SDL Connect 2018
Thank you everyone for making SDL Connect 2018 such a great event!
From Manual to Autonomous, The Future of the Content Supply Chain

Recording: The Future of the Content Supply Chain
Global companies grapple with the complexities of creating, translating, and delivering content to every customer, in every language, across all channels. For many, this process is entirely too manual, time-consuming, and costly. The secret to streamlining the content supply chain can be found in a new, more holistic approach to content. Cruce Saunders, founder of [A] - simplea.com, is the author of 'Content Engineering for a Multi-Channel World'. His team provides cutting-edge content consulting to some of the largest companies in the world. He looks to the power of the [A] Content Intelligence Framework, AI, and a new operating model for content to transform and automate the content supply chain.
This opening keynote will investigate:
- The current state of enterprise content, and emerging content creation trends
- The patterns that enable personalization at scale, across proliferating channels including chatbots, voice assistants, AR/VR, and IoT devices
- Publishing transformations happening today: how technology, people, and process work together to create new futures, structures, and teams to evolve in the face of constant change
Delivering Customer Experiences

Recording: Delivering Customer Experiences,
As brands expand globally and their customer base continues to diversify, the need for providing immersive content in multiple languages across a wide array of brands and touch points continues to increase dramatically.
- See how companies transform and modernize their customer experiences
- Learn about the tools used to deliver this experience across all touch points
- Discover how you can implement their techniques to deliver truly magical experiences
Welcome to the Future... of SDL

Recording: Welcome to the Future... of SDL (Part1), (Part 2), (Part 3), (Part 4)
Presentation: Welcome to the Future... of SDL
We live in a world where digital experiences are rapidly evolving before our eyes. The line between online and real world interactions continue to blur for every brand. In this new reality, many companies struggle to deliver global content that engage and delight their customers. The complexity inherent in the content supply chain mandates both disruption and evolution. What does the next decade hold for us as both creators and consumers of content?
In this keynote, Adolfo Hernandez, SDL CEO, will attempt to answer this important question while also sharing today's cutting edge technologies alongside the promise of tomorrow's breakthroughs. Join us as we share:
- The future of content and customer journeys
- The future of Linguistic AI
- The latest major announcements from SDL
The Demand for Continuous Customer Journeys

Recording: The Demand for Continuous Customer Journeys
Presentation: The Demand for Continuous Customer Journeys
Content silos cause both inefficiencies in effort and cost, and a disjointed customer experience. To deliver business objectives and serve increasingly demanding customers, companies must adopt the internal processes and tools that ensure customer journey continuity. Since product information exists today in large volumes and is consumed extensively across the customer journey, companies will find that focusing on the continuity of product information will result in the greatest customer experience wins. Forrester provides key insights from their recent research to prove this imperative. In this session you will:
- Learn how content is often rarely aligned across internal departments
- Discover the dramatic impact of product information on the overall customer experience
- See why content continuity drives revenue
The Evolution of Localization at IKEA

Recording: The Evolution of Localization at IKEA
Presentation: The Evolution of Localization at IKEA
IKEA is one of the world's most recognizable brands, synonymous with the Allen key, meatballs and democratic design. But even successful global brands must evolve their approach to localization. In this session, Swati Narwal will describe IKEA's long term strategy to consolidate disparate translation processes through a hybrid approach of centralization as well as keeping the localization flavour in the markets. In this session you will:
- Understand IKEA's vision for localization in terms of process, ways of working, internal function setup, vendor management and technology as the enabler for it all
- See how localization is emerging from 'behind the scenes' to being a frontrunner
- Learn how measurable results delivers quality e.g. localization of IKEA catalogue in 51 languages
From Ad Hoc to Managed, Implementing GCOM at Philips


