The State of Translation

As we enter the new year, we cannot help but reflect on how the pandemic has affected every industry, business and person the last few years. From changing business models, increased shipments that caused major delays, the fall and rise of the travel industry, and more, there has been an impact in every aspect of our lives. We sat down with Pocketalk General Manager, Joe Miller, to get his thoughts on where we’ve been, and where he sees Pocketalk and the translation industry going in 2023.

In March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced many into working from home, and emergency workers like doctors, nurses, and EMTs to work longer and harder hours than ever before. Gone were the days of having your support system come to your doctors appointments, or in-house translators to aid in these visits. We knew immediately we wanted to help. We donated devices to as many hospitals, clinics, offices, and schools as we could to close the language barrier between patients and providers. In September 2021, Pocketalk became the first ever HIPAA & GDPR compliant handheld translation device to accommodate professionals to create connections more effectively and efficiently than ever before.

“In the pre-COVID days you could talk to anyone without challenges, there was nothing to worry about. When COVID happened it brought human contact, discussion, and dialogue to the forefront because you weren’t allowed to have it the way we were all familiar with,” Joe shared  about the role technology has had to play in conversations over the last nearly three years.

Communication challenges were not isolated to healthcare. Teachers were forced to teach over Zoom, then in classrooms with ever-changing rules which brought us to the forefront of education in schools like Madison County und Sabal Palm. Business professionals attended what were once international conferences in person, virtually, without means of networking and connecting to their fellow professionals. Logistics professionals found themselves overwhelmed with late containers of shipments from overseas, and facing communication challenges from shipment to  warehouse to delivery.

“At the core, most crises are caused by and solved by communication. If you can’t communicate an issue, you’ll escalate the problem and you’ll end up spending more money, more time, more ill will as you try to solve it. Most things can be solved with quick and accurate discussion.”

With a recession on the horizon in 2023, and continuing to combat wars and tensions overseas, organizations and individuals have to find new ways to adapt. Joe  says “Recessions bring translation to the forefront – you have to reconsider everything. Relying on inefficiency in language is costly, human translators are expensive, building in delays in your business to facilitate language is detrimental. What was working before won’t be good enough anymore.”

Whether you choose to use Pocketalk Plus at your healthcare facility, the Pocketalk S to get closer to your students and their parents, or the app for your personal travel, our top-of-class translation systems allow anyone to create secure, reliable conversations anywhere.

In 2023, we will continue to dedicate ourselves to creating connections and breaking language barriers through updating and expanding our portfolio with new and innovative technology to cultivate a global community of professionals and individuals. This next year we will continue to build and refine our products to cater to both business and individual needs. As travel continues to rebound, we will work to offer our best affordable solutions to consumers looking to make genuine connections across the globe. For business, we will continue to learn how our product fits in each industry, while developing pocketalk console and our administration tools to best serve enterprises around the world.

“Eye opening events everyday have been a reinforcement that our product is not a product, it’s not the physical device, it’s the ecosystem that goes between and back again, with the conversations that come out of it.”

Now that we know what we’re offering is in high-demand for both businesses and consumers, we will be turning up the scale and volume of everything we do in 2023 to offer the best-in-class products for our customers. We’ve barely scratched the surface of our potential.