TranslateCluj is excited to team up with Richard Brooks and bring you his very practical and to-the-point strategic growth workshop, trusted by LSP leaders and executives from all over the world. Join Richard on Saturday, 22 March 2025, for a hands-on workshop that will help you move away from commoditisation and develop distinctive market positions that command premium rates! Witnessing Richard's talks and workshops is an experience in itself. Don't miss out on this great opportunity to learn from one of the finest experts of the Translation Industry.
Building on the success of the Transylvanian Evening we organised in 2024, we're planning a live music party with exquisite food for the 2025 edition of TranslateCluj. Join us once more on the dance floor and show the world how much you like to party! Other informal networking events will be announced as we move along, so definitely keep an eye on our announcements.
Speakers & Topics
Richard Brooks
Richard Brooks is an experienced business executive and Cranfield School of Management Fellow with extensive global board experience. He specialises in driving B2B value creation and key account management, leveraging expertise in AI, M&A advisory, and innovation to deliver results across international markets.
Richard’s career spans diverse leadership roles, including CEO, senior advisor, and consultant, across industries and continents. He is currently a Visiting Faculty at Cranfield School of Management, where he bridges cutting-edge theory with practical business strategies.
With an MBA from Cranfield and a commitment to continuous learning, Richard brings a unique blend of practical industry insights and academic rigour to his consultancy and teaching. His focus on strategic sales, business growth, and key account management makes him a valuable asset in driving success for organisations.
In this presentation, Richard Brooks will demonstrate how AI is transforming the localisation and translation industry, offering practical strategies to go beyond traditional services. He will explore how generative AI and large language models can streamline workflows, enhance creativity, and open up new revenue opportunities.
Richard will also share actionable insights on leveraging your organisation’s ecosystem, avoiding common pitfalls in AI adoption, and creating value for your customers in a competitive market. Packed with real-world examples and cutting-edge ideas, this talk will equip you to lead the way in the future of work.
Break free from the price-driven race to the bottom and discover how to create genuine value for your customers. In this immersive, full-day workshop, you'll work alongside fellow LSP leaders to design your approach to customer solutions. Using the unique Localization Inspiration Cards and proven innovation frameworks, you'll walk away with a concrete strategy to differentiate your services and capture higher-value opportunities.
Trusted by hundreds of localization professionals worldwide, this workshop has become the go-to strategic planning event for forward-thinking LSPs. From Europe to Asia, from boutique language service providers to industry leaders, participants consistently emerge with breakthrough insights and actionable plans. Through hands-on exercises with the Localization Inspiration Cards, you'll uncover hidden opportunities in your market and develop practical solutions that set your LSP apart.
Your workshop leader, Richard Brooks, brings 30 years of hands-on experience in the localization industry to the table. As a university lecturer, strategic consultant, and LSP veteran, Richard combines academic insight with practical expertise in strategic development, value creation, and M&A. This unique blend of real-world experience and theoretical knowledge has helped LSPs worldwide break free from commoditisation and develop distinctive market positions that command premium rates.
Join me for an engaging 2-hour in-person workshop where you’ll reimagine your business model to deliver groundbreaking value to your customers. I’ll provide you with powerful tools and business frameworks to analyze the markets you operate in, helping you uncover the challenges your customers face. Localization companies add an enormous amount of value to their customers, yet it often feels counterintuitive to price these services as a commodity. I’ll propose that the antidote to this is to understand the unique value we create and position our offerings to solve problems that customers are eager to invest in.
This session will guide you and your team through a fast-paced, hands-on process to identify critical customer challenges and craft innovative solutions, empowering you to stand out in a competitive market.
Radu Orghidan
Radu Orghidan serves as the Global SVP of Data & AI Strategy at Endava, driving high-impact initiatives that align AI innovation with business growth within the AI Pod and Go-To-Market team.
With over two decades of expertise in research, innovation, and strategic leadership, Radu has consistently pioneered AI-driven solutions that transform industries and elevate human capabilities. His PhD in Computer Vision from the University of Girona and Executive MBA from the University of Hull equip him with a unique blend of technical prowess and business acumen, positioning him to architect AI strategies that fuel organisational transformation and sustained value creation.
Fluent in five languages and having lived on three continents, Radu brings a global perspective to his work. He is also passionate about technology, innovation, skiing,
Learn how Artificial Intelligence (AI) can radically transform your translation or language service business. We will go beyond machine translation. By using large language models and intelligent agent systems, you can automate tasks, find new clients and improve the quality of your services.