Recording: Implementing GCOM at Philips
Presentation: Implementing GCOM at Philips
More than a decade ago, Philips had silos of global localization efforts. The Dutch company then re-thought its approach and partnered with SDL. Even though at the time no one realized it, Philips’ efforts to break silos down and the SDL partnership were the beginning steps to a global content operating model. In this session, Tim Paiva of Philips and Kate Neuber-McManamon of SDL will co-present the story of how this Philips division evolved its content supply chain from an ad-hoc environment to today's more manageable process. In this session you will:
- Learn how Philips evolved their global product launches
- Discover how SDL partnered with and assisted Philips in this journey every step of the way
- Hear about their future efforts to modernize product information
The Nuts and Bolts of a Global Content Operating Model, A Panel Discussion






Recording: The Nuts and Bolts of a Global Content Operating Model
Creating and delivering any piece of content can expose any number of business challenges, but doing so on a global scale always exponentially increases complexity and difficulty. This is why global content requires a holistic approach. SDL has popularized the implementation of a standard global content operating model, but in reality many companies have already been doing so for many years. We've assembled numerous experts across various industries and business departments to weigh in on best practices they've learned while improving their companies' respective GCOMs. Key takeaways include:
- Best practices and lessons learned
- Globalization mistakes to avoid
- What these industry leaders are doing next






* Click on a session below to view presentations and recordings
5 Future States of Content


Recording: 5 Future States of Content
Content is at the heart of every customer journey. However, to meet the speed and volume of future content requirements, companies need to adopt the latest advances in technology. In the future, Artificial Intelligence (AI) will become one of the most powerful tools in your content toolkit. Join us as we discuss our predictions for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), and how they will play leading roles in automating the entire content supply chain. We’ll explore current challenges and future possibilities disrupting and driving content creation, translation and delivery for greater business impact.
- Content will create itself
- Content will be agile
- Content will organize itself
- Content will be secure
- Content will be your best salesperson
Breakout Session 1
Linguistic AI & the SDL Hai Technology Behind It


Recording: Linguistic AI & the SDL Hai Technology Behind It
Presentation: Linguistic AI & the SDL Hai Technology Behind It
Companies are currently struggling to determine what’s hype versus reality when it comes to determining their AI strategy. But separating fact from fiction is critical if organizations are to realize the benefits from cutting edge AI technologies that are likely to be commonplace in the future. To help companies prepare for the future of autonomous content, companies need both standalone AI products that solve specific business needs and a Linguistic AI platform of capabilities that can localize high-volumes of content at scale. In this session, Mihai Vlad will provide more detail about how SDL is preparing organizations for what the new table stakes are and how SDL are building products that can help organizations build the automated content supply chains of the future.
NetApp’s Journey from a Localization Department to a Content Strategy Organization

Recording: NetApp’s Journey from a Localization Department to a Content Strategy Organization
Presentation: NetApp’s Journey from a Localization Department to a Content Strategy Organization
Maturing from a localization department with a limited remit to a content strategy organization across the enterprise is a difficult journey fraught with many twists and turns. However, it is not only possible, but necessary in today’s modern content environment. Hear from industry leader and Women in Localization cofounder Anna Schlegel from NetApp to understand how she wove the right people, processes and technologies together to make NetApp’s products the #1 leader in Japan.
SDL Translation Management Product Strategies


Recording: SDL Translation Management Product Strategies
Presentation: SDL Translation Management Product Strategies
To meet the demands of global product launches, marketing campaigns, websites, and customer support systems, successful enterprises have implemented translation management systems to handle the multitude of localization processes. These systems facilitate localization, delivering productivity gains and cost savings through sharing of linguistic assets, workflow automation & quality controls and are designed to be connected to the broader enterprise technology landscape. Based on SDL’s 25+ years of knowledge in this space, our secure translation management systems meet the needs of users at organizations of any size.
In this session, you’ll learn more about:
- Latest innovations and upcoming roadmap for SDL WorldServer, SDL Managed Translation and SDL TMS
- Progress on our convergence to the cloud to offer best of breed language technologies
- Highlights on popular areas of interest including integration & connector strategy, in-context preview, and more
SDL Tridion DX Product Strategy

