The Translating Europe Forum (TEF) is DG Translation’s flagship 3-day annual conference bringing together language professionals in Brussels and online.
2025 Translating Europe Forum – 5-7 November in Brussels and online
Special features:
- ClearLanguage@TEF – a dedicated programme on plain language.
- Newcomers’ Fair (only online) – for students and early-career translators to connect with peers and professionals.
What can you expect?
The Translating Europe Forum offers a space to network, share ideas, explore trends, challenges and opportunities, and discuss the future of the translation and language professions. The event is free – if you want to participate (either online or in person), all you have to do is register.
Who attends?
Participants range from freelance translators and language service providers to representatives of translation services from national, EU and international institutions. The event is also attended by students, academics, members of professional associations and representatives of language technology companies.
Topics covered
Ever since it started in 2014, the Translating Europe Forum has addressed the key issues facing the language industry, from skills and competence frameworks to language technologies and the role of AI.
The programme is developed with input from the Language Industry Expert Group and the board of the European Masters’ in Translation, both composed of experienced translation professionals from across Europe and beyond.
See below for past programmes, speakers and session materials, including recordings.
- 2024
Words matter
How can language professionals make the best of the data and tools available to them? What is the impact of Generative AI on the translation profession? Should we rethink how we brand ourselves? How can AI help terminology management? And how can terminology work support AI? Where does terminology fit in the translation workflow?
- 2023
Achieving excellence in translation
What does it take to achieve excellence in translation? Ranging from skills and training to quality management, and from technologies to promoting the language professions, discussions put translators in the spotlight and show why they are the key to quality.
- 2022
Access for all: going beyond translating text
How many ways are there to convey meaning between languages? Can translators switch from translating text-to-text to speech-to-text translation? What are the key changes and challenges in the profession today? How can speech-to-text and text-to-speech technologies improve accessibility for diverse audiences, and how can they help translators with specific needs? What are the latest technological developments that make a translator's work easier? What skills are most needed, and what new opportunities are coming up?
- 2021
Collaboration in times of automation
How can we work together when machines and AI are taking over so many tasks? Will automation only increase the level of collaboration with machines, or will language professionals find new ways to interact offline? How does the human translator fit into this new way of working? Can we expect to work less with greater productivity? Or will we work even longer hours post-editing the enormous volumes of raw translation produced by the machine? Are we already and forever more living in the era of a ’post-editing industry’?
- 2020
Platforms: digital ecosystems for translation
Online platforms have become part of many people´s everyday lives. Examples include social media platforms, digital marketplaces and online services. They facilitate contacts between groups that don't necessarily know each other. We explore the effect of digital platforms on the translation profession (new business models and workflows for translators and language service providers), the translation needs of digital platforms, and how translation supports digital platforms.