Language is Everything

And now for something completely different

The line-up for this year's Yorkshire International Business Convention (YIBC) has been announced. The convention, which takes place in Bridlington on 5th June, is the grand finale of Business Week, sponsored by Language is Everything.

John Cleese tops the bill, along with Tim Smit, the driving force behind The Eden Project in Cornwall, the business guru and author Tim Sanders, yachtswoman Tracy Edwards and cartoonist Matthew Pritchett.

 

You can download the full line-up using the link below. And you can listen to the intriguing inside story of how John Cleese outgunned George Bush to headline the event here.

Download YIBC_2009_line_up

Lifting the language barrier

The latest newsletter from the World Trade Centre Hull & Humber includes a feature on our new communications pack for people doing business overseas. It encompasses three key services to help businesses 'make it happen' in non-English-speaking markets: written translation, telephone interpreting and face to face interpreting. You can view the newsletter here, or go straight to the WTC language services page here.

In other news, the WTC Hull & Humber has been shortlisted for New Venue of the Year in the Yorkshire Business Tourism Awards. The winners will be announced later this month.

And news reaches us through the WTC network about rebuilding work at the World Trade Centre site in New York. You can watch the latest progress report video here.

Chief exec of Language is Everything elected chamber president

 

Carolyn Burgess, our chief exec, was elected president of the Hull & Humber Chamber Commerce at its AGM last week. The above photo shows Carolyn with Ian Cawsey, the MP for Brigg & Goole, and Stephen Parnaby, the leader of East Riding of Yorkshire Council.

Outlining her aims and objectives for the coming year in a speech to Chamber members at the KC Stadium in Hull, Carolyn said:

"As 'the voice of business' in the region, the Chamber has a critical role to play in terms of bringing people together and 'making it happen'. This Chamber has always been a well-respected and highly influential organisation, and I want to make sure we continue to keep punching above our weight...

"The Chamber is full of hugely talented and experienced people — both on the board and within the executive team. I want to make sure we're unleashing the full potential of all the brilliant people we have. And I want to make sure we keep doing what we came here to do: to strengthen the local economy by supporting our members in their business endeavours...

"We have the potential to become a world-class region. We have the people, we have the expertise and we have the ambition. We can become a global hub for commerce, industry and shipping."

In addition to her work with the Chamber, Carolyn also sits on the boards of AfrOx, an organisation working to improve cancer prevention and control in Africa, and Hull Forward, an economic development company.

Celebrations all round

This Saturday is International Mother Language Day, a United Nations event to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism. The day has been celebrated on 21st February every year since 2001.

Meanwhile, there were big celebrations earlier this week as Lithuania marked the millennium of its name. The first recorded reference to "Lithuania" was made in a medieval manuscript dated 14th February 1009.

Audra Verpetinskaite, a member of our operations team who comes from Šiauliai in northern Lithuania, reports that many events and parties were held around the country. Lithuania also celebrated its independence day on 16th February, and Vilnius, the capital, is this year's European Capital of Culture.

10 things you didn't know about Qatar

This Thursday (12th February) the World Trade Centre Hull & Humber will be building links with Qatar when it hosts a visit from Chadi Abou Daher, the regional manager of the WTC Doha.

     

The day will include a free afternoon seminar on business opportunities in Qatar and the rest of the Gulf. Mr Abou Daher will also be on hand to talk to about Futurallia, an international matchmaking forum for SMEs, which takes place in Doha from 10th to 12th May.

Language is Everything is the official communications partner of the WTC Hull & Humber. We'll be there on Thursday to talk about written translation, telephone interpreting, face to face interpreting and other ideas to help you 'make it happen' in overseas markets.

We look forward to seeing you there. And if you can't make it this week, give us a call (01482 485212) and pop in us and see us at the WTC anytime: we're on the ground floor at One Humber Quays.

In the meantime, in the latest of our regular series, here are 10 things you didn't know about Qatar.

1. The State of Qatar is located on a peninsula that juts out 100 miles into the Persian Gulf from Saudi Arabia.

2. The correct pronunciation of "Qatar" lies somewhere between "cutter" and "gutter". (In other words, not like "guitar".)

3. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit, Qatar's economy will grow by 13% in 2009, making it the fastest growing economy in the world.

4. The population of Qatar has risen from less than 100,000 in the 1960s to around 1 million today. The vast majority the population is made up of foreign workers, mostly from India and Pakistan.

5. The official language is Arabic, although the large immigrant population speaks Urdu, Punjabi, Farsi and many other languages.