Recording: SDL Tridion DX Product Strategy
Presentation: SDL Tridion DX Product Strategy
SDL Tridion DX solves a huge issue that presents itself in virtually every digital experience today: disconnects between the pre-sale, sale and post-sale phase of the customer journey.
Breakout Session 2
Content Will Be Your Best Sales Person: Fulfilling The Promise of Global Personalization


Recording: Content Will Be Your Best Sales Person
Presentation: Content Will Be Your Best Sales Person
The Five Future States of Content describe the disruptive content trends brands need to watch for in the future. Join us in this session for an in depth look at how content will be your best sales person by fulfilling the promise of personalization at global scale. We’ll demonstrate how the latest innovations in artificial intelligence and machine translation, combined with our leading web content management and personalization technology, can help you reach your global audience intelligently. Launch websites in new languages faster than ever before. Gain insights on what languages your customers around the world are interacting with. Design a smarter strategy for globalizing your website.
Independent Thinking: How Artificial Neural Networks Enable Computers to Think Like Us

Recording: How Artificial Neural Networks Enable Computers to Think Like Us
Presentation: How Artificial Neural Networks Enable Computers to Think Like Us
After years of promises and hype, artificial intelligence has finally reached the stage where it is impacting our lives on a daily basis. The things that computers can do with us and for us is rapidly expanding. This live webinar will provide an overview of how artificial neural networks are changing marketing.
Here's what you'll learn:
- What are artificial neural networks and deep learning?
- How do they work?
- Where are artificial neural networks used today?
- What do artificial neural networks mean for marketers?
Marketing in a Global World: Content, Campaigns, Creative, Consistency


Recording: Marketing in a Global World
Engaging and maintaining customers' attention in today's digital world has become an all consuming effort for many Marketing departments. It requires near constant creation, translation, and delivery of content. But often these efforts fall short, particularly when viewed globally across all markets. How can marketers solve this challenge? The problem might not be your content, but rather your process. Attend this session to learn how you can take a more holistic approach without sacrificing a tailored and personalized customer experience.
- Discuss best practices and lessons learned from fellow marketers grappling with the same challenge.
- Learn how a global content operating model can address many content supply chain issues.
- Discover the spectrum of capabilities SDL can provide in support of your global campaigns and product launches.
SDL Tridion Docs Product Strategy

Recording: SDL Tridion Docs Product Strategy
Presentation: SDL Tridion Docs Product Strategy
SDL Tridion Docs, already the market leader in managing complex structured content, has had an exceptional year of growth. Attendees will hear our news on:
- Market traction and applications for structured content in new industries
- Performance improvements and new features in the latest releases
- Strategic directions and future applications, including taxonomy, powerful reporting, and easy connectivity to your other systems
The Content Opportunity


Recording: The Content Opportunity
Presentation: The Content Opportunity
The right content drives the customer journey and unifies each and every customer touchpoint. But to manage this content on a global scale across channels in multiple languages requires a new approach that centralizes data, standardizes process, and integrates technology into a unified platform across the entire content supply chain.
The Global Content Operating Model (GCOM) is a comprehensive strategic approach to:
- Manage content across departments and platforms.
- Apply processes that address global content creation, translation and delivery.
- Select and benefit from technology and services that lead to growth and sales.
Being Nimble in a Highly Complex Environment

Recording: Being Nimble in a Highly Complex Environment
Presentation: Being Nimble in a Highly Complex Environment
Modern publishing can be a complex endeavor. Combine that with the need to move quickly, especially in the constantly-changing cloud environment, and the task can seem daunting. However, it is possible and we'll take a look at how Oracle has done it. We'll cover:
- Multiple content sources
- Thousands of products; tens of thousands of publications
- Nearly instant, metadata-driven publishing
- Shared topic re-use
Breakout Session 3
Content Will Organize Itself: Connecting Customers to Content with AI-enabled Taxonomy


