To be able to experience culture you have to invest in culture

World Translation A/S is one of Aarhus 2017's sponsors. Here, Director Ib Brandt Jørgensen explains why they chose to support the Capital of Culture and how they themselves used the theme ’Let’s Rethink’ to redefine their business.

"At World Translation A/S, we believe that we have a social responsibility. We want to be involved, helping to shape a healthy society and thriving business community – locally and globally. 

We want in particular to nurture Danish culture and in doing so create jobs and growth. Sponsoring the Aarhus European Capital of Culture 2017 project allows us to support the arts in our own local communities. 

Caring for our local community culture is important to us because from a socio-economic perspective, a well-cared-for cultural life is a sign of a well-functioning society. We believe that the European Capital of Culture project will put Aarhus and Denmark on the international stage. 

A greater awareness of Denmark can have a positive effect and help exports to grow. Moreover, we believe the European Capital of Culture project will create jobs locally and nationally. 

This is why in 2014, we took the decision to provide support to Aarhus 2017. Even though 2017 may seem a long way away, we want to collaborate with others here and now, to help put Aarhus and its surrounding communities on the map. We want to be a source of inspiration for our colleagues in the business community. 

This means that sometimes we have to lead from the front. Since 2014, we have provided sponsorship to Arhus 2017 in the form of language services, to an annual value of DKK 75,000. We want to demonstrate to our colleagues and partners in the business community that we believe in the European Capital of Culture project.

World Translation is located in the Aarhus area and a real presence in the city, with many customers and partners. We have a clear growth strategy, which can only succeed with help from our talented employees – the more the better. To make the area a great place to live and work, and to make it a mecca for even more qualified people, means having a thriving cultural scene, good infrastructure and innovative companies.

Aarhus has to be a city that is on the move to make people move to the city. We firmly believe that Aarhus 2017 can bring the business community, the arts, cultural organisations and people together as a single community, and in doing so, help the area to develop." 

Let’s rethink
"World Translation started as a typical translation agency. As time went on, we realised that in addition to translation services, many customers needed help with their product documentation. 

Inspired by the Aarhus 2017 philosophy of 'Let's Rethink', we examined our own role as a company. What does it mean to be a translation agency? How can we provide the best help to our customers? What can we do that makes us different from other agencies? What makes us more special than all the others? 

We rethought the way a translation agency works and started to provide technical documentation for specific sectors and fields. 

For example, we can write and devise manuals and user instructions for our customers, and if they want to export or are exporting products, we can also translate their documents – a complete solution. But we go further than that – we also provide training in technical documentation for people who are involved in product documentation. 

Our TCTrainNet training is unique in Denmark. By combining these services, we have rethought who we are and the way we work, and we have transformed our company into a unique language service provider," says Ib Brandt Jørgensen.