Read on to find out more about whatā€™s on at each conference and how you can participate.

19ā€“20 September, London

This yearā€™s ATC Summit kicks off with a look mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the language services industry and beyond. Automation, artificial intelligence and machine translation are all also on the agenda.

Our Executive Chairman Jesper Sandberg says on the Summit:Ģżā€œI keep going back to the ATC Summit because the UK is our home market and itā€™s the best event in the UK for us to meet all our most important industry peers. This year Iā€™m particularly looking forward to hearing other peopleā€™s take on mergers and acquisitions, artificial intelligence and Brexit.ĢżThis yearā€™s venue is truly something special and quite out of the ordinary for an ATC conference!ā€

7ā€“8 November, Brussels

Translating Europe is a project launched in 2014 by the European Commission to bring together different stakeholders in the language industry, such as language services companies, universities, the public sector and national language institutes.

The sixth Translating Europe Forum will be held this year in Brussels on the topic ā€œTranslation all around us ā€“ The added value of translation in business and societyā€. STP will have a presence in the form of our very own Anu-Carnegie Brown, who will participate in a panel discussion on the topic ā€œCustomer relations: meeting clientsā€™ needs and creating valueā€.

Registration for the conference is . If you canā€™t attend in person, you can follow along online, as the entire conference will be livestreamed via the link above.

5ā€“6 December, Hamburg

Now in its fourth year, Eliaā€™s Focus on Project Management is the language industryā€™s only event devoted to project management. The event is spread over two days. On the first day, four expert speakers from within the language industry deliver seminars, while on the second day they moderate interactive workshops on the same topics.

This year, our Managing Director Anu-Carnegie Brown will deliver a presentation on the topic ā€œUnderstanding the bigger picture: The context of service provision in the global translation marketā€. In it, sheā€™ll talk about how the job of a project manager looks different at different LSPs. At one, a PM might be a cog in a streamlined machine that consists of a salesperson, account manager, language engineer, vendor manager, graphic designer and quality control colleague. At another, one PM might perform all of those tasks.

The best PMs understand how their role fits into the bigger picture. The broader your vision, the more value you can add. That bigger picture could simply be the service provided by your own organisation, or it might be the complex network of the global language industry.

The presentation and workshop is exclusive to conference attendees. and donā€™t miss out!

Find out more about the role played by language industry associations such as the ATC, mentioned above, in our Industry Insights video series.

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This August saw the celebration of the third year of our presence in Varna, Bulgaria. Back in 2016, we started the process of setting up an office in a city and a country that was previously unknown to us. As talent in our industry is sometimes hard to find, we knew we had to look beyond our traditional home markets of the UK and the Nordic countries to continue our growth.

Varna became an obvious choice after our initial visit. This Black Sea resort is popular with tourists in the summer, but dies down somewhat in the winter. ±õ³Łā€™s brimming with a local, young and motivated workforce, but itā€™s not so large as to feel impersonal. It struck a good balance for us as a company.

Weā€™d heard success stories from another UK-based language service provider whoā€™d set up shop in Varna, and this partnership was crucial in the early days. STPā€™s Managing Director, Anu Carnegie Brown, says: ā€œWe saw that theyā€™d built a successful branch there, and they certainly seemed to have great team spirit and staff morale. In fact they helped us immensely to get started.ā€

Our expansion into Bulgaria represented a turning point in STPā€™s history. Until then, weā€™d only ever had a physical presence in the UK or the Nordic countries. As our no-nonsense culture is a crucial part of our DNA, we were worried about how that would come over in a new country. What we found was that our Bulgarian colleagues shared our open, purposeful communication style, which has long been a defining feature of STP and a key to its success.

Anu concludes, ā€œWhat a journey itā€™s been: a steep learning curve with exponential team growth, plenty of trial and error from the management team and heroic personal contributions from our Bulgarian colleagues who joined us at the start. I remember going to Varna in March 2016 to interview the first PM applicants, and I see what a long way weā€™ve come already. We have a thriving PM team as well as HR, admin and tech staff in Varna. These are motivated, smart people, who get the STP ethos, our work ethic and our Nordic casual dress code.ā€

Employee office exchange

With just under half of our employees working remotely and the rest spread across our offices in the UK, Sweden and Bulgaria, we think itā€™s vital to try and find ways for our employees to form relationships with each other and gain an understanding of their colleaguesā€™ work ā€“ no matter where theyā€™re based.