Recording: Content Will Organize Itself
Presentation: Content Will Organize Itself
The Five Future States of Content describe the disruptive content trends brands need to watch for in the future. Join us in this session as we investigate how content will organize itself through AI-enabled taxonomy. Customers’ questions about products and services often require a complex answer; one that spans several pages and different types of media. A search can start them on their journey but they need further help to find their way. Taxonomy provides the backbone to lead customers to helpful content, and surface data for your content creators. AI makes it easier to work with and amplifies its effect. Learn how to work with taxonomy in SDL Tridion DX now and prepare for the next phase of intelligent content delivery.
Fireside Chat: The Reality of Machine Translation and its Impact: Paul von Wupperfeld from Texas Instruments & Quinn Lamm of SDL

Recording: The Reality of Machine Translation and its Impact
Presentation: The Reality of Machine Translation and its Impact
For those who have limited first-hand experience with machine translation, it can be difficult to separate myth from reality. To help guide us on this journey, Paul Wupperfeld from Texas Instruments (TI) will share his experiences in an informal fireside chat about how SDL Machine Translation has helped TI lower their costs and achieve better efficiencies throughout the years. Paul will be joined by SDL Product manager Quinn Lamm to provide an intimate look at how Texas Instruments evolved from experimenting with MT to being a power user of the technology. This is a unique perspective that will help anyone that is looking to start on a machine translation journey or looking to improve what they are doing today.
SDL Tridion Sites Product Strategy

Recording: SDL Tridion Sites Product Strategy
Presentation: SDL Tridion Sites Product Strategy
SDL Tridion Sites is the backbone behind managing and orchestrating the content for some of world’s most coveted brands. In this session, learn about how SDL Tridion Sites can help you:
- Build contextualized experiences – interoperability, data integration framework and the SDL Tridion DX content connector ecosystem
- Flexible deployment models and cloud options
- A sneak preview of the new user interface for SDL Tridion Sites
Breakout Session 4
Building a TMS Business Case

Recording: Building a TMS Business Case
Presentation: Building a TMS Business Case
Both the returns and investment of deploying language technology can be very significant, and evolve quickly. Each organization's use cases are varied and how well a system can meet them will change over time. This session focuses on moments where significant value has been shown in the real world from the use of translation management technology, providing attendees with knowledge of how more use cases and therefore higher returns can be gained even long after initial deployment.
- ROI is not a moment, it evolves extremely quickly
- The more a tool is used, the greater it's value over time, and in ways that cannot be envisioned when its acquired
- Content Intelligence without Language Intelligence can leave you 'shouting in all caps', rather than building dialogue in the local languages of your global markets
Content Quality at Scale: Using Acrolinx and SDL to Speed Business Transformation


Recording: Content Quality at Scale
After working in DITA and the SDL CCMS for 10 years, VMware has a mature information model and robust enterprise tooling. However, the team has tackled continued business challenges that come with the adoption of agile, transformation to SaaS, and frequent mergers and acquisitions. Come hear VMware speak about how they use Acrolinx to automate quality checks across the enterprise so they can continue to move at the speed of business. VMware will present real-world use cases, share their technical blueprint, and present quality data that shows how they are keeping content quality high while adapting to new business demands.
Content Will Create Itself: Outpacing the Demand for More Content


Recording: Content Will Create Itself
Presentation: Content Will Create Itself
The Five Future States of Content describe the disruptive content trends brands need to watch for in the future. Join us in this session to see how we’re providing a method for content to create itself to outpace the ever increasing demands for more. Marketers, writers, and copy editors spend thousands of hours creating content while research shows there is not enough content in the world to deliver the personalized experiences that customers demand. How can you create content faster and keep pace with the demand in today’s increasingly digital world?
Localization Strategies for Today’s Reality


