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Call for papers

Meet Central Europe Conference 2022

#MCE 2022 theme: Inspiring talent management

As at past MCE conferences, the theme of the 2022 Meet Central Europe Conference is inspiring talent management. The MCE annual conference, jointly organised by the Austrian, Czech, Hungarian and Slovak national translation company associations, will take place this year just outside of Bratislava at the X-Bionic Sphere in Šamorín, Slovakia from 12 till 14 October 2022.

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We know it is hard to be thinking now about preparing a presentation to be delivered in October while we are witnessing a humanitarian crisis in the centre of Europe. Acknowledging the realities created by the war in Ukrainian we have added topics that reflect the situation and how it is impacting the language industry. Despite this we are really hoping to see you at our conference in Slovakia and the organising committee is now accepting submissions addressing the wide range of topics detailed below. 

Target audience

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  • Vendor and Project Managers seeking inspiration and expert advice on how to best recruit, manage and retain top linguistic and non-linguistic talent

  • Freelance translators who are interested in working together with translation companies and who would like to learn more about project management and other translation topics

  • Anyone seeking to find new Central and Eastern European linguistic partners

  • Central European translation providers looking to expand their markets

  • The conference will have presentations for language services companies (LSCs) and freelance translators.

  • Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):

Industry response in a humanitarian crisis

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Ukraine and beyond:

  • Pro bono interpreting

  • Running an LSP in a conflict zone

  • New interpreting technologies

  • Language industry humanitarian efforts

  • Supporting the mental health of language industry professionals traumatised by the war
     

Language Service Companies Topics

 
Recruitment:

  • Best recruitment channels, the use of references, testing and evaluation systems, cooperation with universities, general vs. ad hoc recruitment, negotiation approaches

  • How to find subject matter experts?

  • The holy grail of the perfect vendor mix: freelance linguists & SLV vendors

  • How to recruit non-linguistic talents? (technicians, QA experts, engineers, voice-over artists, subtitlers, testers etc.)

  • How to find new linguists for rare languages?

 
On-boarding / Cooperation:

  • The psychology of vendor management

  • Training vendors (CAT tools, processes) 

  • Motivation, evaluation, feedback, how to become an attractive client and how to build true loyalty in an external team

  • How to turn a new never-worked-with translator into a core translator?

  • How to eliminate the risk when you use a new translator?

  • TMS systems: do translators really like them? Methods of engaging linguists in the proper usage of our TMS systems

  • In-house translators and QA teams – pros and cons, availability issues, volume guarantees

  • Team management

  • Post-editing (recruitment, training, payment schemes)

  • Automation in vendor management, agile vendor management

  • Measuring vendor management efficiency (KPIs, ROI models)

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Freelance and general topics

  • Tools: any kind of training in various tools, at beginner or advanced level (perhaps also comparisons)

  • Challenges of working for a language service company

  • Marketing and how to stand out from the crowd

  • Various aspects of remote versus in-house work

  • CAT tools – one or more? Cloud or local?

  • Giving and receiving feedback

  • Continuous professional development

  • What freelancers expect from language service companies

  • What freelancers need from language service companies

  • How to work with an LSC rather than for them

  • Market trends

  • Top technical skills in demand in 2022

  • Terminology management

  • Project management

  • Complaint management

  • Stress management

Form of appearance​

  • Presentations (duration: 30 minutes)

  • Workshops (duration: 2 hours including a coffee break)

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Submission of the paper

  • title of the presentation

  • short abstract (maximum of 4-5 sentences)

  • short bio (maximum of 4-5 sentences)

  • photo in high resolution

  • hyperlink to a maximum of 1 min video recording introducing yourself and your presentation (please note that uploading the video itself is not possible, only a link)

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Important dates

  • Submission deadline: May 31, 2022

  • Notification date: June 30, 2022

  • Final paper submission: September 30, 2022

  • Conference dates: October 12-14 2022

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