One of the ways we try and foster internal connections is to offer our staff the chance to go and work in our Varna office for a week at a time. With the bulk of our project managers based in this location, many of our translators and UK-based employees will never have met their Bulgarian colleagues in person.

Turning what can be impersonal digital relationships into friendly, personal ones through face-to-face meetings improves colleaguesā€™ mutual respect, understanding of their roles and responsibilities, and means we get to know each other better as people, rather than just workmates.

Anna Lenartowska is one of our remote project managers, based in Devon. She recently went to work in Bulgaria for a week, and greatly enjoyed the experience: ā€œSpending a week in the Varna office was a lot of fun. Working remotely full time, itā€™s very easy to get stuck in a bubble of your own small team and certain way of doing stuff.ā€

Anna got to know her fellow project managers in person and learned new ways of working too: ā€œSpending time with other teams not only allowed me to finally put faces to the names, but also pick up some new tips and tricks.ā€

Another plus was the chance to share her knowledge and experience. Anna continues, ā€œI also spent some time shadowing junior PMs, offering advice on things that may be obvious to more experienced PMs but not necessarily to newbies, such as translator selection, CAT tool troubleshooting, etc.ā€

Of course, a trip to the resort town of Varna wasnā€™t all about the work ā€“ there were some secondary benefits for the soul to boot: ā€œIt was also really nice to enjoy some proper summer weather for a bit!ā€ Anna concludes.

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Which languages do you speak, Alex?
Bulgarian, English, Russian and Ukrainian, and a bit of French, I guess, though maybe not enough that counts! I was born in Ukraine, and Iā€™m Russian by nationality.

Where did you grow up?
In , itā€™s a city on the Black Sea. Similar to Varna, but bigger. Iā€™ve lived in Bulgaria on and off, I left and then I came back, so altogether Iā€™d say six years.

What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Well, I didnā€™t exactly have a dream job, but I always knew I was going to be connected to languages in some way. I wanted to be a translator at one point, an interpreter, but then suddenly I changed my mind. But hey, Iā€™m still working in the translation industry. I didnā€™t have an exact job in mind, I guess.

So youā€™d call yourself a bit of a language nerd?
Yeah, maybe. Iā€™m a grammar Nazi for sure, but Iā€™m [mostly] interested in cultures.

What was your first job?
My very first one was here in Bulgaria, in Varna. I was a hostess in a hotel in Golden Sands. It was a five-star hotel, and I was a hostess for four months. It was hard because we would work twelve hours straight ā€“ two daysā€™ work, two daysā€™ rest. It was tough, so obviously I made up my mind not to work in the hospitality industry.

How did you go from hospitality to working in the translation industry?
±õ³Łā€™s been quite a ride! I always wanted to do something with languages. I didnā€™t exactly want to be a translator into Russian, maybe once a long time ago, but now not really. I just wanted to try something different. Before Sandberg, I was working at an IT company doing customer support, but thatā€™s totally different from what I do now.

What does a normal day look like for a project manager at Sandberg?
Coffee. I need my coffee and then I can start the day!

We receive projects from the client that we need to set up in our system, prepare in the CAT tool (Trados Studio or memoQ, for example), optimise as best possible for the linguist, and we send out purchase orders, keep in constant contact with the client and linguist, answer queries from all possible sides. And in the meantime, we also handle old projects from previous days.

We also have meetings with other teams, vendor management and client services. Thereā€™s also approving projects for invoicing, so a lot of stuff!

Whatā€™s the most important quality for a good project manager?
There are a lot of things a good project manager should have. Attention to detail is important. Patience.

Finding the time for everything is also super important; time tracking. Sometimes the whole process can swamp you, but you need to keep an eye on things because you have several projects ongoing at the same time and you canā€™t be engulfed by one.

Multitasking is another very important thing! ±õ³Łā€™s hard to pick just one.

What is your favourite part of your role?
Getting my coffee! Delivering the projects, on time with great quality, without any issues. Thatā€™s the best, best thing.

