S05E05: Vamos Juntos Conference

Intro

Hello and welcome to the Translation Company Talk, a weekly podcast show focusing on translation services and the language industry. The Translation Company Talk covers topics of interest for professionals engaged in the business of translation, localization, transcription, interpreting, and language technology. The Translation Company Talk is sponsored by Hybrid Lynx. Your host is Sultan Ghaznawi with today’s episode.

 

Sultan Ghaznawi

Hello and welcome to today’s episode of the Translation Company Talk podcast. We will be hearing from Charles Campbell about an exciting event underway, for language service providers in Lima, Peru in March of this year. Charles is speaking on behalf of Juntos, an association of language service providers in South America and the Caribbean. Charles Campbell is the founder and president of the Translation Back office, now known as TBO, a leading provider of project management, translation, and localization services with offices in Argentina, Peru, Thailand, Ukraine, and Vietnam.

 

Originally from New Zealand, Charles has traveled widely over four continents and has lived, for the last 20 years, in South America. Charles has been a frequent speaker at public events and conferences, having made presentations in New Jersey, Buenos Aires, London, Rhode Island, San Antonio, San Francisco, Wiesbaden, Lima and Cordoba. Charles has published two articles in Multilingual Magazine on the future of the localization industry and authored an article on vendor management in the ATA Chronicle.

 

Charles Campbell has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Spanish from the University of Auckland, New Zealand, where he graduated top of his class in 1997. Charles has also completed postgraduate courses at Harvard University and the Universidad Austral in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

 

Charles, welcome back to the Translation Company Talk podcast. How are you?

Charles Campbell

I’m doing really well.

 

Sultan Ghaznawi

For those people listening to you for the first time, please give them some background about yourself and your work and what you do.

Charles Campbell

Sure. So, my name is Charles Campbell. I’m originally from New Zealand, but I’ve been living in South America for as long as I can remember. I work at TBO and TBO Talent. We provide talent services to the translation, localization, and interpreting industry. I’m on the board of Juntos, which is a non-profit association representing translation, localization, and interpreting companies in Latin America and the Caribbean. Four kids, so busy times.

 

Sultan Ghaznawi

I’m familiar with your story. We talked about this in the last episode, or last time we were having this conversation. Let’s talk about what has been happening with you on the business front, since we last spoke. What’s different? What has changed?

Charles Campbell

Gosh, well, that’s a very good question. There was a lot of fear about a year ago that the United States, and therefore the rest of the developed world, could be sucked into some kind of recession. Then that sort of progressed to being the recession, that wasn’t. Now, statistically, the economy seems to be good. But in our industry, there has not been a rollercoaster, but there’s been some ups and downs in terms of confidence, I think, partly due to the recession that we’ve often boasted that our industry is recession-proof. And maybe it is.

 

Also due to AI, artificial intelligence. And there seems to be a real divide. There’s a big divide in our industry about how to approach it. Big generalization on my part, but maybe some people embracing the change, especially younger people, see it as an opportunity, see it as cool, excited, whatever. Other people are freaking out, especially if they feel that they don’t want to reskill or retool their brains at this point. I like doing human translations. That’s why I got my master’s degree or something like that. I didn’t get my master’s degree to do data analytics. I’m a linguist, or something like that. I don’t have a master’s degree. I’m playing the devil’s advocate.

 

So there seems to be a lot of buzz about that, that I think has resulted in a plateauing of certain demand for some companies, whereas for other companies it’s as usual. Well, I don’t think, sorry, that business as usual is the expression that anybody, it’s not business as usual, but some people are doing really, really well. And some people may have plateaued. And in my experience at TBO, we’ve had an extremely busy 12-month period.

 

Reflecting back on 2023, we rebranded from translation back office to TBO, which was a fantastically invigorating and rejuvenating process. We worked really hard to support the Vamos Juntos conference in Rio de Janeiro in March 23, which was a big success.

 

We also publicly launched new brands at TBO for services that we had been providing for a long time but have their own brand identity. I specifically refer to TBO Play, which is our games unit, TBO Lab, which is our educational unit, and TBO Media, which is our transcription, dubbing voiceover unit. So, it’s been a really busy, busy time for us. I will say that growth has been lower than what was projected, but we’re still growing a healthy, exciting company full of passionate people.

