Jonny Bates is Global Lingo’s North American Director of Sales and heads our Chicago office. He’s recently moved from Singapore so he’s getting to know the city more.

At the beginning of 2017, I was lucky enough to be offered the chance to move from Singapore, where I had spent the last two years leading our Asia Pacific business, to head up our new US office in Chicago. Global Lingo has delivered significant profitable growth over recent years and I am really looking forward to the opportunity of developing our presence in the United States and the wider Americas.  After a few months waiting to secure a visa, I am now on the ground here.  And what an experience it has been so far.

Historically famous for Jazz, Al Capone, and most importantly deep-dish pizza, the city of Chicago has more recently hit the headlines due to one of its two baseball teams, the Cubs, overcoming 108 years of hurt and once again being crowned World Champions.

The reasons why we chose Chicago as our American base were twofold.  Firstly, it is a thriving business centre and truly a city of the world. Major global organisations, such as McDonalds, Boeing, Kraft & Exelon, to name but a few, are headquartered here; making it a key site for the localization and wider language services industry.

Secondly, Chicago is a major hub for both international and Intracontinental travel and its position in the Central time-zone assists in bridging the gap between East and West coasts, helping us service our clients across the entire United States.

So, what are my first impressions?  – Well, Chicago is quite simply an incredible city! There is a plethora of things going on at this time of year, with festivals galore. Whether you like food, drink, arts, architecture, sports or even just lying on a beach (yes Chicago has beaches!), then the city has something to offer you.

I’m told that in colder months things change, when what has repeatedly been described to me as a brutal winter takes hold. At that point, seasoned Chicagoans do the smart thing and mimic the behaviour of the American Chipmunk, choosing to hibernate until Spring!

The architecture is also fascinating in Chicago. The skyscraper was invented here and through the years Chicago has been home to the World’s tallest building title on multiple occasions. Currently though the former record holder Sears Tower, now re-branded as Willis Tower, languishes down in 16^th place at just 108 floors and 442m high. With Batman’s Gotham city set here, and Donald Trump building his biggest tower here riverside at the city’s centre point, it’s certainly never a dull moment as you wander the streets and gaze around.

One thing is for sure – it’s a great city for both business and pleasure, and Global Lingo certainly plans on expanding our base here to offer high quality translation, transcription and minute-taking services to many new clients across the USA and the wider Americas, while enabling our other global clients the benefits of this extended global footprint and 24/7 support.

If you’d like to speak to Jonny and the Chicago team, to find out how Global Lingo can help you with Translation or Minute Taking call +1 312 313 9686 or fill in the quote form.

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