With 22 years’ experience, Adam is the Commercial Director of Tinint, the digital agency arm of the Tinopolis Media Group. Based in Wales UK, Tinint produces Video, games, eLearning and editorial content and delivers them through Web, App, Player and Learning platform solutions.  Adam manages the key relationships with Tinint’s global portfolio of clients including Warner Bro’s Discovery, S4C, TG4, BBC, Welsh/UK, Scottish and Thai Governments, the UN, and corporate brands such as Jaguar Land Rover, Honeywell, and H&M. Central to Adam’s work is the innovation of user experiences and interfaces, blending technologies and content to deliver the maximum impact for the audience and ROI for the client. Being based in Wales means that up to 70% of Tinint’s output is bilingual/multi-lingual. Adam and his team have a passion to deliver industry leading ‘language equivalence’ supporting minority language learning and multilingual output. 

Aitor Aldasoro Iturbe began his political career in 2003 as a councilor for Basque in Beasain and in 2015 he was elected mayor. After the 2020 Basque Parliament elections, he was appointed Basque parliamentarian. From 2021 to 2023 he left the Basque Parliament and was an advisor to the Department of Environment and Sustainability. In July 2023 he was appointed deputy minister of the Environment and Sustainability.

Since August 2024 he has been Deputy Minister of Linguistic Policy in the government of Imanol Pradales.

High School final year student from Romania. Passionate about Computer Science, especially AI and Natural Language Processing. Together with the Aromanian Community from Romania, and the Human Language Technologies Research Center (University of Bucharest), we built the first comprehensive Aromanian translation system. Still a prototype, we aim to improve digitalization of this endangered tongue.

Anna Solé Mena currently works as Senior expert on multilingualism at the Schools and Multilingualism Unit in the Directorate General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture of the European Commission. She studied Business administration and Humanities in Spain and France. Anna’s current work is focusing on the implementation of the EU Recommendation on a comprehensive approach to language teaching and learning.

Multilingualism is supported through EU funding programmes, notably Erasmus + enabling young people to study and work abroad, but also co-financing innovative projects and good practices aimed at promoting language skills.

Author of “Multilingual from the cradle. Growing up with different languages”, 2010; Main character in the documentary on multilingualism “The Power of Babel”, 2012.

Arantza del Pozo is Director of Speech and Language Technologies at Vicomtech, an applied research centre in Artificial Intelligence of the Basque Research and Technology Alliance. She has a Master's degree and a PhD in Speech and Language Technologies from the University of Cambridge and currently leads a team of 20 people dedicated to the research, development and transfer of speech and language technologies to industry. She has coordinated and participated as a researcher in multiple research projects and contracts at regional, national and European levels. She has two patents and more than 50 publications in leading journals and conferences in the field of speech and natural language technologies. At the transfer level, it is worth highlighting, for example, that both the Basque Government's Itzuli neural translator and the automatic subtitling platform used by the Basque regional broadcaster EITB are based on technology developed by her team.

has been Vice President of the Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN) for five years and is a strong advocate for minority rights. Since 2022 he is also the speaker of the FUEN working group Non-Kin-State. He has also been chairman of Friisk Foriining for ten years. Bahne Bahnsen is CEO of the real estate company Bahnsen B+B Real Estate. He is also a Senator of Junior Chamber International, a global network of young leaders.

BENASET DAZÉAS is the Director of the Permanent Congress of the Occitan language, an institution that, with the support of the French Ministry of Culture and the regional authorities, works on the knowledge and codification of the occitan through the production of linguistic resources and tools. It has been actively involved in its digital and pilot activities as part of the drafting of the Digital Development Roadmap, a document that plans the development of launch technologies for the Occitan. The institution is active in several NLP consortia, including LINGUATEC-IA, and has led various developments in the fields of machine translation, speech synthesis, and speech recognition.

Christina Gestrin is working as the Secretary General of the Swedish Assembly of Finland since 2020. She has a MSc in Environmental Sciences (Helsinki University) and an EMBA (Aalto University). Christina Gestrin left national and international politics in 2015, after many years as a leading politician in the Finnish Parliament, in the Nordic Council and in the Baltic Sea Parliamentary co-operation. She is a member of the Espoo City Council and a board member in several non-profit foundations.