 

So I’m here at the beach in Uruguay just on my very last day of my annual vacation and all recharged and turned up here and spiritually and physically to take on this year. I am really optimistic that the fear part associated with AI and the fear part associated with recession will blow over and that this will be an even stronger year than last year. That’s my take. I am hoping that the layoffs that some companies have gone through have come to an end.

 

Interestingly reinforced a theory that I have had for a very long time, as the founder and owner of a small business, I often have to pitch potential clients and employees about the value of working with small business rather than huge business. Interestingly enough, the layoffs that have taken place in our industry have taken place at large companies. Most small companies and medium-sized companies have by and large retained their staff. So, what does that mean for customers? You’re dealing with the same people you always enjoy dealing with, and you’re not losing talent and dealing with new people every couple of weeks. And for employees and contractors, it means greater work stability. So that’s my pitch for the lives of small and medium-sized businesses.

 

Sultan Ghaznawi

Charles, just a follow-up to that. How is the state of the industry and the verticals where your company operates? You mentioned education and media and so forth. The impact of AI, economic uncertainty and so many other factors, political. How are those verticals playing out for you?

Charles Campbell

Well, the two, I mean, the strongest verticals for TBO, our education and healthcare and medical. Those two verticals have been very strong. Media had a difficult year because of the strike, Hollywood and film and recording industries. So, it was a tricky year for the media, but it didn’t stop us from moving forward with our plans. I specifically see any particular vertical being better or worse. But I think that in our industry, healthcare and education, I mean, the social needs associated with translation and localization are so large, that I believe that they are by and large recession-proof and also very wary about AI.

 

Sultan Ghaznawi

Today, we are going to be speaking about Vamos Juntos. We covered it last time as well. How about you give us a refresher regarding this organization and the event that it has planned out for the year?

Charles Campbell

Sure. So Juntos is the association that represents translation, interpreting and localization companies in Latin America and the Caribbean. It’s all the way down from Argentina at the bottom up to Mexico and the Caribbean at the top. It’s a regional organization. The main objective of Juntos is to raise standard, raise the bar of the entire translation, interpreting and localization industry in the region by creating opportunities for networking, benchmarking, coaching, mentoring and learning, specifically through on-site events, also monthly webinars, getting to know each other better and so forth.

 

We’re in the process of facilitating the creation of national associations. There are very few countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. They have national associations. So, we’re in the process of facilitating the creation of national associations. It’s completely different, for example, from Europe or North America, where there are national associations in every country, big or small. So, a lot of work is going on there.

 

We’ve signed partnership agreements with all the other associations in the world. Well, almost all of them. Yesterday, in fact, I had a very, very interesting and fruitful discussion with the Association of Language Companies of Africa, which has just started. So, lots to learn from everybody. Vamos Juntos is the conference of Juntos, the flagship annual conference where we all get together, break bread and have some amazing sessions. We have speakers from around the world. We have a world class event that is designed to give Latin America and the Caribbean a voice and to put us up at the table with everybody.

 

Vamos Juntos this year is going to be in March, March 14 to 16 in Lima, Peru. Lima is an amazing destination. It has some of the world’s best restaurants. It’s very well recognized for foodie scene. The venue is right in front of the ocean. So wonderful sea views. People have been emailing me and messaging me about having Pisco Sours, which is the local national cocktail drink. I only have one or two. Three is danger.

 

We’re really excited because we have organized a schedule program of speakers for the event that is, as I said, world class, second to none and at a Latin American price, which is really cool. It’s necessary because Latin America, you know, big play and travel costs for attendees, whether they’re coming from other parts of Latin America or North America and Europe are higher than normal. So, the good thing is that Lima is not an expensive place. It’s like the high quality of service and food and everything you get there. So very, very excited about that.

 

Sultan Ghaznawi

Charles, how was the last conference? What was the turnout like?

Charles Campbell

Good question. So, we had planned to do an executive retreat in Rio de Janeiro, aiming for like 20 people, a modest beginning, you know, to our first-ever event. We started late and started organizing in August of 2022. And there was a coup d’etat or an attempted coup d’etat trying to take over the capital on January of 23. But that didn’t stop us. And instead of having an executive retreat with 20 people, we had a full-blown conference with attendees.

