Annual Conference 2023 Speakers

04 - 06 October 2023

Salt Lake City, UT (USA)

Hameed Afssari
Head of Globalization
UBER

"Uber's Localization journey: Embracing touch-less translation through MT and Human-AI collaboration."

JP Barraza
CEO Americas
SYSTRAN

Renato Beninatto
Chairman and Co-founder
NIMDZI

"It is an understatement to say that we are at an inflection point for AI and translation. Realizing this potential will require open dialogue to build trust, set expectations, and shape how these technologies integrate responsibly into our work."

Bruno Bitter
CEO & Co-fuonder
BLACKBIRD.IO

Wayne Bourland
Director of Translation
DELL

"The question of what impact GenAI will have on what and how we translate in the future can best be answered by looking at what we don’t and do know; we don’t know how much can we trust the output, or if it will take our jobs away, or what the risk are – but what we do know is we want to adopt it as fast as we can!"

Alessandro Cattelan
COO
TRANSLATED

"The shift towards an MT-first-and-only scenario in translation profoundly impacts workflows, quality control, and post-editors' roles. As MT quality improves, there's an increase in content translated without budget increments, sparking higher demand for translations in more languages. Customer data, alongside AI-based technologies, helps continually refine MT systems, turning MT from a competitor into a collaborator and enhancing, not replacing, human expertise."

Giovanna Conte
Global Quality Management
CENTIFIC

“Discover how collaboration between LLMs and human translators enables the best of both worlds for quality evaluation".

Konstantin Dranch
Co-Founder
CUSTOMMT

"AI in language in a noisy world. Which message will be heard?"

Dace Dzeguze
COO
TAUS

"Generative AI brings the potential to translation & localization, yet effective integration demands cautious optimism amid the industry's hype."

Gabriel Fairman
Founder and CEO
BUREAU WORKS

"We'll explore how BWX's Gen AI enables a fluid knowledge exchange with our Gen Language Engine. See how static knowledge dissolves to make room for Language Flow Architects."

Christian Federmann
Principal Reseach Manager
MICROSOFT

Casper Grathwohl
President
OXFORD LANGUAGES

“Clean, intelligent, responsible data is the cornerstone to the advanced use cases emerging in this new AI paradigm. It’s critical that LLM outputs reflect not just who we are, but also what we’re trying to become.”

Spence Green
CEO
LILT

"As the use of generative AI tools for text generation proliferates, enterprise localization programs will need to develop observability tools and processes to ensure that they're not just buying ChatGPT output."

Jan Grodecki
Senior Solutions Architect
WELOCALIZE

"As generative AI evolves, it is critical to remain nimble and continuously innovate to accommodate developing use cases. Welocalize’s technology-agnostic strategy allows us to put clients first and integrate the best tools and processes for their needs."

Paco Guzman
Research Scientist Manager
META AI

"LLMs have shown their potential in text translation tasks, but there is still significant progress to be made in bridging language barriers and facilitating seamless connections among people, especially in low-resource settings."

Bridget Hylak
Founder and Senior Consultant
TONGUETEK LANGUAGE CONSULTING

"L10N and G11N are two sides of a coin: one focuses in, while the other pans out. Both imply connection, yet we crave it more than ever. Modern communicators must bridge the gap between what tech gives and what it takes."

Veronica Hylak
Co-Founder
METALINGUIST

"The ultimate test for tech companies in the wake of GenAI lies in our ability to design intuitive, flexible tools - it will be the deciding factor for how lang loc teams adapt, succeed and survive in this next era."

Marcin Junczys-Dowmunt
Principal Research Scientist
MICROSOFT TRANSLATOR

Amir Kamran
Solutions Architect
TAUS

"AI, in combination with human annotators, has the power to transform data generation. We can produce fresh high quality data with less effort and close the data gaps, enabling the training of even more powerful and capable AI models."

Ilan Kernerman
CEO
LEXICALA BY K DICTIONARIES

"A vital factor for producing quality AI-driven MT concerns the LLM training data’s characteristics. To enhance the utility of resources for model training, we apply a multi-layer cross-lingual approach, incorporating typical linguistic patterns in meticulously constructed monolingual datasets, which can extend multilingually."

Jeff Kiser
Sr Business Development Director
ACOLAD GROUP

"Creating structures that incorporate LLMs for every L10n structure is continuing at an exponential rate, is there a comfortable limit?"