6. Qatar is home to the Arabic-language news channel Al-Jazeera, which has a worldwide audience of 40 million.

7. In terms of land area, Qatar is about three-quarters of the size of Yorkshire and the Humber.

8. Qatar's Museum of Islamic Art, housed in an iconic stone building designed by I.M. Pei, was opened in December last year.

9. A new airport in Doha, which will replace the existing one in 2011, will be one the biggest in the world: it will be about two-thirds the size of Doha itself.

10. The winner of the Qatar Open tennis championships in 2008 and 2009 was Britain's Andy Murray.

Thinking big

It has been announced that Carolyn Burgess, our chief exec, has been appointed to the board of Hull Forward, the city's economic development company.

John Holmes, Hull Forward's chief executive (pictured with Carolyn below), said:

"We are delighted to welcome Carolyn to our Board and very much look forward to receiving her input. Carolyn is an excellent example of a very talented, well-connected and highly motivated business woman who has shown tremendous commitment to Hull and the surrounding area, having successful relocated and grown her company here from Berkshire. I have every confidence that Carolyn’s significant business knowledge, professional experience and enthusiasm will be of great benefit, as will her dedication towards seeing the city succeed and prosper."

You can download the full press release (in Word format) here:

Download Hull_Forward_Carolyn_Burgess_Board_Appointment

Carolyn said:

"Hull Forward thinks big. The goal is for Hull to become a global economic hub: it's extremely ambitious, but, when you look at all the great things that have happened here in the past few years, it's a realistic proposition. The work of Hull Forward is tremendously important both for the city and the wider region, and I'm very excited to be a part of it."

Packing a punch in the north of England

Language is Everything has been unveiled as the main sponsor of Business Week 2009, one of the biggest business events in the north of England (see below).

 

(Hull Daily Mail, 28th January 2009)

Keynote speakers at last year’s Business Week, which was attended by more than 6,000 delegates, included Bob Geldof, Elle Macpherson, George Foreman (pictured above) and Gordon Ramsay. We’ll be announcing full details about our plans for this year’s event over the coming months, including an exciting series of events and activities focussing on language and communication.

Business Week 2009 runs from 1st to 5th June.

Yorkshire Business Insider round table

Carolyn Burgess, our chief exec, has taken part in a Yorkshire Business Insider round table discussion about international trade in Hull. The panel of experts included Mark Robson, trade director at UKTI, Professor David Drewry, vice-chancellor of the University of Hull and Andy Mowbray, manager of the World Trade Centre Hull & Humber.

You can download the full article using the link below (PDF, 4MB).

Download Yorkshire_Business_Insider_round_table

10 years of stability and focus

Language is Everything has announced its results for 2008 and rounded off ten years of focussed organic growth (see chart below).

"Our business plans have always been built around stability and steady, long-term growth," says Carolyn Burgess, the chief executive. "We're a very focussed organisation: we know the areas where we excel, and we know where we can 'add value'.

"Over many years, we've learned how to create successful long-term partnerships with our customers. We work hard at understanding our customers' goals and objectives, and we tailor our services to suit them, not us. It's not just about helping people to communicate: it's about helping them to succeed."

The company's turnover for 2008 was £1.54 million. Overall, a mid-year price reduction for telephone interpreting was largely offset by continuing growth in other areas of the business.

"Telephone interpreting prices have fallen across the industry in recent years," says Carolyn. "The key difference with us is that we have reduced our prices without reducing our rates of pay. Our most important 'competitive edge' is the quality of our interpreting and translation services: we use the best linguists in the profession, and we pay them accordingly."
   

Ten things you didn't know about the Czech Republic

On 1st January 2009, the Czech Republic takes over the (rotating) presidency of the European Union for six months. Here, in the latest of our regular series, we present ten things you didn't know about the Czech Republic and the Czech language.

1) The country was part of Czechoslovakia until the 'velvet divorce' of 1993.

2) The Czech language is closely related to Slovak: the two languages are mutually intelligible.

3) The Czech Republic is about the same size as Scotland.

4) Along with Russian (and many other east European languages), Czech is a Slavic language

5) The Czech prime minister, Mirek Topolanek, displays three flags in his office: the Czech flag, the EU flag and the NATO flag.

6) In Czech, the letters q, w and x are only used in foreign words.

7) The Czech Republic is bordered by four other countries: Austria, Germany, Poland and Slovakia.

8) About 1½ million Czech-speakers live outside the Czech Republic.

9) The composer Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904) and the writer Franz Kafka (1883-1924) are towering figures from Czech culture.

10) The word robot comes from the Czech language — it was first used in a 1921 play by Karel Čapek.