Date: Thursday 30 April 2026
Time: from 9.50am (welcome) - 3.40pm
Location: Online via GoTo Webinar
Confirmed Speakers
Anna Rioland is a Chartered Linguist specialising in adult language learning, translation and language-related AI projects.
She has over 15 years’ experience teaching German, French and Russian, and currently teaches at City Lit. She has designed and delivered specialist courses in translation, literature and German history, and also works extensively as an examiner and exam text author. Alongside her teaching career, she runs a translation and localisation business, Meridian Translations, and contributes to AI language projects as a creative linguist, editor and evaluator. Passionate about languages and teaching, she is committed to supporting learners’ confidence, wellbeing and progression. Her qualifications include the Dip.Trans., MCIL, an MA in Translation from Heidelberg University, a Master’s degree from ESCP, and the CELTA teaching qualification.
Danny Bate is a linguist and writer. Following a BA and MPhil, he studied for a PhD with the University of Edinburgh, graduating in 2024. His specialisms are historical languages, the Indo-European language family, and word order. Over the course of his time at university, he also pursued a passion for public linguistics – sharing the field with a general audience, through text, audio and video. This vocation has most recently expressed itself through 'Why Q Needs U', a new book about the alphabet and the English language, endorsed by Stephen Fry, Susie Dent, The Sunday Times and The Economist. Danny also runs the linguistic podcast ‘A Language I Love Is…’, and worked for a year as a radio presenter in the Czech Republic.
Gabriella Ferenczi MCIL CL, CMktr MCIM FHEA: Positioning for the future: How linguists can market their unique value today
Freelance linguistic work is undergoing profound change. With AI reshaping workflows and client expectations, many linguists feel uncertain about how to sustain their careers or differentiate their expertise. This session explores practical, realistic ways to adapt - without needing to become a full-time marketer or chase every new trend. We will look at modern, sustainable approaches to self-marketing that move beyond traditional “tips and tricks” and focus instead on what genuinely works today. Together, we’ll explore how to redefine your value through niche specialisation, reposition your services to highlight uniquely human strengths, and build resilience through collaboration, small partnerships, and micro-collectives. We will also touch on how to recognise when a freelance path no longer feels viable on a personal level - and how to pivot your skills into adjacent roles and careers where linguistic expertise remains in high demand. Rather than offering quick fixes, this talk provides a grounded perspective on how freelance linguists can move through a shifting profession with confidence, purpose, and a renewed sense of professional identity, while ensuring the right marketing principles and tools are in place to convert prospects into buyers, in 2026 and beyond.
Gabriella Ferenczi is a German and Hungarian language coach. She lives in London, Uk, where she runs a boutique language training company called ProLingua Global, and works as a Lecturer in Marketing at Coventry University London. In late 2020, she launched Thrive Online, an online space with free marketing tips and tools for language professionals who don’t like tech. It’s a place where they can find practical guidance and step-by-step help to turn more online browsers into buyers.
Gabriella's work in marketing centres on creative yet transparent practices that help potential customers make informed choices. Having worked across SEO, PPC advertising, email campaigns and content marketing, she brings hands-on experience from strategy through to execution. She understands the uncertainties many linguists face as the profession adapts to an AI-driven world, and draws on her travels - from the Himalayas to the Amazonian rainforest - to keep perspective on what matters most in work and life. You can follow Gabriella on LinkedIn.
Gerard Lysaght provides English-language editing, proofreading and content creation services to clients across a range of industries.
Following an extensive career in journalism and corporate communications, he also trains and mentors the next generation of journalists through the English for Journalism Professionals course that he teaches as part of the BA degree programme in Journalism and Media Management at the University for Applied Science in Vienna (FH Wien der WKW). Gerard holds an MA in Russian and French from Trinity College Dublin.
