The story of our Chapter goes back to the end of 2014 when a group of women came together in London to talk about starting a local chapter of Women in Localization (W.L.). They were ready to put in the work to create something special for their fellow localisation professionals in the UK.
Since then, our local community has grown from that handful of enthusiastic women to over 1300 members all around the country.
Our local group is just as varied as the global Women in Localization community: We have members who are fresh out of university and many who have been in the industry for decades. Some who are new to the field and those who have always worked in localisation. Our membership includes people in a wide variety of industry roles, from academics and freelance translators to project managers, account managers and sales professionals from both LSPs and the buyer side.
This diversity makes our chapter a perfect environment for networking. We have countless success stories of people making connections, exchanging ideas and knowledge, finding support and mentorship, and many have even found a new role with the help of W.L. UK!
We make sure to offer events that are interesting and useful for professionals at different points in their career. The chapter aims to offer four online or in-person events per year, concentrating on different areas of localisation. Some of our past events have included a “Spook-tacular Halloween Mentorship” event, “Who Wants to Be A Vendor Manager” (a game show featuring vendor management), “Freelancers’ spa” (an online “spa” focusing on freelancer wellbeing), our very special “Transcreation Atelier”, “MT Busters” (an event busting some machine translation myths), a joint event on accessibility and subtitling with W.L.’s Poland Chapter, and the always popular networking drinks events. Recordings of some of these events are available on the Women in Localization website for members.
This year, for our 10th anniversary, we’re excited to be hosting our first-ever full-day in-person event on November 8th in London, where we’ll be exploring the past, present and future of the localisation industry. This one-day format is unprecedented for our chapter, and we are very grateful to our wonderful speakers, local partners and sponsors and above all our W.L. UK community for helping to make this possible.
Our 10-member leadership team is just as enthusiastic today as the visionary women who started the chapter back in 2014, and we are looking forward to discovering what the next 10 years will bring!
If you’d like to be amongst the first ones to hear about our chapter’s upcoming events, register as a W.L. member and select “EMEIA – United Kingdom” as your primary chapter, or follow us on social media, LinkedIn and Instagram, for the latest news.