 

It was a big success in terms of the venue, it was great right in front of the beach. The speakers were amazing. We had speakers from Germany, Italy, the US, Brazil, the host country, Argentina, Peru, Canada and Mexico. It was just great. Really, really enjoyed it. My friends and I learned a lot. And of course, for Juntos, it was a profitable event. It was very important. It was a new association. Bootstrapping it, you know, it needs money in the bank. Cash flow is the killer of any company or organization. So, no problems there. That was great.

 

Well, at least the event was profitable and, you know, we’re still bootstrapping it, put it that way. It was great. I really enjoyed it. And it set the stage for our upcoming events in Lima, Peru, where we’re aiming for double the number of people and we have an even longer and better speaker lineup. So very excited.

 

Sultan Ghaznawi

What is the theme for this year’s conference, Charles? What type of main subjects are you planning to cover?

Charles Campbell

That’s a good question. I’ve noticed that many conferences have a theme at the moment, and we don’t. We don’t have a theme because we, you know, we’re starting out. It’s only our second event. We’re a new organization and we need all hands-on deck. So, we didn’t want to limit people by saying, okay, this year’s theme is such and such. And unfortunately, it seems that everybody’s chosen the same theme. This year, everybody’s theme is AI.

 

So, we’re not having a theme and we have speakers who are going to be talking about sales and marketing. We have another speaker going to be talking about inbound marketing through public relations and media. We have a panel on interpreting. We have a panel on games. We have a panel on women business leaders. We’re having individual presentations about the power of associations in our industry.

 

We’re having a presentation from Plunet and also from MemoQ, which are both repeat sponsors for us. So really there’s something for everybody there. We’re very excited. It’s not an academic event. It’s not overly verbose. And there’s something for everybody. It’s going to be interesting and entertaining and also of a high intellectual standard at the same time. So really excited.

 

Sultan Ghaznawi

Who are the speakers in this year’s event? Who have you invited for people to be excited about to hear from?

Charles Campbell

We haven’t actually published the final program yet because we’re still waiting on one special speaker to get funding, in order to attend the event. But I’ll go in chronological order. We have a pre-conference workshop for a full day on the 14th of March with Renato Benignato. He will be talking about harnessing the power of public relations media to generate inbound sales. I think it’s a really, really interesting topic. Then we’re going to have a keynote presentation from Kristin Gutierrez, Brian Monpetit, Carrie Livemore Fisher and Natalie Kelly.

 

That’s really exciting. We’re also going to have an author session where we’re going to present a book signed book from Kristin Gutierrez, Natalie Kelly, Renato Benignato. Also, Ingrid Christensen, who will all be in attendance. Liz Elting, who won’t be attending but has agreed to a bunch of books anyway and be on one of our monthly webinars. So, very exciting. Then we’re going to have individual presentations by David Utria, who is the honorary consul of Peru in Salt Lake City.

 

We’re going to have a presentation from Rick Antezana, who was president of the ALC and is CEO of Dynamic Language in Seattle. We’re going to have a presentation from Maria Jose Alberto of Insight Language. She was the president of AASL in Argentina for quite a time. She’s going to talk about the Power of Associations. We’re going to have a presentation from Sophie Halbeisen of Plunet about sales teams. We are going to have a presentation from Eddie Arrieta, Head of Growth at Multilingual Magazine, who will be talking about the media as well. We are going to have a presentation from Santiago de Miguel of MemoQ about games and we’re going to have a presentation from Philip Müle of Plunet about the latest product from Plunet. We still have a couple of sessions that we’re working on that we haven’t fully finalized, but I’d like to circle back to our keynote speakers, which I’m particularly excited about because they are our anchors.

 

We’re going to be having Natalie Kelly, who will be presenting her latest book, which we’re all very excited about and she will be giving out a signed copy. We’re going to be having Carrie Fisher, recently finished her term as president of Women in Localization, who will talk about her journey on the client side at Subway and other organizations. Kristen Gutierrez is going to talk about being a better sales leader, which is also the title of her book and Brian Montpetit is going to have a technology-focused session. He’s going to be coming in from Dubai or Montreal or wherever it is he is these days, the snow or the sand. So, they’re very excited about that.