Philipp Koehn
Professor
JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY

"Exciting times for language technology, as text and speech processing are merging ever closer and address challenges in a multilingual world."

Alon Lavie
VP of AI Research
PHRASE

Paul Mangell
Director
ALPHA

Melina Moussetis
Technical Product Manager - Global Customer Experience Localization
AMAZON LOCALIZATION

"Exploring the combination of existing and emerging LLM and machine translation solutions to create the optimal experience for the global customer."

Marina Pantcheva
Senior Group Manager
RWS

“The recent rise of LLMs and their emerging capabilities has sparked the temptation to utilize them for translations. Research has demonstrated, though, that LLMs perform on par with NMT when it comes to segment-level translation. Their true contribution lies in tackling linguistically complex tasks that have traditionally been reserved for human translators".

Sravya Popuri
Research engineer
FACEBOOK AI RESEARCH (FAIR)

Olga Pospelova
Senior Manager, Data
AMAZON

Michael Reeves
Head of Localization Product Strategy
GOOGLE

Gen AI and localization are two wings of the same bird. Together, they form a powerful combination that will help us soar to new heights of prosperity and equitability for everyone."

Daniel Sebesta
Senior Consultant
TONGUETEK LANGUAGE CONSULTING

"Technology doesn’t need to be perfect to be valuable. Between perfection and uselessness, there's vast potential for productive use of AI."

Mark Seligman
President
SPOKEN TRANSLATION

Richard Sikes
Senior Consultant - Business Services
MEMOQ

“Although LLMs have the potential to change the language industry in remarkable ways, we at memoQ remain positive about the future of purpose-designed CAT tools in our chosen target markets".

Daria Sinitsyna
Lead Computational Linguist
INTENTO

"Showcasing that GenAI can become a useful tool to simplify the current Linguistic Quality Assessment workflow."

Mathijs Sonnemans
Product Owner
BLACKBIRD.IO

"The innovation today is that new models can repurpose content to target audiences that differ in more ways than just the language they speak. The innovation tomorrow is how to build automated content pipelines and use these models quickly and without effort in a world where these target audiences are also ever changing."

Stephen Tyler
CPTO
MOTIONPOINT

Anne-Maj van der Meer
Director of Strategic Partnerships
TAUS

"The AI revolution is reshaping the translation and localization industry, amplifying efficiency & accuracy, bridging global communication with technological synergy."

Jaap van der Meer
CEO
TAUS

"Translation out of the wall! The TAUS vision of 2005 is becoming a reality, finally. Now, what's next? Let's use it, smartly, not blindly, to make the world a better place."

Anderson Vaz
CTO
TAUS

"Localization is still challenging but Generative AI is making significant strides in modernizing and improving it. Any company using old methods is at risk to be 'Lost in Translation' on this industry."

Erik Vogt

Founder and Senior Consultant

VOGT STRATEGY

“LLMs are not just another MT solution, but an opportunity to fundamentally change the way we think about linguistic and quality workflows.”

Erji Wang
Sr. Globalization Program Manager
VMWARE

"AI-Enhanced Localization: A Gateway to Elevated Quality, Efficiency, and Cost Savings. Delve into the future of global expansion, as AI revolutionizes content analysis, translation, quality assurance, and content creation. Embrace streamlined processes and optimized resources for maximum impact."

John Weisgerber
Senior Solutions Architect
XTM INTERNATIONAL

"Showcasing how organizations can now make sure their localized content is inclusive and appropriate through AI-powered quality assurance checks and thus safeguard their brand image in their global markets."

Sarah Weldon
Product Manager
GOOGLE CLOUD AI

Chris Wendt
Consultant & Software Developer

"Are LLMs giving us the next quality jump in MT quality? We’ll find out what the MT gurus of the large online and open source providers think."

Franziska Willnow
Program Manager – Quality
AWS LOCALIZATION

"AI in the localization supply chain. Learn how we will support customer needs across content creation, transcreation, and QA with humans setting the guardrails."

Alex Yanishevsky
Director AI & MT Solutions
SMARTLING

"LLMs are an enormous inflexion point for our industry and promise numerous exciting opportunities. The key for us, as practicioners and researchers, is using this new technology in a responsible, innovative and scalable fashion."

Wei Zhang
VP, Localization Technology
CENTIFIC

"Unlock Global Growth with AI Localization: Our integrated AI solutions redefine end-to-end localization. Seamlessly analyzing, translating, assuring quality, and generating content, we offer the ultimate solution for your global expansion."