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The meeting was organised by the European Language Industry Association (ELIA) and brought industry experts from the best national and European institutions together. The Focus on PM 2021 was divided into four meetings and stimulated the sharing of ideas and best practices among LSPs, experts in the various technologies involved, professors and customers.
This year’s theme was perfectly summed up by the event’s subtitle: “Evolution and Revolution of Project Management“.
Our Andrea participated, representing ASTW.
TECHNOLOGY
It’s quite clear to all LSPs, and not only, that the role of project manager has considerably changed over the last few years. Although technological innovations have revolutionised everyday working life in a wide variety of areas, it is important to ensure that your business has a strong human connotation, but how?
The Focus on PM 2021 programme began with an in-depth look at artificial intelligence. In general, what greatly emerged from the meeting was a philosophy for approaching AI as technologies at the service of people, and not the other way around. As we have already expressed in several articles, innovations must help people, in our case linguists and PMs, by quickly taking care of all those repetitive and unnecessarily tiring tasks involved in everyday work. This allows professionals to concentrate on more complex and important tasks, giving space to all their human creativity and intelligence.
As a strategic figure within the company, the project manager is one of the people who most benefits from the support of AI. A PM’s goal is to make sure their work is successful, both in terms of result and process, by finding the best possible match between supply and demand. The possibility of delegating the simplest operations to “machines” lets PMs channel their energies solely towards the final goal:
harmony among the various figures in the process.
MEDIATION
The meetings also discussed the different approaches to the customer, focusing in particular on their needs. A concept that has been expressed in the past but has recently strongly returned is that quality comes before price. A satisfied customer will always be willing to invest a little more if it means getting the best possible result.
While addressing the needs of his own company and colleagues, a good project manager will always be willing to help, understand, listen and above all advise the customer.
Feedback is, and will continue to be, the best measure of the quality of one’s work. Asking for it regularly will enable each PM to better understand his interlocutors, helping colleagues to maintain or modify best practices.
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We would especially like to thank all the moderators and all those who participated in the meeting and made this Focus on PM possible. We look forward to the next one.
English translation and adaptation by Sarah Schneider