Recording: Localization Strategies for Today’s Reality
Digital communication has changed, making it critical for companies to adapt to new models that support content agility. In order to reach global audiences on different channels and devices, today’s companies need localization strategies that supports a content model that delivers different content combinations depending on channel, market, or individual.
In this session, we’ll explore the following:
- How to enable content agility through implementation of a Continuous Localization model
- Leveraging data driven localization to manage your localization supply chain
- Importance of security within your localization processes
Modernizing Your Content Supply Chain with SDL Cloud Technologies

Recording: Modernizing Your Content Supply Chain
Presentation: Modernizing Your Content Supply Chain
SDL is a leader in providing technologies including solutions for digital experience, structured content management, translation management, and more into its cloud platform. This platform provides a secure end to end solution that allows organizations to modernize their content supply chain. In this session, we’ll discuss not only the SDL’s cloud platform, but also discuss how Intralox leverages the platform. As an innovator and leader in providing comprehensive conveyance solutions, Intralox partnered with SDL to manage their content supply chain in the cloud.
Averting the Crisis of Creating Compelling Content at Scale

Recording: Averting the Crisis of Creating Compelling Content at Scale
Presentation: Averting the Crisis of Creating Compelling Content at Scale
The current crisis facing marketers today is that there simply is not enough content to drive the content supply chain. Marketers need to create content at scale while still preserving its ability to impact an audience or risk falling behind. While traditionally, creative agencies created content for brands, constrained budgets require new thinking for how to accomplish more content with the same budget. SDL’s Head of Content Marketing will introduce the audience to the creative process and share how she leverages Marketing Solutions to create content at scale, address the nuances between the different channels, media, markets and languages that need to be addressed and cultivate a digital culture. Learn how a marketer responsible for everything from the Five Future States of Content to SDL’s annual report:
- Cultivates a culture of creativity and digital adoption within marketing and localization
- Extends marketing’s global reach effectively
- Maximizes content reuse
- Optimizes the marketing content supply chain
Breakout Session 5
Content Will Be Agile: Delivering Content at the Speed of Business


Recording: Content Will Be Agile
Presentation: Content Will Be Agile
The Five Future States of Content describe the disruptive content trends brands need to watch for in the future. Join us in this session for a lively discussion on how content will be agile. With so much content being created to serve customers, translated to reach global audiences and delivered across different channels and devices, today’s companies need to adopt a continuous global content operating model, while enhancing the entire supply chain with Linguistic AI capabilities. This includes new authoring tools, continuous localization and neural machine translation to create and deliver engaging content at scale and speed to meet the pace of your business.
Evolution of a Content Consumer System Using Headless CMS

Recording: Evolution of a Content Consumer System Using Headless CMS
Presentation: Evolution of a Content Consumer System Using Headless CMS
Alliance Data Systems is undergoing a total architecture and modernization of their digital platforms including moving into a headless content model and Angular front end to enhance their financial services application. Brandon will explain how Alliance Data Systems uses Tridion Sites to be the hub of their enterprise content through the headless model, content as a service, personalization engine, and the evolution of the content consumer systems. Also he will explain how to scale the Tridion Sites platform for upmost availability, stability, and scalability.
From Strategy to Shipment: Building Products for a Global Marketplace // Panel Discussion
Recording: From Strategy to Shipment: Building Products for a Global Marketplace
Your product is the heart and soul of your company, which is why the overall product experience must be perfect. Increasingly this means supporting global variations to maintain or expand market share. Additionally, product content also must stand out above your competition. Coordinating these aspects that fall outside traditional development is often difficult and time consuming. Attend this panel discussion to learn how to achieve a more streamlined approach to global product launches that maximizes the efficiency of your team.
- Discuss best practices and lessons learned from SDL localization experts
- Learn how structured content can modernize technical communication
- Hear about SDL Testing services designed to ensure your products work as expected in every market
SDL Machine Translation Product Strategy


