Last weekend one of the most important things we discovered is that folks working in the language industry are some of the coolest, smartest, most fun-loving yet hard-working people. They are also extremely generous. After attending the LavaCon and LocWorld31 Conferences, teams and members from various companies all around the world took up the Coastal Flag Challenge to hike along the Howth trail to raise money for Translators without Borders (TWB), a non-profit organisation that works to close critical language gaps that hinder humanitarian efforts worldwide. They support the work of hundreds of organisations in the areas of crisis relief, health and education.
Thanks to the generous and kind participation of the members, we raised over $5,305 or over €5,000 for TWB. Once again, we cannot thank everyone enough for the enthusiastic support and sponsorship. Special thanks to Lionbridge for the sack-lunch sponsorship, which kept up the energy and morale of the teams. Also, thanks to LocWorld for co-sponsoring the fundraiser and helping us organise a fun and successful event. Additional thanks to the Abbey Tavern crew and the traditional Irish singers and dancers for the exceptional night.
What was it all about?
The Coastal Flag Challenge involved hiking the trail, and answering 8 rounds of questions prepared by the KantanMT team. Teams needed to tweet their photo answers to @KantanMT with the #TWBhike. The pictures were absolutely brilliant, and the teams were extremely observant, in spite of the long hike.
https://twitter.com/qpirate/status/741635111112835072
So, who won?
Together, we raised more than €5,000 for TWB, so that they can provide people access to vital, sometimes life-saving, information in their own language – so we think we all won and did a fantastic job on Saturday. However, Tony O’Dowd, Founder and Chief Architect of KantanMT.com, gave away some certificates to winners in various categories:
The Social Butterfly Award
Gary Lefman from Cisco, and our very own Brian Coyle.
The Best Nature Photographer
Celeste Do Vale Cisneros from Vistatec, and our very own Carlos Collantes.
https://twitter.com/celestedovale/status/741608472492527616
The Best Prepared Award
Kirsten Meinertz from Ralph Lauren
The overall winner!
The overall winning team was a collection of brilliant minds from all across the industry, with a very global feel!
Random Collections: Gary Lefman from Cisco, Kirsten Meinertz from Ralph Lauren, Jonathan Bowring from Riversight, Eva Vanmassenhove from ADAPT, and Nerea Alejo.
Finally…
Please note that the donation page to TWB is still active, and if you have not yet donated, or if you would like to donate more, please feel free to contribute here.
We have uploaded images from the day at this location. Please feel free to create a new folder with your name and upload your own images to share them with others.
