We ended October on a high note bringing LangOps Universe 2021 to the virtual stage with Unbabel, a client on the speaker management side.

Nearly 400 attendees around the globe tuned in on October 27-28 from Portugal, the U.S., Spain, Germany, Suriname, Brazil, France, and more to learn how to grow their organizations globally through language, embracing translation, and improving customer experiences. LangOps Universe brought together translators, customer experience representatives, and localization professionals as a community to discuss the value of language and AI for boosting customer operations.

Our event management team worked with more than 30 speakers to bring this customer-centric summit to fruition. If you weren’t able to attend (or if you want to re-live the experience!), we’ve put together a short recap.

Day One:

Unbabel CEO Vasco Pedro kicked off the event and challenged the audience to #TranslateFearlessly. Lisa Edwards, President and COO of Diligent, and Ana Becker-Weinberg, Chief of Staff at Unbabel, followed, taking the stage to discuss Lisa’s career trajectory as a CX champion.

Jason Richardson, VP, Customer Operations at Unbabel moderated an all-star panel, joined by:

• Kira Gorbunova, Head of Technology and Innovation department in Global Player Support at Wargaming

• Whitnee Hawthorne, VP, Customer Support at JetBlue

• and Douglas Kramon, Head of Fan Support/CS at ESPN and ESPN+

They coverd a problem in customer service—demand surges—and how to handle them, with Whitnee Hawthorne noting, “There are correlations between why [customers] call and why they call back.”

The day continued with breakout sessions, where speakers from Zendesk, trivago, Majorel, Farfetch, and more teamed up to cover everything from how to integrate technology into your global expansion plan to corporate responsibility and ethics in AI.

The first day wrapped with an amazing keynote from Michelle Poler, Founder & Author of Hello Fears.
She detailed her experience tackling 100 fears in 100 days, “embarking on a project that changed [her] life for good.” The journey concluded with her conquering a very topical fear—public speaking in front of a live audience as a TEDx presenter. Her energy (and very quotable session) brought life and humility to the virtual stage—she even started and ended her session dancing on screen.

Day Two:

Unbabel CTO João Graça opened day two exploring the question: what exactly is LangOps, and why is it important? He touched on how LangOps has the ability to take localization -the go-to solution for most businesses looking to reach new markets -to the next level. Slator Managing Director Florian Faes also took the stage to discuss what consumers expect from brands, and what businesses need to deliver excellent end-to-end customer experiences.

A power panel of impressive Unbabel team members across product, customer success, LangOps, and global partnerships also spoke. Highlights from their sessions included: 

• An exclusive demo of Unbabel’s latest linguistic quality assessment product

• Exploration into the cultural nuances of localizing customer support

• A look into designing customer-centric experiences with the Petrova Experience

• Deep dive into must-have MT and NLP technologies with Alon Lavie, Unbabel's MT and translation expert.

Day two’s keynote speaker was Adam Wooten, Associate Professor, Translation & Localization Management at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California. He brought the journey from localization to LangOps to life, with the help of a suburban cattle analogy.

Other key takeaways from the event:

• Translation is another tool in your toolbox. Having somebody that is culturally sensitive to any questions is important for delivering great customer experience and will help bridge gaps when connecting with customers.

• Having a deep connection with languages and respect for cultural specificity in each country will go a long way.

• There are opportunities to find synergies when using centralized LangOps as opposed to siloed options, which allows companies to make the most out of the resources at their disposal.

• In customer service, every situation requires being ready for the unknown. If a spike or surge happens, learn from mistakes and continue to improve for the future.

Exciting virtual event features (via Hopin):

• A virtual photo booth

• Graphic recorder Elizabeth Beier from Art + Story, who captured presentations and conversations in words and illustrations behind the scenes throughout the event

• Entertainment from DJ Fader during transition breaks between sessions, as well as Garmi Shop, a Bollywood Fusion dance video all shot in one-take, directed and produced by Saahil Patel Choreography

• 1:1 virtual networking for attendees

Interested in reaching a global audience and bringing together world-class speakers at your next event? Get in touch with us!