Eli Pombo Aramendi is a graduate in Communication and Information Sciences from the UPV and multimedia graduate from the UOC (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya). After working as a journalist in the magazine Argia, both in its paper and online versions, her professional activity has always been linked to the Internet and New Technologies. In 2009 she took over the management of Iametza. Iametza is a communication and technology company that, among other things, helps its clients to carry out communication in Basque and to use and implement technologies in Basque. They also work in bringing closer, developing and implementing the necessary technological means so that the entities can carry out an adequate management of the languages. Pombo is also currently president of the association of Language Industries of the Basque Country Langune.

Elizabete Krivcova, LL.M., Latvia is a lawyer and dedicated human rights defender with over 20 years of experience in legal practice and advocacy for ethnic minority rights. She represents the Russian-speaking minority in Latvia and has actively participated in significant linguistic rights cases before the Latvian Constitutional Court, the European Court of Human Rights, and the Court of Justice of the European Union. Elizabete has also been involved in advocating for minority rights during legislative processes in the Latvian Parliament. She was an OHCHR Minorities Fellow.

Gösta Toft has been Vice President of the Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN) since 2016. He holds a diploma in National Economics from Christian Albrechts University Kiel (Germany) and researches cross-border and minority issues. From 1987 to 2016 he was secretary of the Schleswig Party for the German minority in Denmark.

Born 11 September 1963 in Hadersleben (DK)
Cand. scient. pol., Aarhus Universitet & Freie Universität Berlin (Diploma studies in administrative law and political science)
Since 2020 Elected Head of the Secretariat of the German Minority in Copenhagen
Since 2003 Head of Communications, Association of German North Silesians

Iona Mercer is a fluent Scottish Gaelic speaker, having gained the language through immersion schooling as a child. She went on to study it at the University of Glasgow, and graduated with a Master of Arts degree in Gaelic and English Language & Linguistics, with first-class honours and distinction in Spoken Gaelic. She has worked at MG ALBA for over 18 months, primarily on the SpeakGaelic project, and manages its Instagram, Facebook and Twitter platforms, among other responsibilities. Recently, she spoke at a minority language reception in Brussels about MG ALBA’s digital successes, a fantastic experience which deepened her understanding of language preservation. She looks forward to continue working in Gaelic media and learning from others in the field of minority language revitalisation.

Itziar Agirre Berriotxoa is from Urretxuarra (1975), with a degree in Law from the University of Deusto, specializing in legal-economic law. In addition, she has a diploma in Regional Law from the University of the Basque Country (UPV-EHU), and an executive MBA from the Chamber of Commerce of Gipuzkoa and Mondragon Unibertsitatea. Agirre Berriotxoa has extensive experience in tax matters, since before being appointed Deputy of Treasury and Finance of the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa she has been Deputy Minister of Finance between 2017 and 2024. Previously, in addition, she has been Director of Tax Administration of the Department of Treasury and Finance of the Basque Government in the period 2013-2017. She is fluent in Basque and English. To her professional career in the Basque Government is added her experience as a juntero in the General Councils of Gipuzkoa during the period 2007-2013 in public institutions. Currently, she is also a councilor of Urretxu since 2003.

Itziar Aldabe is a researcher and lecturer at the Computer Science Faculty of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) and part of the IXA research group and the HiTZ Centre on Language Technology. She joined the IXA research group in 2003 and received her PhD in Computer Science from the UPV/EHU in 2011. Her primary research interest is in NLP with a particular focus on Basque and educational environments. On the one hand, she is interested in exploring how to integrate language technologies into educational applications to help teachers and/or students. On the other hand, she is committed to the development of tools and the application of deep learning techniques for low resource languages such as Basque.

Licenciada en Ingeniería Informática y tiene un máster en Análisis y Procesamiento del Lenguaje Natural. Lleva 15 años trabajando en Elhuyar en el área de las tecnologías de la lengua. Ha trabajado como técnica en diversos proyectos: analizadores morfosintácticos, correctores ortográficos, traducción automática... Actualmente es coordinadora de la unidad de Lengua y Tecnología de Elhuyar, y también coordina el proyecto LINGUATEC-IA, proyecto que presentará a continuación.

