was the Kilgray management got an easy ride. This was probably for the better as they were tired too.
memoQfest officially took place last Thursday and Friday but in practice it started Tuesday with the train the trainer course and continued on Wednesday with the master classes. Balázs announced early on Wednesday morning that he did not feel well. This was not good news as he was supposed to deliver the TM Repository master class by himself. About an hour into the three hour class he announced that he could not continue. Miklós Urbán from Consell Pannonia then found himself “volunteered” to lead the TM Repository master class with me. Balázs slides, the way he had structured the class and the wonderful, talkative and knowledgeable students made it almost easy and I hope those who attended found it useful.
We achieved something which was very much a non-goal by sending Daniel and Paul from SDL home feeling recharged with lots of ideas. I was very glad that they were giving such a warm welcome at the conference. Indeed the first round of applause was a spontaneous and warm one to acknowledge the work Daniel Brockmann and Trados have done in trying to set a high standard for translation technology.
For me, one of the highlights of memoQfest was the Interoperability Now discussion. Sven Andrä from Ontram/ Andrä AG, David Filip from the LRC and Gábor and I were the panel but this was very much a discussion with everyone in the room. There were a lot of interesting and useful points which showed how important this topic is viewed. This was just one of many sessions which delivered and had people leaving with many interesting ideas and more importantly with the enthusiasm to want to do things better.
The presentations and panel discussions are only one part of the mix in a successful conference. The social events this year were particularly good and there was a great opportunity to network and to learn from other attendees. I know that we at Kilgray got a lot of feedback and interesting ideas which will help us improve our business. I am certain that everyone else left feeling recharged, enthusiastic and with new ideas and knowledge.
Thank you, Sanyi, Edit and Sanyi for the work done organizing memoQfest. Thank you to everyone who attended. It was nice to meet you and hope we will meet again soon.
Peter Reynolds
memoQ co-CEO