 

In our panels, we’re going to have the games panel. We’re going to have Santiago de Miguel from MemoQ moderating with Lissandra Catarina, Julio Montenegro, and Cristian Modesto, who will be talking about games in Latin America and the Caribbean, which is very exciting. We’re going to have an interpreting panel, which is, I’m really excited about this one, with Ingrid Christensen, Carol Valencia, Kristen Quinlan, and going to be moderated by Boostlingo, Dieter Runge. Never sure if I’m getting his pronunciation right.

 

Then we have a women business leaders panel, which is really exciting. And we have several different fascinating leaders of our industry who will be on that panel, including Karen Decker, president of the ALC in the United States, Kristen Quinlan from Certified Languages International, Sophie Halbeisen from Plunet, Carolina Legambi from Stillman Translations out of Argentina, and others. So it’s an amazing lineup. I mean, gosh, will there be anyone left to speak at our 2025 conference? Have we put too many speakers in, I don’t know. It’s just so exciting.

 

Literally, we’ve been flooded with people wanting to be there. So, really exciting. I’m just wondering whether my brain is going to be able to handle it. So much learning in a three-day period. Just as well, we’ll be able to have a couple of Pisco Sours after the presentation because we’re having a rooftop cocktail party. Our venue, JW Marriott, it’s right in front of the ocean, beautiful sea views. So, we have wonderful views from the hotel party. And then at the end of the conference, we’re going to have an off-site dinner at an amazing Peruvian restaurant. So, there will be networking opportunities to take the edge off all this learning and development.

 

Sponsor

This podcast is made possible with sponsorship from Hybrid Links, a human-in-the-loop provider of translation and data collection services for healthcare, education, legal, and government sectors. Visit hybridlinks.com to learn more.

 

Sultan Ghaznawi

Charles, what is in it for American or European companies to attend this event if we’re talking about benefits to them? What should they expect to get out of this event?

Charles Campbell

I think, I mean, I posted about this on LinkedIn, that the thing about coming to a conference like Junto or the ALC Uncon is going to be taking place in Cancun in a week. It’s very similar. It’s about what I call the perlitas, the little pearl. The little pearls are the intangible pieces of information that you get from this caliber of speakers who will just throw something out there in their presentation or revolutionize the way you think about one thing or another. These perlitas, these tangible takeaways will transform the way you do business, affect the way you live your life, your working life. That’s what I think is the main benefit.

 

I mean, it’s impossible for me to say, yeah, you will make this amount of money by attending this event. You will get this number of new customers. I don’t think that’s what it’s about. I think it’s about the little pearls, these little gems of information, the networking. I mean, when I go to a presentation by someone like Renato Beninatto or Kristen Gutierrez and some of the other speakers, I come away like my brain is on high speed. And I think that’s the same wherever you’re from. It doesn’t matter whether you’re coming in from Brazil or Mexico or Colombia or Germany or Canada or the USA. It’s all the same.

 

Now, if you are coming in from the Northern Hemisphere or from abroad in general, Peru is a wonderful, wonderful place to travel around. It is one of the most popular destinations in the world for tourism. In particular, you have the food scene in Lima. You have beautiful beaches. Of course, it will be very warm in March as compared to the Northern Hemisphere.

 

In particular, Peru is very well known for the Amazon jungle and for archaeological ruins. In particular, Machu Picchu, the star of the show, the most amazing place up in the mountains in Cusco. It’s a 90-minute flight from Lima. There are several flights per day. I know that several people attending the conference are planning to go to Machu Picchu either before or after the event. So that sounds pretty amazing. There’s just so much to do. So, people are, you know, tacking on an extra few days to get a bit of a mini vacation in while they’re at the event. Peru, as I said, is an affordable country. Great value, great people. So, there’s lots to do.

 

Sultan Ghaznawi

Let’s talk about networking opportunities. You kind of alluded to this earlier, that you will have a dinner which will allow people to get together, mingle and talk. What type of opportunities in general can participants expect from this event?

Charles Campbell

Well, we’re having a networking session, like a speed networking session hosted by Roslyn Famous, who is a board member of the ALC and has a wonderfully vibrant personality. So that’s going to help break the ice. We’re also, as I said before, doing an evening, cocktail party on the rooftop. Beautiful sea views, local cocktails and Peruvian cuisine. People get to know each other. My objective at these types of events is specifically to ignore the people I know and to talk to people I don’t, you know, just so you get to know everybody. And then we’re closing it out with a dinner at amazing Peruvian restaurant. It will be off-site and we’re going to be traveling there by taxi, Uber.