Izaro Navas Sarasua studied Social Education first and then got a Degree in Economics at the University of the Basque Country. After finishing her studies as a Social Educator, she worked in the field of child and adolescent protection, as an educator, for almost a year, until she started studying Economics. To finish the Degree in Economics, in the Graduation Thesis she analyzed the impact of Basque, Galician and Valencian on the economy, making comparisons between them, satisfying her curiosity about the Basque language and the economy. Once a month, she collaborates in EnpresaBIDEA writing articles about the economy and society.

Joanna Hassa - graduated in Cultural Studies at the University of Opole (Bachelor) and Management with specialisation in Psychology and Human Resources Management at the University of Banking in Opole (Master). She also completed a postgraduate degree in Content Marketing at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities SWPS.

She is a board member of the Social and Cultural Society of Germans in Opole Silesia (SKGD). At the same time, she is the SKGD press spokesperson and chairwoman of the DFK Opole Centre, chairwoman of the Municipal Board of the German Minority in Opole and secretary of the Board of the German Minority in the Opole Region. 2014-2015 Assistant to the coordinator of the project ‘Transitjobs - Import of support models for particularly vulnerable groups on the labour market’. Coordinator of the campaign ‘German minority has value’. Member and spokesperson of the election staff of the German Minority in 2015, 2018, 2019.

In 2020, she was the coordinator of the LernRAUM.pl project. In the years 2021-2022, she was the deputy managing director in the Social-Cultural Society of Germans in Opole Silesia. Since July 2022, she has been the Managing Director of the Association of German Social-Cultural Societies in Poland. 

Member of the Commission for Social Campaigns at Polish Radio. Former chairwoman of the Association of German Minority Youth in the years 2009 - 2014. Coordinator of international, cultural and media projects, presenter. 

Jörg Hübner holds a doctorate in economics. In his professional career to date, he has held specialist and management positions in both private companies and public sector organisations. His areas of specialisation include marketing communication, public relations and product and service management.

Josu Waliño Pizarro holds a Bachelor's in Computer Science from the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) and a Master's in Project Management from Mondragon University. He is currently the CEO of PUNTUEUS, managing the .EUS Top Level Domain to promote Basque culture and language online. Additionally, he serves as the Vice-chair of the GeoTLD.Group, supporting geographic and community TLDs and has been actively involved within the domain name industry since 2014.

For over 25 years, his career has been focused on technology and innovation projects aimed at advancing the Basque language in the digital realm. He is a member of the Digital Environment working group within the Advisory Council on the Basque Language of the Basque Government, and was the founder of Eleka Ingeniaritza Linguistikoa, a company specialized in linguistic engineering. He has also been the Director of Projects and Innovation and an executive member at Elhuyar, an organization devoted to the development of science and technology in the Basque Country. Furthermore, Josu has served as the President of Langune, the cluster of language industries in the Basque Country, where he fostered collaboration and growth within the sector.

For more information check his full profile on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jwalino/

A journalist from Guipuzcoa born in Beasain, he has worked as an English translator and film dubber. One of his best known roles as a dubbing actor is that of Freezer in the Dragon Ball series. He also worked in advertising and radio before starting to work in television. He has presented several programs for Euskal Telebista: Txandaka, Gezurra nagusi, Jaiak, Hori da Arrazoia, Erletxea or Cosas de Dos, among others.

He is currently the director of the communication and audiovisual production company On time.

After completing a Master's degree in European Law and International Human Rights in Brussels, she began working in the European institutions in the European capital. Back in the Basque Country, she was appointed president of the General Assembly of Gipuzkoa in the 2011-2015 legislature. After a new political legislature, she started working as director of the association of language industries in the Basque Country, LANGUNE, where she has been working ever since.

Former journalist. Commited wikipedian. Founder and project manager at CodeSyntax, Basque Internet and tech company created in the year 2000. Involved not just in the management of projects for customers, but also in several Basque-language digital and Internet projects that CodeSyntax has supported and, in many cases, created over almost 25 years. Among others, involved in the Egunean Behin trivia game for 5 years, the most succesful Basque-language app ever.

