January 2010 is the 20th (yes, twentieth) anniversary of the founding of The Word Gym! The company was set up - initially as a partnership - in January 1990, and swiftly specialised in the high end of the translation market. This meant we were working increasingly on the creative translation of advertising and marketing copy (an activity often referred to as "transcreation"), and over the past 20 years we've established a stellar reputation as a transcreation specialist.

More recently, we've been writing copy for a steadily growing number of clients. The full history of The Word Gym is detailed in a timeline on our wordFlex blog here. Why not take a look and compare your own experiences over the 20-year period?

Okay, so how much excitement do you usually get at a conference for professional translators and interpreters? It may surprise you to know that translators get as passionate about what they do as any other professional. Bill Maslen, MD of The Word Gym, was part of a panel at the enormous Interpreting the Future conference in Berlin, speaking on the controversial theme "Who killed creativity? Do we really need TM?"

TMS (translation memory systems) are in widespread use among professional translators, but creative translation specialists have certain reservations about the wholesale adoption of semi-automated tools. The panel, a mixture of TM enthusiasts, TM agnostics and TM sceptics, took part in lively discussions that made the session, according to feedback from participants, one of the most interesting (and entertaining) of the conference.

The conference was a huge triumph for Germany's Federal Association of Interpreters and Translators, attracting more than 1,600 professional linguists from around the world.

More details can be found on the conference website.