 

So, there’s going to be lots of opportunities to wine and dine, to break bread, to gather, talk. Obviously, we have the lunch break. And once again, food will be central. We’re not talking about boxed lunches or granola bars, all-time South American cuisine. So very exciting. And, you know, a lot of people just think that everything in South America is Mexican or everything in Mexico is Cancun. You know, it’s tacos and margaritas south of the border. But Peru is a very complex, good sense of the word, diverse, rich country and the coastal region, the mountainous region is very different from the Amazon.

 

Even then, I’m simplifying to get the message across. So, there’s so much going on. I’m really excited. My objective is going to be to get to know everybody who attends the conference. Obviously, there’s lots of people who are going to be there that I already know. I know a lot of people, but I’m really excited about, you know, getting to know people who I don’t know. And they’re going to be from many different countries.

 

I mean, in our last event in Rio, we had people from 14 countries. So that’s pretty cool. I mean, this has never been done before on a regional level in Latin America and the Caribbean. Yes, there’s been a couple of conferences in Brazil. Yes, there have been several, very good quality conference in Argentina, but very much on a local level. So now we’re taking it regionally. Latin America and the Caribbean are taking their place at the table and having a voice as they should, which I think is really awesome.

 

Sultan Ghaznawi

Charles, how many attendees or participants are you expecting this year for this event?

Charles Campbell

That’s a good question. We were originally aiming for 80 to 100, and we already have 100 people registered. And there are six weeks left. And the early bird registration price hasn’t finished yet. And in my experience, a lot of people register in the last 72 hours before the early finish. So, I’m quite confident to get to anywhere in 120 and 150, which is, I think, amazing.

 

We’re talking leaders, company owners, managers, team leaders, senior people, supervisors, stakeholders, decision makers, linguists, authorities of the local College of Translators. There’s going to be a couple of government people there. There are going to be people from local universities. It’s going to be a really interesting mix. A lot of the people there, I mean, very solid majority, I would say will be linguists by training and profession, but who have perhaps evolved in some kind of different role within time. But of course, that’s generalization.

 

It’s not a linguistic conference per se, and it won’t be having people present their doctoral thesis on this or that related to language itself. It’s not an academic event. But I’m really excited about the diversity of what we’re having. And as you can tell, I’m full of enthusiasm and I have a wonderful board working together with me. I’m one of six on the board. We have David Migo, who is from Peru and he is doing all the logistics, restaurants, transportation, hotels, it’s amazing. So much work goes into that.

 

We have Rosalind Famous from Puerto Rico, an amazing person and she will be involved, especially with introducing speakers and so forth, moderating panels. We have Ivan Escamilla from Mexico. He’s also working behind the scenes for five events. We have Saul Villegas, also from Mexico, treasurer of Juntos, playing a very important role, you know, organization, especially young organizations live and die on the cash flow. So Saul is the one who is the keeper of the purse. He is the one that I refer everyone to when they want to make a payment or get a refund or whatever. He’s doing an amazing amount of work.

 

Then we have Rafael Sousa from the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil, who was the main force behind our 2023 conference Rio de Janeiro. He’s done so many different things for this event, media posts, websites, so forth. Just amazing. So, there’s a whole board of people working hard. And you know, maybe we’ll have new board members in the future and spread the load. A lot of work getting an event like this off the ground.

 

Sultan Ghaznawi

So, Charles, let me zoom out and look at the organization as a whole. What type of benefits does Junto’s offer its members?

Charles Campbell

Great question. So obviously the number one benefit is that you are, it’s like that poster of Uncle Sam, you know, what do you get out of it? What does Junto’s get out of you? Junto’s is a nonprofit organization, needs support of its members to get it off the ground. I mean, we’re still bootstrapping in startup mode. It’s only our second conference. We know other organizations are out there with plenty of conferences, I think LocWorld is at 52 conferences.

 

So, this is only our second conference. Members can contribute their time to mentoring in terms of giving sessions, sponsoring, helping us organize, we are looking at potential future board members in the near future. There’s a lot of things members can contribute. You only get out as much as you put in. You can be a pass contributor where you sign your cheque, pay your membership and go to the conference and then that’s it, because you’re a busy person or whatever. That’s understandable. But the more you put in, the more you get out.

