IGDA LocSIG Elections 2017 – Running for a Second Term

I am happy and proud to announce I am running for a second term at the IGDA LocSIG. It took me a while to settle on a decision. Not because of lack of interest -quite the contrary actually-, but because I had the interests of the group in mind: was it worth running for a second term and possibly getting on the way of new candidates when I knew I would be contributing to the community with the same energy either way?

Ultimately, my reasoning was that although my degree of motivation isn’t dictated by my presence in the SIG, the reach of my actions pretty much is. There’s no point in organizing international events and creating useful content if nobody hears about them. With your support, let’s make sure more events (in quantity and in variety) for both young and experienced game translators can come to life and succeed. Let’s do more of what the LocJAM and related initiatives did for 5 editions: giving the community a chance to come together, learn, exchange and, most of all, have fun.

You can vote for up to 5 candidates at the following link: http://www.igda.org/surveys/default.asp?id=2017_LocSIG_Election

My candidate statement

One important thing I learned during the previous term is that small and concrete actions beat big but unrealistic ideas. We are a tiny team of busy volunteers, and the best way to move towards our greater goals is to proceed by small steps.

Since joining the SIG early last year, I managed to contribute in various ways: I’ve given our newsletter a fresh start, helped the community through different channels (workshops, webinars, presentations at conferences, various articles…), and been increasingly involved in organizing the LocJAM, probably our biggest source of growth at the moment. These may sound like small things taken separately, but put together, I believe they helped make a difference.

For the new term, my objective is to build on this foundation to help the SIG develop further. Concretely, besides a renewed push to promote good practices in localization, I plan to organize more events: a successor to the LocJAM (if not in name, at least in spirit) and a worldwide, non-competitive event where people gather offline and localize a game together within a short time frame. In my experience, such meetups are incredibly effective at getting the word out among translators and developers altogether.

No rhetoric here, as I’m already taking action: I have started building a small library of localizable games (written in English or Japanese) that could fit both concepts, and acquired the knowledge to manage the organization and coordination of such events.

The only thing I need to bring these concepts to life is a little spark, which I hope you will give me. Whatever the future holds, I will keep doing everything I can to support our amazing community.