Call for Papers

The EUATC’s annual conference, T-UPDATE ’21 VIRTUAL is set to break the mould of in-line presentation conferencing by harnessing technology that will allow delegates to develop their own unique event pathways ensuring that each can focus on the areas that are most important to them.  The online event will feature inspirational keynote speakers looking at specific topics. These will be the spark for a series of master classes and in-topic deep discussion groups.

The content committee is looking for individuals to be:

• keynote speakers
• masterclass leaders
• presenters of success stories
• moderators of in-topic deep discussion groups

And to lead sessions in five themed areas:

• The challenges of the pandemic
• Leadership – motivating CEOs and their teams – preparing for the future
• Innovation and growth
• Sales and marketing strategies
• Survival and growth strategies for LSPs

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS AND MASTER CLASS PRESENTERS

The organising committee is inviting submissions from inspirational keynote speakers and Master Class Presenters to lead sessions in five themed areas.

Keynote speakers
Each selected keynote speaker will be asked to pre-record a presentation. They will be expected to be online during the streaming of the presentation and available for the Q&A Duration:  Maximum of 30 minutes presentation + 20 minutes Q&A

Master Class presenters
Each selected Master Class presenter will be asked to pre-record their presentation. They will be expected to be online during the streaming of the presentation and available for the Q&A session.

Duration: Maximum of 30 minutes presentation + 20 minutes Q&A

The organising committee is particularly interested in receiving submissions that will include specific examples and those that share success stories.

SUCCESS STORIES & MODERATORS

The organising committee is inviting submissions from those with practical success stories that will inspire and moderators with knowledge to share in the topics above.

Success Stories: 
We will require each success story teller to pre-record their tale 

Duration: Up to a maximum of 4 minutes

Your shared success story will be displayed as a video before each keynote speaker on the topic (there will be no interaction)

Moderators of discussion groups:
Live via video chat in groups of up to 10 people and then opening and facilitating the discussion among the group. Facilitators need to encourage the sharing of specific knowledge and experienced cu followed by an open discussion.

Below are some suggested areas under each of the main themes that could be of interest to the organising committee. However, the organisers are completely open to receive submissions that cover related topic ideas, as long as these fit with the overall session theme.

PLEASE NOTE: in all segments we have suggested areas of interest but recognise that our list of topics is not exhaustive. If you see a topic that you feel should be covered under a specific segment, we encourage you to submit a paper proposal. Please keep in mind our audience is mainly CEOs and Senior Executives, so we recommend you submit a topic specific presentation that contributes to their executive roles.

1. The Challenges of the pandemic: What have we learned

Topics under this heading might include:

• Role of leader in difficult times 
• Crisis management and communications 
• Growing and cultivating company culture with a remote team 
• Back to the office / office space functions after pandemic / do we need offices at all? 
• Remote team management, remote hiring and onboarding
• Sales people: how to sell remotely 
• Future of language industry 
• Innovative linguistic services 
• Services on rise and decline in 2021 and beyond 
• Data safety & cyber security, ISO 27001 Information Security Management 
• Principles of change management 
• Automation and AI 
• Innovative technologies for remote teams

2.Leadership – motivating CEOs and their teams: Preparing for the future

Topics under this heading might include:

• Tactics for leading across generations – managing multigenerational teams
• Organizational growth and development – enabling an organization to better respond and adapt to industry/market changes and technological advances
• Change Management – how to react fast enough to changes in society and the business world?
• Successful changes in your company – change as a managed process or no change at all?
• The change curve – emotion reactions while in change or transition
• Techniques to creating a company vision. Visioning as a perfect starting point to change
• Competitive positioning – how you’ll “differentiate” your offering and create value for your market
• Focusing on the soft, often neglected sides of our industry, like leadership, recruitment, work/life balance and even personal satisfaction
• Tapping into their undiscovered potential- exploring vital pillars of personal growth (resilience, stability, receptiveness, and vulnerability)
• Revealing and bolstering the extraordinary
• How to nurture your people assets
• Creating a solid, reliable culture within the company

3.Innovation & growth: It’s Time to Rethink How You Innovate
Topics under this heading might include:

• Emerging translation industry trends
• How is AI changing the translation and localization industry?
• Localization ROI: how to increase speed-to-value, maintaining quality and speed
• Competitive edge: How to integrate AI into your business
• Challenges of continuous localization for e-commerce platforms
• AI in the translation and localization industry: MT, Machine Learning, Speech Recognition, Text-to-Speech (TTS) technology, Speech Synthesis, Natural Language Processing, etc
• AI versus Data Protection, Legal Challenges, Ethics
• Project Management Automation

4.Sales & Marketing topics: If we can’t sell in person, there’s always a way

Topics under this heading might include:

• Marketing and selling to a growing digital-first work force 
• Digital marketing transformation
• Social Media selling strategies (LinkedIn, SEO, SEM, etc)
• B2B digital marketing in the language sector
• Account Based Marketing: is it suitable for language companies?
• Alternative social media channels : Are you using Youtube, TikTok, etc

5.Survival & growth strategies for LSPs: Considering all the possibilities
Topics under this heading might include:

• Size matters – how to optimise the size of your organisation for a crisis-safe operation
• Scalability and resilience
• Strategic technology choices for scalability
• Strategic HR choices for scalability
• Crisis mode – what to do when turnover is temporarily but radically down
• Counter-cyclical investment – growth through acquisitions when prices are down

T-UPDATE is a conference that mainly attracts CEOs and Senior Executives from all over Europe and across the world. To contribute to the best experience possible, we aim to only feature presenters who are able to share their knowledge and deliver outputs that are essential for executive-level decision-makers.

When selecting the papers submitted, the content committee will pay special attention to those who:

• State clearly which theme they want to adopt for their presentation;
• Whether the submission is aligned with the conference main themes and tracks;
• Cover very specific topics;
• Contain concrete take-always;
• Do NOT repeat presentations from other industry conferences;
• Are not overtly commercial or promotional; 
• All submissions will be peer reviewed and evaluated based on originality, technical and/or research content/depth, relevance to the conference themes and readability.

English is the official language of the conference. Authors are invited to submit full (and original research) papers (which have NOT been submitted, published or under consideration elsewhere by other conferences/journals). All papers must be submitted via the web portal on this site. You must complete all sections of the form and up-load a high-resolution photograph of yourself. We will also require your social media handles and links which we will use to publicise your involvement should your paper be selected.

The following timetable will be strictly adhered to:

• Paper submission: Midnight CET on Sunday, 14 February 2021 (strict deadline)
• Notification of organising committee decision: Mid February 2021

Should you have questions about your submission email the query to:
Geoffrey Bowden
secretary@euatc.org