[CFP] Media localization: Welcome back to the future

December 16, 2021 Events

After a very successful online conference in 2021, we look forward to welcoming you back to Berlin from 7 – 9 November 2022 for the 14th edition of Languages & The Media, the International Conference and Exhibition on Language Transfer in Audiovisual Media.

Languages & The Media 2022 will be held at Radisson Blu Hotel, which has been our home for the past decade. We are pleased to return to it and enjoy our traditional workshops, presentations, panels and networking with good old-fashioned face-to-face interaction with all of you.

We have certainly ridden not one but multiple waves of discovery and discussion since we last met in person. The streaming revolution has continued strong and is still picking up pace, as original content is exploding, especially in languages other than English, with renewed attention paid to inclusion and diversity, as well as accessibility for all. Workflows and tools have moved entirely to the cloud, to enable more remote connections as home-working has become the new norm in the post-pandemic world, while automation is being applied at every step of the production chain. From online platforms that support better media and project management, to language technologies aimed at augmenting translators’ capabilities with more tools under their belt, to sound and VFX-type technologies used to recreate performances in any language one can imagine, new tech solutions for the media and entertainment sector keep springing up one after the other – with a strong influx of funding to boost their development.

2020 was the year that dubbing got disrupted and a host of new software applications and solutions appeared in the market, bringing this popular audiovisual translation practice closer to its cinephile cousin, subtitling. The perennial question of whether to dub or to sub was asked anew in 2021 and the answer was a resounding ‘both’, as viewers around the world got reacquainted with the art of media localization. As with other topics that make global headlines, be it a new vaccine or the quality of translation in a top grossing show, everyone has an opinion. If there was ever a time for the creative media localization experts to escape the invisibility of their profession and tell the world their story, it is now.

The Call for Proposals is now open, and we invite you to get involved and help us shape the conference agenda by submitting a proposal here until 14 February 2022. We encourage ideas for innovative presentations and workshops that focus, among other topics, on emerging practices and tools, machine translation implementation, inclusive language, media access and videogame localisation. Click here for a full list of conference themes and subthemes.

Come and join us in Berlin next November 2022 to catch up with the latest trends and innovations, discuss how we can future-proof our profession and ensure the sustainability of our industry going forward!