Distinguished Speakers
Learn from the experts! These select speakers were invited to contribute a high level of advanced learning, experience, and excellence.
Chinese Language Division
Miguel Fialho is the director of studies for the MA programs in interpreting and translation at the University of Bath. He grew up bilingual (Portuguese/English) and completed his BA in Chinese studies at Durham University and MA in interpreting and translating at the University of Bath. From 2004 to 2013, he taught at the Sino-EU Senior Interpreter Training Centre at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing while working as a freelance interpreter and translator. An EU-accredited Chinese-to-English conference interpreter, he has interpreted at several EU-China summits and human rights dialogues and nearly all Sino-Portuguese high-level visits between 2007 and 2019, including for President Hu Jintao and President Xi Jinping. He has translated the subtitles for several award-winning Chinese films into English.
Educators Division
Ondřej Hrách is the co-founder of Aignos, a Czech nonprofit promoting critical AI literacy among educators and students at all levels—from elementary schools to universities. Through educational events, podcasts, and hundreds of workshops, he focuses not just on what AI can do, but on how it impacts our society and our thinking. A graduate of translation studies at Charles University, he brings a translatology background to his current research interest: the cognitive effects of AI-assisted workflows on language professionals. He has spoken on augmentative AI use in translation at various institutions, including the Université de Lille and the Czech Embassy in Bucharest. He is also a musician and the creator of Flaškinet, a unique bottle-music project that has earned international recognition.
French Language Division and Italian Language Division
Claudia Benetello is an Italian communications all-rounder. With an MA in political science and specialist training in interpreting, copywriting, and music communications, she is a member of the Professional Copywriters’ Network, the Art Directors Club Italiano, the Associazione Italiana Traduttori e Interpreti, and the Italian Ordine dei Giornalisti. Trading as Dropinka since 2005, she has co-translated U2’s autobiography, interpreted for Noel Gallagher, interviewed Simple Minds, and crafted marketing and advertising copy for leading brands—including Vinted, McArthurGlen, Refurbed, and Kiko Milano—through Italian origination or English/German to Italian transcreation. A speaker on transcreation since 2012, she has delivered workshops internationally, authored academic publications, and created the Dropinka Deck for Transcreation, a systematic transcreation methodology. She also contributed to Mavis Ho’s Transcreation Code of Practice.
German Language Division
Michael Hofmann is a poet, translator, literary critic, and essayist born in Freiburg, Germany. He moved to the U.K. at a young age and later earned his BA and MA at Magdalene College, Cambridge. His first poetry collection, Nights in the Iron Hotel (1983), received immediate acclaim in Britain. Widely regarded as one of the most influential translators from German into English, he has translated more than 80 books by authors including Kafka, Jünger, Koeppen, and Roth. In 2024, his translation of Jenny Erpenbeck’s novel Kairos won the International Booker Prize. He also received the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Prize and the Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator’s Prize. He is a Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Florida.
Interpreters Division and Spanish Language Division
Josh Goldsmith is a UN- and EU-accredited translator and interpreter working from Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, and Catalan into English. He splits his time between interpreting, translating, and teaching at the intersection of interpreting, technology, and education. As geek-in-chief of techforword, he shares tips about technology, translation, and interpreting at conferences and workshops, in academic articles, as co-host of the AI in Translation and AI in Interpreting Summits, at AI Language Club, and at techforword insiders, the premier online community for innovative language professionals.
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