The story behind the Think Tank

From burnout to inspiration

It was around July 2024. That was a rough year for me, emotionally and physically. I was going through a burnout and feeling disconnected from my values and mission in life. I was very demotivated and became cynical about our industry. Was any of this worth it? Are we doing something good for society and humanity? Everyone seemed quite demotivated, translators were dramatically suffering the consequences of AI and inflation, smaller companies were also struggling, layoffs hither and thither…

It was in the middle of that chaos that I came up with this idea. I wanted to create an online community and a think tank with a focus on AI applied to localization. I intended to support industry colleagues and friends during this period of change and uncertainty. I figured if I was feeling demotivated and lost, more people would be feeling the same, and they could also use a hand. It would be a community to bring together all the different stakeholders in the industry: language service providers, localization buyers, language technology providers, freelancers, academics and researchers, and students. The online community would live in an online platform; it would be subscription-based, and members would have access to events, networking, research, and reports. I even had a back-of-the-napkin business plan for what I wanted to achieve in 2025, 2026, and 2027.

Then, I tried to bring the idea and the vision to reality and started to think about the HOW. I had to create a website, buy a domain, create a YouTube channel for content, and, of course, a newsletter. Where would I create the newsletter? Should I do it on LinkedIn? Substack? Maybe a dedicated newsletter service? How much money do I need to get this started? And will the community live in an online community platform like Circle? How many reports would I create, and what would be the cadence of the newsletter? And how would I organize the events?

After some thinking, I started to feel overwhelmed. Trying to come up with a business plan and execute it in the middle of a burnout is not easy. I didn’t have the financial support to run this online community as my full-time job, nor the time and energy to do it on the side. Everything seemed so difficult, and I started to question myself. I cannot do this; who am I kidding? I breathed and tried to take small steps. I bought a website domain and tried to start there. But then life happened. I changed jobs, I bought an old, wrecked garage to try and build a house, and I also had a few conferences and business trips lined up that I had to prepare and attend, so I put the idea of the AI for Loc Think Tank on the back burner.

From feeling overwhelmed to action: The power of community

Flash forward, it was the 6th of November, and I was on a plane from Alicante to Brussels to participate in a round table at the Translating Europe Forum (TEF) conference. The panel’s idea was to become an open conversation between an LSP representative (me) and a freelancer (the extraordinary freelance subtitler Tina Shortland). It was my industry friend and amazing tech consultant, Yota Georgakopoulou, who came up with the idea for this panel titled Freelancers and language service providers: different views, same goals? and invited me to join. This panel made me think even more about the challenges that our industry is facing and highlighted the need for collaboration between the different professionals in the ecosystem. Our industry felt very polarized, and this was the first time we had a candid and civilized conversation in front of hundreds of people. And it felt good, it felt constructive and necessary.

Tina, Yota, and Belén during TEF’s panel.

At the same event, I had the chance to reconnect with industry friends whom I deeply admire and adore, such as Marina Pantcheva, Andrea Ballista, and Balazs Kis. I was lucky enough to meet with wonderful people such as Coral Diez Carbajo, Monica Albini, and John O’Shea. We had very stimulating conversations about our industry, how we were feeling, what the future looked like, and what we could do to make it better. I started to feel less cynical and more hopeful. Specifically, the conversations with my dear friend and brilliant mind Marina Pantcheva made me realize that the idea of a Think Tank was not so crazy and impossible after all. She also felt that we needed some sort of online space to share AI-related news, exchange ideas and lessons learned, and support each other in this transformative journey.

Coral, Marina, and I holding a fun AI-inspired sign at the TEF photocall.

On the plane back, I was so fired up with all the conversations, the boost of energy and motivation that I started to jot down some ideas for an AI For Loc Think Tank 2.0 plan, perhaps less ambitious and more focused on community—I didn’t have to do all by myself, and I started to understand that the WHY was more important than the HOW.

Hand-written notes taken on the plane while I was flying back from Brussels to Alicante.

Coincidentally, just one week after, I was on another plane, this time heading to beautiful, eclectic, and cold Budapest for another conference: Languages and the Media. The flow of energizing and motivating conversations continued, this time with my beloved friends Gabriel Karandyšovský and Stavroula Sokoli, and many more industry friends who attended the conference in the breathtaking venue of New York Anantara Hotel in the heart of Budapest. All this motivation, together with the energy of my partner in crime, Marina Pantcheva, took us to create a LinkedIn group back in November 2024, where we invited the founding members of the Think Tank and created the initial community post. This is what we wrote about the Think Tank's main goal:

This community's main goal is to bring together a passionate group of language professionals with diverse backgrounds and good hearts to discuss innovation in the localization industry and reshape the future of our industry from a place of common sense, inspiration, and empathy.

Okay, it was out there now. There was no going back! The idea was to let the group be for a couple of months, gather feedback from the members, and then officially launch the Think Tank in January 2025, after inviting additional founding members based on the recommendations of our thinkers. And we did it! We had our first meeting on January 21st, 2025, and we have been up and running since then.

The secret sauce: diversity of voices and no hidden agenda

Diversity is a keyword for this Think Tank.

Our voices and perspectives are unique for different reasons:

• we are not trying to sell anything, and we don’t have a financial interest in making technology work (or not work)

• we don’t see ourselves as some sort of Illuminati with all the answers to all the questions; we’re imperfect, we’re learning, we’re vulnerable, and we want to share our journey with the community to try and contribute to altruistric knowledge sharing to the best of our capacity

• we have gathered a group of industry professionals who represent different sides of the industry (language service providers, language technology providers, localization buyers, freelancers, students, and academics) and contribute to this community as INDIVIDUALS (yes, our opinions, our own!)

We all bring different takes on the same topics, which allows us to have a balanced view of the topics at stake. Our industry is extremely polarized, and we need a safe space where stakeholders with opposing views can have civilized conversations about specific areas of interest. We will likely not reach an agreement on specific subjects, but we will be able to provide a contrasting opinion on certain topics, which is what we think our industry is missing right now.

So, reader, from this Think Tank you can expect a diversity of ideas. We are not pro or against AI by default. It all depends. We are a group of open-minded people with good hearts who are willing to listen to the person in front of us with empathy and curiosity. Sometimes, you will read an article from a Think Tank member who passionately talks about the goods of technology, while other times you might read someone warning about the negative consequences of implementing AI in localization workflows. We support all views as long as they are respectful, and that is what makes this Think Tank special. Moreover, all the information that we put out there is contrasted and created following scientific rigor. We are not here for the clickbait, we are here to curate and democratize AI for loc knowledge and fight back misinformation and fake news.

I am here to try and create a better future for everyone in the localization industry. And there is no future without community.