 

In terms of getting things out, I mean, I guarantee that you will learn a lot. I guarantee you will make friends. I guarantee you will break down generalizations about Latin America and the Caribbean and learn about the diversity and richness of the cultures, plural of the region and the languages that are out there, the economy, the politics, all the stuff that’s going on behind the scenes. Even if you’re working in Cincinnati or Dublin and you don’t leave Cincinnati or Dublin, you’re still selling globalization. You’re still selling the world.

 

If you’re selling to a very local customer, you know, your local school district, local IT company, selling local, you’re selling globalization. You’re selling the world to your local customer. So you’ve got to know the world. I understand it, we don’t have the travel budget of James Bond where you jet around from country to country. Only Renato has that, but events like this open the world up, meet people from multiple countries, get insight to multiple markets, emerging markets.

 

You understand the complexities of what people eat in different countries, what people do in different countries, times of the day they work, and the things they buy in supermarkets, whatever. And that makes you a far better informed person from selling globalization. So I’m a big believer, as I said, in the intangibles. The intangible in business and in life are so much more important than the tangible stuff, the baggage that you don’t take with you when you go to the cemetery, end of the show. It’s the intangible, the relationship, the things you learn, the way you treated people, what you put in and what you get out.

 

So for these events, as I said, it’s the perlita, the little takeaways. It’s the little thing that you’re going to learn from people. You have opportunities to coach, to benchmark, to mentor. I mean, there’s so much to be done in Latin America. Juntos is a new organization. There are national associations that haven’t been formed yet. There are local chapters that are non-existent. There are countries where we don’t even have members yet. I mean, I touched on very similar chords when I spoke to some of the board members of ALCA, the Association of Language Company Africa yesterday. Very similar.

 

I don’t like to talk about being ahead or behind in a lineal fashion from Europe or wherever. We are in some way or another playing catch up and we’re doing it really fast. So, there’s so much to learn. As I said, you only get out of the event as much as you put in. It is a collective thing. It’s not about making money. You know, I’m not the owner of Juntos. David Migo isn’t the owner of Juntos. We don’t we don’t get paid a salary. I don’t even think we get a free conference admission. We’re all working hard to get this off the ground.

 

I think that in the near future, Juntos will be a thriving organization with bigger and better events every year, that will move around different countries and that we will be well and truly on the map in terms of the global ecosystem of translation, localization and interpreting companies and associations, and that Latin America and the Caribbean will have a more visible and vocal role in our industry.

 

Sultan Ghaznawi

Charles, given the economic situation today, how can an organization like Juntos help its members navigate business opportunities?

Charles Campbell

I mean, a very significant amount of sessions in the conference are dedicated to business topics for stakeholders, that company can get a lot out of terms of learning how to generate sales, how to use marketing. We don’t have any topics this year specifically about finance, but these are challenging times, but full of opportunity. It’s not a doomsday scenario. So, this type of conference is precisely the type of event where you can retool and re-equip your brain for leading.

 

Juntos conference costs about a third of an equivalent event in North America. We’re not at a three-star hotel. We’re at JW Marriott in front of the ocean. So, it’s very exciting. The much lower conference registration costs, I think, outweigh the travel costs. In many cases, we are having that some people are paying, you know, $700 to fly from the US to Peru. But the conference costs like $1,200 less than a conference in the United States. So, there you go.

 

Sultan Ghaznawi

Do members have access to the conference? Do members have access to benefits from other language associations through affiliation with Juntos?

Charles Campbell

Yes. Yes. Of course. So if you’re a member of Juntos, you get a discount to attend events at partner organizations and associations. We support each other. Wonderful. I reached out to Gala, Aaliyah, Clea, to ALC, ALCA, AASL, Translate Tina, BlessAC, Anetti, to AALC from Australia and New Zealand, to Women in Localization and to Clear Global Translators Without Borders. And everyone has been amazingly receptive about sharing benefits, sharing discount, cross promoting, cross network. It’s all about healthy competition, cooperation.

