In May, Elia held the third edition of ND Focus – Elia’s networking days for Executives. Held in Catania, Sicily, the event was sold out and brought together senior professionals in the language industry retreat in an exclusive and secluded setting, to retreat from the day-to-day and focus on building a stronger future for their company.
The unique format of this event combines presentations from dynamic expert moderators, who share their extensive knowledge and direct personal experience, with thought-provoking discussion – both facilitated and unscripted – with contributions from fellow attendees.
 This year’s tracks focused on two hot industry topics: Translation Industry: Does One Size Fit All?, moderated by  Kimon Fountoukidis, President and Founder of Argos Multilingual, and Dominique Hourant, Vice President of Strategic Accounts at Transperfect and Financial Strategies: The Golden Quest, moderated by Gráinne Maycock, Vice President of Sales at Sajan, an Amplexor company, and Roberto Ganzerli, Language Industry Expert.
The results from the post-event survey are now in, and we’re grateful to all the attendees who shared their feedback, which is extremely valuable as we plan for next year’s edition. 
 
The results are in
 We were thrilled that the event was so positively received and that the majority of respondents felt that their expectations were exceeded or met and that they are likely to attend next year. Overall, 96% were very satisfied or satisfied with the general organisation of the event.
 A lot of time, energy and enthusiasm are put into Elia events by the Committee, and ND Focus – Elia’s networking days for Executives was no exception. The topics are chosen carefully as are the speakers, which attendees overwhelmingly rated as Excellent for Quality of information, Knowledge of subject and Presentation skills, which we were very happy to see. Similarly, all respondents felt that both tracks were relevant, useful in their work and pitched at the right level.
 The majority of respondents felt that the sessions had the right balance between learning and discussion, and people very much liked the open atmosphere and exchange of experience with other attendees, a hallmark of Elia events.
 Networking is also an integral part of Elia events, and we were happy that respondents felt that we did enough to facilitate networking.
 The top reasons for attending were 1) Building connections with your peers; 2) Meeting other language service companies; and 3) Continuing education also rated highly.
 Here are some of the comments from attendees:
 “This conference offers great insight about our business, especially as regards business strategies.”
 “I really liked it; one of the best event formats I have been to.”
 “The event is excellent, targeted and I have never met anyone who didn’t get excellent value from it. I have already recommended it to at least 2 people.”
 “[This event] is targeted for Execs, you meet your peers with whom you can exchange ideas, talk about (the same) issues you’re facing. And you can learn from top experts (and get their opinion too).”
 Next year’s edition is planned for May 2019. Stay tuned for further updates and announcements as soon as next year’s venue is finalised.