2018 – a year in review

We can’t believe the end of January is already fast approaching! 2018 was full of fantastic achievements and wonderful memories and we reflect on some of the best bits here!

Newbies

We welcomed a few new members of staff to AST this year. The project management team has grown with Annabel, Shannon, Katherine and intern Laura. We welcomed Junior Translator Eleanor to our in-house team and our new Digital Marketing Specialist Erato Mygdaliou has got off to a great start in reshaping AST’s image as part of our big rebranding project.

Newborns

Peter, AST’s Head of Translation Services, welcomed his second child into the world last year and Senior Translator Lindsay had to a wait a little bit longer to meet her second child, who was born at the beginning of this year.

AST out and about

We’re continuing to send members of staff out into the world to inspire the next generation of project managers and translators with visits to the University of Birmingham, University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University. We also attended industry events such as the yearly ATC (Association of Translation Companies) conference in September.

Achievements

Peter has also been working hard to win us translation contracts with German public-sector clients and we are delighted to announce that we have successfully won four tenders this year! We began preparations to be certified to ISO 17100, the ISO standard for translation service providers. This involved, among other things, the launch of our supplier newsletter, which will contain news and tips and support for our translation partners.

Ever the dedicated linguists, many of us here at AST have embarked on learning new languages and improving existing ones with Lauren and Peter getting to grips with Portuguese, Maisie starting Croatian, Eleanor perfecting her Polish, Berni starting Swedish and Marek and Lauren improving their Italian.

We’ve been dressing up in Christmas jumpers and sportswear (ranging from the extremely professional to the exceptionally silly) to raise money for Save the Children and Sport Relief. AST formed its first ever choir this year and gave a fantastic performance at the company Christmas meal. Watch this space! Finally, we’re proud to say that we translated 6,028,605 words this year and completed 4,198 projects!