In this presentation, you’ll learn how to approach three essential challenges:
- Identifying and attracting new leads by generating custom lists and messages
- Automating administrative and project management tasks to save precious time—that you can spend on an extra coffee, and why not, learning a new language
- Improving the quality and consistency of translations by effective glossary and term base management
You’ll learn practical and readily available techniques, which will give you a competitive edge in a technology-dominated market.
Don’t miss out on the opportunity to protect and grow your business. While you hesitate, your competition might already take advantage of these technologies to attract the clients you target.
Let’s take the step towards the future of translation services together!
Dina Climatiano
Dina Climatiano is a Moscow-born, Israeli freelance translator and editor based in Bucharest. She focuses on marketing, literary and academic texts, as well as localization. She primarily translates from Romanian to English translations and edits English texts, but sometimes shakes the dust off her other languages, Hebrew and Russian.
As a bilingual immigrant in Israel, languages and translation have always been a part of everyday life. After graduating high school, she served in the IDF as an intelligence analyst and occasional translator. She studied music education in Tel Aviv. Upon moving to Romania, she decided to immerse herself in the Romanian language by earning an MA in literary translation from the University of Bucharest, which then turned into a vocation.
Her background in music and her experience as a “twice immigrant” mean that the skills she relies on most are listening and forming meaningful connections. She takes pride in working closely with her clients and colleagues to understand their needs and challenges, exchange ideas, craft tailored solutions and produce quality texts.
Dina is also a weightlifter, divemaster, amateur chef, huge nerd, and last but not least – proud cat mom. All of those, believe it or not, come in handy in her work.
For the month of January 2025, I will commit to getting creative every single day. This means trying my hand at new and old things, redefining creativity and yes, probably failing miserably for your entertainment, as I will be documenting my creative shenanigans for the purposes of this presentation.
The rules are simple: produce something every day – a drawing, a poem, a new dish, an essay, choreography, designs for an elaborate cat tree, a training video, a vocal warmup… Anything goes! As long as you can perceive or interact with it in any way.
Now, I don’t know where this will lead. I don’t know if anything will come of it. I’m pretty sure most of my “products” will absolutely suck. But I am hoping that this experiment, this act of doing for the sake of doing, will create its own momentum and take shape. I shall present my findings and at least some of my results. Best case scenario is I inspire some of you to take on a more active approach to creativity. At the very least you’ll get a good chuckle.
Jerzy Czopik
Born in Cracow, Jerzy studied mechanical engineering until moving to Germany in 1986. Living in Dortmund from then he finished his engineering studies in Germany. In 1990 he started to translate, and in 1991 began his specialization in technical translation. In 1992 he became a sworn translator and interpreter for German and Polish.
Jerzy is a self-taught user of CAT tools, and after many years of experience is now a trainer for SDL software. He also runs a webinar series called “Ask Dr. Studio” for the BDÜ (the German federal association of translators and interpreters). In April 2018 he
became the vice president of the BDÜ.
Jerzy is also auditor for LICS (Language Industry Certification System, awarding ISO 17100 certificates). Since 2010 together with his wife he owns an EN 15038 / ISO 17100 certificate.
Receiving a job from a customer is nice. Typically the jobs come via e-mail or some platforms. Sometimes they are given us via WeTransfer or similar source. Once the job is assigned to us, we need to deal with the files included there. First step is storing the files somewhere. Here the first question arises: where? Next question is how to proceed with the files? Edit the originals or create copies and work with these? And so the journey of a translation process starts…
Nowadays many customers force us to use a wide variety of tools. Some of these tools are already well known and exist for long time. Others are new and quite often of limited functionality.
Having to deal with so many tools leads to very reduced productivity on our side. On the other hand, raising the price for our work in such cases will usually not work. So we are trapped in such situation… But there might be a solution, as many of the tools used allow us to export the content and process it in our way. What advantages does this have? We’ll take a look on some examples in the session.
Adela Preda
Adela Preda holds a degree in Philosophy from the University of Bucharest, enriched by a scholarship year in Dijon, France. With a professional journey spanning over 15 years in communication and marketing, Adela has built an impressive career, progressing from Junior PR roles to senior positions such as Creative Strategist, Head of Digital and Communication Director. Their international experience includes working in Malta, where they managed substantial digital communication budgets, and Lisbon, where she co-founded an online B2B digital advertising agency.