Any advice for new people starting out in the industry?
My advice would be not to panic and not to get stressed by all the stuff, because itā€™s a lot. Iā€™ve been panicking myself, but you just need to get past it and youā€™ll be alright after some time!

Machine translation ā€“ friend or foe?
From the training Iā€™ve had, I understand that if the MT is good, then itā€™s good for the linguist. It can increase productivity and then itā€™s a friend. When proper MT is used for the proper job, then itā€™s definitely a friend.

If you could do any other job for a week, what would it be?
Testing beaches in different countries. Iā€™d get cocktails and read a book. I like to chill!

If you could wake up and be fluent in a new language, what would it be?
French. Iā€™ve always wanted to speak French. Iā€™ve been studying French all my life and Iā€™m still not fluent!

Whatā€™s your favourite word?
Bulgarian is a foreign language to me. I really like the word Š³ŃƒŃˆŠŗŠ°Š¼Ģż(²µ³ÜÅ”°ģ²¹³¾), ā€œto hugā€. Slavs tend to make words smaller and cuter, especially in Russian. Š“ŃƒŃˆŠø (²µ³ÜÅ”¾±)Ģżis a short version of this word and I really like it, I use it a lot at home!

My mother tongue, so to speak, is Russian. Ukrainian is a bit harder for me even though I was born there. But theyā€™re so different. People say Bulgarian is like Russian, but thatā€™s not true. I mean the Slavic languages are all similar, but still different.

People born in Odessa like me speak Russian mainly. But now with the political situation itā€™s a bit more complicated, I suppose.

Whatā€™s something about you that surprises people?
When I was smaller, I moved to the United Arab Emirates. I canā€™t speak Arabic though, I can only write my name.

People at work know me as a positive person, but once I showed up really tired and moody and everyone was asking if I was sick!

Describe yourself in three words.
Positive, international, sociable. I like to be around people. If I was working from home Iā€™d go crazy!

Do you have any hidden talents?
I can do origami, but only flowers, so Iā€™m not sure thatā€™s a talent! I can rollerblade pretty well and iceskate. I broke my hand when I was little, but that didnā€™t stop me. When my cast was removed, the first thing I did was go back and rollerblade.

±õ³Łā€™s fikaĢżtime. Tea or coffee?
Coffee, with milk and sugar.

Whatā€™s your idea of a perfect day?
To go to the beach and have drinks and see friends and listen to good music. ±õ³Łā€™s summer, thatā€™s all I can think about right now. I like winter too though, I prefer the cold to the heat. In winter we often go to the beach as well, just with coffee.

How do you unwind at the end of a long day?
I like to watch TV shows just to chill. I recently started watching Stranger Things. ±õ³Łā€™s good, really interesting. Before that I watched Game of Thrones. I was really disappointed by the last series! I recommend trying the books, I loved the books.

Where is your favourite place to be?
Where my close people are, my best friends and my husband. People are important to me.

Your dream travel destination?
Iā€™m going to Rome in October ā€“ Iā€™m really looking forward to that. Iā€™ve never been to Italy!

Describe Sandberg in three words.
Welcoming, challenging, fun.

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Heavy snowmelt is exposing residents to dangerous landslides, rendering large parts of the archipelagoā€™s main settlement, Longyearbyen, unhabitable. Residents are having to move and there is even ā€“ once frozen in permafrost ā€“ to somewhere less likely to succumb to avalanche and thawing.

Further south, in Iceland, glacial retreat is becoming steadily more evident. In 2014, Icelandā€™s smallest glacier, Okjƶkull, was the first glacier to be declassified as such by scientists. Its fate was subsequently . All of the islandā€™s glaciers are set to disappear by 2200 if things carry on as they are.

These apparently urgent and worrying events are symptoms of a bigger change: global heating. With an awareness that the Nordic countries will be one of the hardest hit regions, governments and citizens are taking action.

A tradition of caring for the environment

Across the Nordic region, there is a tradition of looking after the environment. One striking manifestation of this is a lack of litter and relatively low levels of pollutionĢżā€“ although these problems certainly do exist in larger urban areas. By contrast, rural Nordic landscapes can appear pristine by European standards. In remote pockets, it almost appears as if no one has ever inhabited the landscape.

