Interpretation Technologies Alliance Debuts at Critical Turning Point for Industry

Six founding members announce goals for deployment of interpretation technologies to unified communications industry at key industry conference.

On March 14, Cadence Translate, along with five partner companies, announced the launch of theInterpretation Technologies Alliance (ITA)at the 10th annual Globalization and Localization Association (GALA) conference. This non-profit initiative is an advocacy effort at a critical time for the broader language services industry, as the confluence of globalization and technology is driving the private sector to embrace interpreting in new and exciting ways.

Globalization requires multilingual communication. Multinationals and cross-border investors are turning to a new generation of on-demand simultaneous interpreting solutions to connect with foreign partners, experts, employees, and customers. This trend, combined with the rise of cloud-based unified communications services and increased interest in AI-powered translation, inspired the alliance’s founding members to take action.

“As more of the world’s meetings take place in the cloud, it is important to make them effortlessly multilingual,” said Barry Slaughter Olsen, a professor of interpretation at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (MIIS) and co-founder of industry trade group InterpretAmerica. “The ITA brings together passionate entrepreneurs and technologists to solve this problem and accelerate market adoption,” he continued.

In addition to Cadence, founding members include Boostlingo, Headvox, Kudo, VoiceBoxer, and ZipDX. In the coming weeks and months, the alliance will work to highlight use cases of interpreting technology through private sector trade shows and industry media, with a focus on fast-growth and non-traditional sources of demand, including the financial services, high-tech, and transportation industries.

“There is a wealth of knowledge and insight lying just across the language barrier,” says Jonathan Rechtman, co-founder of Cadence Translate and interim director and secretary of the alliance. “ITA showcases the technology and talent that can deliver tremendous value to international investors and managers.”

“ITA is dedicated to expanding the size of multilingual meetings,” adds Fardad Zabetian, CEO and founder of Kudo, “the number of decentralized meetings has been growing and we are passionate to add language capabilities to those meetings.”

The alliance is recruiting an executive director, and interested parties can learn more at the alliance’s website.

Applications for new members will open later this year. A waitlist can be joined by emailing membership@itaglobal.org.

If you're Interested in cloud-based interpretation solutions for your own business, contact Cadence today via sales@cadencetranslate.com to speak with a customer service representative.