In recent years, Adela has shifted focus towards business consulting, creative workshops, occasional freelancing, and mentoring, with an emphasis on neutral communication, emotional resilience, organizational harmony and sustainability. Known for their flexibility and ability to navigate life’s challenges, Adela brings a profound understanding of how to manage moments of change and transformation, both professionally and personally.
In this workshop, participants will explore how embracing flexibility can become the key to navigating change in an ever-evolving world.
Drawing on over 15 years of marketing experience, the session will focus on adapting to shifts in technology, integrating AI into daily work, and building emotional resilience while fostering a growth mindset. Participants will learn how to transform anxiety and uncertainty into clarity, starting from self-confidence and leveraging the values and assets they’ve acquired so far, while discovering how transferable skills can empower translators to explore new opportunities. Through real-life stories and interactive exercises, they’ll learn how to turn change into an exciting opportunity.
Cătălina Bărbat
RWS Cluj
Cătălina Bărbat is a software engineering professional with a passion for developing and delivering high-quality localization solutions.
With extensive experience in building products such as Trados Cloud, WorldServer, and TMS, she enjoys working closely with teams to create impactful solutions that blend human expertise with technology.
In recent years, she has developed a deep appreciation for the localization industry, believing in the importance of balancing innovation with a human touch to meet customer needs effectively.
This talk explores the changing landscape of AI and content creation, showing how linguists and technology can work together in harmony. As language experts, linguists play a crucial role in maintaining quality and cultural accuracy, while advanced tools like Trados help simplify processes and offer valuable insights.
Attendees will discover how Trados is evolving to empower linguists, making tasks like reviewing and translation smarter, faster, and more aligned with company-specific requirements.
Ciprian Iovu
Ciprian Iovu is a Romanian freelance translator with over eight years of experience. His main areas of
specialisation are legal, IT and business translation. Passionate about bridging cultures and helping businesses
succeed globally, he works with international clients to deliver accurate and culturally relevant translations that
adhere to industry standards whilst meeting client expectations.
As a member of the TranslateCluj team, Ciprian contributes to the technical aspects of translation by offering
specialised training on CAT tools and authoring articles on translation technology. He regularly shares practical
knowledge with fellow translators to help them streamline workflows, boost productivity, and navigate the ever-
evolving landscape of translation tools.
With a keen interest in emerging translation technologies, Ciprian actively explores and tests new solutions to
assess their impact on the translation process. He remains dedicated to integrating innovation without
compromising quality, ensuring that technological developments enhance rather than replace the skills and
expertise of human translators.
TBA
Ioana Hosu
Emerson Cluj
With over 15 years of experience in Customer Service, Operations, and IT Applications, Ioana Hosu currently serves as an IT Program Manager at Emerson SRL. In this role, Ioana spearheads the integration of cutting-edge AI solutions to streamline and enhance day-to-day operations. Ioana's extensive background in managing complex IT projects and driving technological innovation has positioned her as a leader in the field.
TBA
Bogdan Lungu
Faculty of Journalism
Bogdan-Andrei Lungu is a digital rights activist and a PhD student at FSPAC, where he researches the concrete social effects of artificial intelligence on contemporary societies. He is academically interested in how artificial intelligence systems are changing human-robot power relations, perceptions of technology, and social dynamics. He has written for popular Romanian cultural outlets like Scena9 and continues to write for the Association for Technology and the Internet (ApTI) about how technology is changing our lives, how it impacts our democracy and our fundamental rights.
This presentation delves into the overarching changes brought forth with the advent of artificial intelligence technologies and their social effects on current day societies.
Our societies are becoming increasingly digitised, and most sectors, from academia and education to the manufacturing, research and translation are suffering great mutations with the rise of AI systems.
This talk investigates these profound changes in our societies, our self-perception in relation with AI, effects over industry, and what is being done about it at a European-legislative level.
Venue
Get to the venue
BUS (FROM AIRPORT)
Lines M41, M41L > 24, 30, 24 B
BOLT / TAXI
Bolt is the leading mobility app operating in Cluj. Alternatively, you can grab a taxi.
The DoubleTree by Hilton
This five-star hotel is an iconic landmark of Cluj, and was the host of TranslateCluj 2020, the previous edition of our conference.
HOTEL
Main Sponsor
Partners