Recording: SDL Machine Translation Product Strategy
Presentation: SDL Machine Translation Product Strategy
Innovative, higher quality, and faster everything. Hear from SDL’s machine translation product team to see how our machine translation system has been validated by 90% of professional Russian-English translators in a recent benchmarking study with a perfect translation score. In this session, we will share how far the state-of-the-art has come with machine translation, what SDL R&D will be delivering with our enterprise-grade MT products, SDL ETS and SDL BeGlobal. We will provide a peek into how these products are unifying to help organizations overcome the challenges of translating content at scale while ensuring data privacy.
Breakout Session 6
Content and Compliance Considerations in an Increasingly Regulated World

Recording: Content and Compliance Considerations in an Increasingly Regulated World
Presentation: Content and Compliance Considerations in an Increasingly Regulated World
Content is growing at an exponential rate. But at the same time, more and more content is being regulated, particularly in certain industries like financial services, life sciences and for departments like legal and corporate communications. Companies operating in these industries face a myriad of challenges beyond the regulation itself, particularly when dealing with multilingual translations for multiple jurisdictions. Join this session and learn about the regulations that could impact your business and strategies and solutions for complying with these regulations.
Content Will Be Secure: Managing Risk Across the Content Supply Chain

Recording: Content Will Be Secure
Presentation: Content Will Be Secure
The Five Future States of Content describe the disruptive content trends brands need to watch for in the future. Join us in this session to learn how content will be secure. Many organizations lack a broad view of where and how their content moves both internally and externally to their organization. The challenge lies in ensuring security requirements are fulfilled while allowing the organization to function, balancing risk and rigor with agility. The answer lies in the combination of a robust and well defined content supply chain, supported by technology with security built in, with monitoring and enforcement managed by Linguistic AI that can scan content for personal identifying information, corporate intellectual property, and other sensitive data.
Global Language Quality Management in the Age of Content

Recording: Global Language Quality Management in the Age of Content
Presentation: Global Language Quality Management in the Age of Content
Before 1990, there were only eight channels available where a company could communicate with a customer. Now there are literally hundreds of channels where consumers access content. Since any company, anywhere in the world, can copy everything about what you as a company do, it is content, and the experiences that customers have with your content, that is the ultimate differentiator [i]. Therefore, you have to control and track content quality across all languages and channels. In our presentation, we show you a proven way how you can strategically measure and manage quality in an enterprise-scale organization. This makes sure your localization processes and strategies are future-proof.
[1] Joe Pulizzi, Foreword in Michael Brenner, Liz Bendor (2015) The Content Formula: Calculate the ROI of Content
Head, Heart and Hands: A Framework for Transforming Global Content Models





Recording: A Framework for Transforming Global Content Models
Global content models sits at the crossroads between Localization and Content Management, and now is a crucial time for engaging industry leaders to re-imagine what the future of localization could be. Inspired by the members and founders of Women in Localization, and their holistic approaches for managing some of the largest localization programs in the world, this panel discussion will leverage a head, heart and hands approach that can lead to real transformations in organizations asking: how do we transform ourselves, our science of measuring our success, our organization’s assumptions of global content, and our industry for a better future?
This panel discussion is premised on 3 principals:
- The "head" or how we think about the problems facing our organizations.
- The "heart" or how well we empathize with our stakeholders who can deliver change.
- The "hands" or what behaviors we need to inspire for transformation.
Transitioning into Continuous Localization


Recording: Transitioning into Continuous Localization
Presentation: Transitioning into Continuous Localization
Increasingly the characteristics of content for translation is changing into short pieces, while the frequency and volume has increased. To manage this change, organizations of all sizes and different industries are adopting a continuous localization model to meet the needs of their markets. In this session, our experts will discuss the following:
- Signs you’re ready to adopt a continuous localization model
- Ways to engage your stakeholders into this approach
- VMWare’s journey with continuous localization