Way2Global hosts the first Women in Localization event in Italy – POSTPONED

A few weeks ago, we proudly announced our offices had been chosen as the venue for inauguration of the Italian chapter of Women in Localization (WIL) on 26 February.

In the run-up to the event, we’d like to express again just how delighted Way2Global is to be involved in such an important event, not only for the industry in which we operate — the localization industry — but also because of female empowerment, a topic that is very close to our heart.

“Empowerment” is a powerful word that expresses the ability to convey strength, courage and trust, all at the same time.

Today a mere 26% of female professionals work with data and AI around the world, only 1 out of 6 IT experts is a woman. In the IT industry, women are paid an average 20% less than their male colleagues. This means that female empowerment is an emergency and that there is still a lot of work to be done for “women and technology” to fight the gender gap.

The same goes for our industry, the localization industry, consisting of 80% IT and therefore dominated by AI, machine translation, neural networks and big data (corpora).

As the passionate founder of the first ever female start-up Benefit Corporation, our CEO Laura Gori has met the challenge of combining this innovative type of sustainable enterprise with female leadership and transformed it into the company’s mission. It is leadership marked by resilience, flexibility and inclusiveness while also embracing kindness, openness and willingness — the key to creating a fairer, more sustainable economy.

In this context, technological innovation is used to leverage social impact and female empowerment. It nourishes relations with our community of translators and forges a new work ethos grounded in partnership, sharing and win-win models, in line with the Language Industry 4.0 project that defines us.

In the Benefit Corporation universe, the revolutionary idea of “sustainable business” identifies enterprise as an act of service and the business person’s desire to nurture society and the planet, in addition to profit. This paradigmatic change is motivated by more than just fleeting bouts of conscience. It is above all a veritable economic mindset — ethical business is a leverage for competitiveness and a driver of growth.

This forges the full identity of perspectives, as defined by Liesl Leary-Perez, Vice President of Women in Localization, who affirms that “Women in Localization is not just a place where women can share stories, be guided and valued. It is also a place where companies can learn to transcend unconscious prejudices which are preventing them from achieving more success. It is a place where it is possible to learn to communicate, cooperate and interact with all employees, resulting in greater employee satisfaction and a type of customer service that will guide the growth of profits.”

Women in Localization is a non-profit organisation that aims to promote and support the global community of women in the localization industry, and the soon to be inaugurated Italian chapter will join a number of existing ones in other countries.

The opportunity to host the début at our premises will enable us to contribute even more actively toward promotion, networking and growth in our sector, in full consonance with the Women in Localization mission and our very own “Translations that care”.

The event will take place at Way2Global, via Padre Reginaldo Giuliani 10/A, 20125 Milan (MI)
on Wednesday 26 February from 18:30 to 21:30
For more information and to confirm your presence: https://lnkd.in/gSsghic