Of course, there are many reasons for this. Most Nordic countries have fairly small populations relative to their land area, Denmark being a notable exception. Low population density means less strain on the land and less competition for resources. It also helps that the geography of certain parts of the region makes land unsuitable for agriculture. The further north you go, the poorer the soil and the harsher the climatic conditions.

Low population density means less strain on the land and less competition for resources.

But the fact that there are relatively few people is not the only explanation for the Nordic nationsā€™Ģżtradition of land stewardship ā€“ itā€™s cultural too. The Ģżenables Finns, Icelanders, Norwegians and Swedes to spend more time on the land and perhaps creates a greater sense of ownership and investment in its preservation.

Icelanders and Norwegians in particular feel a deep sense of connection to the land. Both countries underwent intensive urbanisation in the latter part of the 20thĢżcentury, but until then were agricultural nations with highly dispersed populations. Theyā€™ve also both been historically reliant on fishing, and so perhaps theyā€™ve learnt the hard way that nature can take away as much as it gives.

Early adopters of renewable energy

In terms of energy resources, the Nordic region as a whole is perhaps uniquely well endowed. Norway is famed for its oil wealth, yet its mountainous geography and abundant water and wind resources mean that its green energy potential is massive. 98% of electricity generation in Norway is already renewable, with of that generation coming from hydropower.

Neighbouring Denmark has seen massive renewables growth in recent decades. It has a reputation as a pioneer of wind power ā€“ a technology which it exports all over the world (two of the worldā€™s biggest wind turbine manufacturers, Ƙrsted and Vestas, are Danish). This plays to Denmarkā€™s strengths: unlike Norway, it is extremely flat, but its proximity to the air currents of the North Sea means that it is able to meet of its electricity demand from wind alone.

Denmark has a reputation as a pioneer of wind power ā€“ a technology which it exports all over the world.

Iceland occupies a completely unique position in a Nordic and global context. Located above a volcanic hotspot on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the country is able to meet 99% of its domestic heating needs with geothermal energy. Combined with hydropower, , which is 99.9% renewable.

On the other hand, Sweden has more diverse energy generation profile. Along with Finland, itā€™s the only Nordic country to use nuclear power. It has significant hydropower resources too: together nuclear and hydro deliver . Biomass is also a significant contributor to the energy mix, being used primarily for space heating. Today, as in many countries, wind power is the fastest growing renewable energy source.

Around is produced from hydropower. As in Sweden, biomass makes up a relatively high share of electricity production too, at around a sixth. A distinctive feature of the Finnish energy mix is the contribution made by black liquor, a waste product of the wood industry, which is gasified and burnt as fuel.

Leading lifestyle change

Despite the Nordic countriesā€™ above-average green energy track record, the climate challenge cannot be overcome by this alone. The biggest gains stand to be made from permanent changes in lifestyle that reduce individualsā€™ carbon footprints.

Norway is building on its green energy foundation with a rapid take-up of electric vehicles. Theyā€™ve been topping the rankings for some time in terms of the proportion of new vehicles sold that are fully electric. In March this year, that figure , a new global record. It plans to ban sales of internal combustion engine vehicles by 2025.

In Sweden as in other Nordic countries, the countryā€™s geography and population distribution mean that domestic flights are convenient and relatively cheap. In the first quarter of this year, airport operator in passenger numbers, coinciding with an 8% uptick in train journeys noted by Swedish Railways for the same period.

If there is a figure who best embodies Nordic progressiveness on climate issues, itā€™s likely to be Greta Thunberg (pictured left, photo: ). She began protesting for more urgent action on climate change outside the Swedish parliament at the age of 15. She was the founder of the school strikes for climate movement, which has spread to many other countries across the globe.

The shift from air to train travel or ā€œflight shameā€, namely an embarrassment about taking a flight when another option is available. Gretaā€™s personal refusal to fly, instead opting to take the train for trips around Sweden and abroad, is thought to have popularised the idea of flygskamĢżā€“ a phenomenon which is part of a wider awakening to environmental issues in the Nordic region and beyond.

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