 

So, yes, you do get the benefit and it’s all positive. There’s no downside. We also organize a monthly webinar session and these webinars are free for members and they’re very high powered. We have the most amazing people. We’ve had Renato Beninato. We’ve had Diego Crescieri. Had Stephane Huey twice. He talked a lot to webinar back to back. We’ve had Ingrid Christiansen present her book. We have the most amazing one coming up on February 21st with Liz Elton, who was founder and co-CEO of Trans Perfect for so many years. One of the most asked for people in our entire industry, author and philanthropist. She will be presenting her book Dream Big and Win. And she did well. Of course, she won’t be able to attend Vamos Juntos this time, but maybe next year. Who knows?

 

So, you get your monthly webinars, which, as I said, are a really high-powered learning opportunity. We have a lot of people who have reached out to us to offer to give these webinars. Kind of like I’m not going to say we have a waiting list because that sounds arrogant, but we have so many people offering their support. It’s just been highly rewarding. I mean, we had to do some hard rowing at the beginning, but I think things are getting easier because the word is out.

 

Sultan Ghaznawi

If people wanted to learn more about the organization or the event, Charles, where should they seek more information?

Charles Campbell

Well, we do a lot of posts on LinkedIn. If you go to Juntos, you can add it on LinkedIn, add my profile on LinkedIn, or if you add any of the board members profiles on LinkedIn. We also have a website which is juntoslatam.org. We have an event page. Just go to Vamos Juntos 2024 Lima, Peru and it will pop up on Google.

 

So, there’s a lot of information out there and you can contact any of the board members and we’ll be happy to help. Usually when I do posts on LinkedIn about the event, several thousand viewers. So, the message is certainly getting out there.

 

Sultan Ghaznawi

As we reach the end of this conversation, what is your message, Charles, to people listening to you today about Juntos?

Charles Campbell

Well, I said, come join the party. Juntos is an exciting organization. It’s young, new, there’s hard work involved for those of us that are on the board, but there’s a lot to be gained. We’re in new territory in terms of what the industry is traditionally used to in Latin America and the Caribbean. Really welcoming and fun crowd. People from many different countries. You’re not going to see the same old, same old at Juntos. So, I think it’s an amazing learning experience. Also, an experience for you to give back.

 

There’s also statistics out there about people not enjoying their job, not being engaged in their work, whatever. I think that coaching and mentoring, giving back, speaking, writing a book. Yes, go Ingrid. These are things that you can do to reconvert your work life and make it as passionate an experience as it is for me. So, Vamos Juntos and Juntos in general. It’s all about that. And people gave us a 10 out of 10 for what we organized in Rio de Janeiro in terms of catering and in terms of venue, in terms of speakers and in terms of cost. So, I don’t know, maybe we’ll get an 11 out of 10 this time. I don’t know. We’ll see, but we’ll see you there.

 

Sultan Ghaznawi

Absolutely. Thank you so much, Charles. What an insightful conversation about Juntos. I’m really happy we had this talk. People planning for the year now know which event stands out in a venue that is bringing the industry together. It is going to be an interesting and fun event, I’m sure. And I can’t wait to hear more about it as we approach the date for the event. I wish the Juntos organization, yourself and all members and the organizing committee all the best for a successful event. With that let me thank you for your time to speak with me on this topic today

Charles Campbell

Thank you, Sultan and see you there too. See you in Lima

 

Sultan Ghaznawi

I will, I look forward to it, thank you.

 

Okay it’s time for my roundup of the interview and my analysis as to what has been discussed. What an insightful conversation about Juntos. I’m really happy we had this talk. Our industry is very large and we have some great events and networking opportunities in North America, Europe and Asia, but not so much in South America and the Caribbean regions. I think Juntos is bridging that by offering a unique blend of local expertise, knowledge, information and networking opportunities for organizations worldwide. As Charles rightfully stated, you can’t be global from your corner of the world, unless you’re connected with other corners and the Vamos Juntos conference offers that opportunity to every LSP out there.

 

That brings us to the end of this episode. If you are interested in learning and networking, feel free to reach out to Charles or the Juntos organization. I bet you will have fun and learn a few things that will be directly applicable to your business.

 

Don’t forget to subscribe to the Translation Company Talk podcast on Apple Podcasts, iTunes, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, or your platform of choice, and give this episode a good rating.

 

Until next time!

Outro

Thank you for listening. Make sure to subscribe and stay tuned for our next episode.