Maite Melero leads the Machine Translation research group at the Language Technologies Unit of the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), which has been entrusted with the AINA project by the Catalan Government to create language resources for Catalan. She is also a member of the board of the Special Interest Group on Under-Resourced Languages (SIGUL), which organizes annual scientific workshops, and of the NGO Linguapax, dedicated to linguistic diversity. Before joining the BSC, she held research positions at the University of Barcelona, the Institut d'Estudis Catalans, the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, and Microsoft Research. In 2017, she advised the European Parliament on the report "Language Equality in the Digital Age" and in 2023 contributed to the report "An Equal Sociolinguistic Framework for the Catalan Language" for the Pacte Nacional per la Llengua. She is currently part of the organizing committee for the upcoming UNESCO-sponsored conference Language Technologies for All (LT4All 2025), which will take place in Paris on February 24-26, 2025.

Manuel González Bedia is a member of the Corps of University Professors (on leave of absence) at the University of Zaragoza, where he also held the positions of director of Transparency and Participation, and technical secretary of the Rankings Commission, within the Vice-Rectorate of Prospective.

In recent years he has held several positions in the General State Administration, working as a member advisor in the Cabinet of the Minister of Science, Innovation and Universities, deputy director general of University Research Activity in the Ministry of Universities and Director of the Office of the Special Commissioner for the New Language Economy under the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation. He is currently Director General of Strategic Planning in Advanced Digital Technologies and New Language Economy at the Ministry for Digital Transformation and the Civil Service.

Marie Heguy-Urain is the ‘Euroregional Citizenship’ project manager within the EGTC Euroregion New Aquitaine Euskadi Navarra, coordinating projects focusing on culture, multilingualism, education and sport. With a broad background and expertise in project management and communication, Marie manages initiatives involving players from different territories, with a sensitive approach to linguistic and cultural diversity.

Mirren Buchanan studied Gaelic and English Language & Linguistics at the University of Glasgow and graduated with a Master of Literary Studies award. She has worked at MG ALBA for over 3 years, starting as a summer intern and then moving on to be a digital production assistant. In 2022 she became the digital producer of the SpeakGaelic website and has overseen all production since then. At the beginning of 2024 she also launched the SpeakGaelic TikTok page. In May of this year she planned and undertook a brand promotional trip to Nova Scotia in Canada on behalf of SpeakGaelic. She is a fluent Gàidhlig speaker and also learning Irish.

Bachelor’s degree in Sociology. HIZNET Postgraduate in Linguistic Planning.
She has spent almost her entire professional career at the consulting firm EMUN, where she has worked for 22 years.
After serving as an advisor for Euskera plans, she went on to become the Director of Innovation and later the General Director.

In the last three years, Olatz is developing Gehitu research and in the process of organisational transformation.

Peter Bresan (Sorbian: Pětr Brězan) has been a consultant for economic and infrastructural matters at Domowina e.V. - the umbrella organisation of the Sorbs - since 2017. His areas of work include representing the interests of the Sorbs in various committees, including the Regional Planning Association of Upper Lusatia-Lower Silesia, the Lignite Committee, the LEADER Committee and the Saxon Agency for Structural Change in Lusatia (structural change funds for Lusatia). He has been Chairman of the Sorbian Cultural Tourism Association since 2018 and chairs the ‘International Folklore Festival Łužica - Lusatia’.

Rafael Muñoz Guillena, born in Alicante in 1967, is a Professor in the Department of Languages and Computer Systems at the University of Alicante. He is currently the President of the Spanish Society for Natural Language Processing (SEPLN) and Secretary-General of the Digital Intelligence Centre at the University of Alicante. He has held other management positions, such as Vice-Rector for Research and Knowledge (2019-2020), Vice-Rector for eCampus and Technology (2012-2019), and Director of Technology Transfer (2005-2012). His research work focuses on the field of Natural Language Processing, particularly in areas such as information extraction and retrieval, named entity recognition, and semantic enrichment, among others. He has led and participated in more than 60 national and international projects and has over 200 scientific publications in journals and conferences. His teaching has always been centred on the area of Software Engineering.

Graduate in Political Science and International Relations, founder of companies in the ICT sector and currently General Director of the Fundació .cat, which promotes Catalan in the digital world.

Ruairí Ó Néill is Director for Corporate Services at Údarás na Gaeltachta, Ireland's regional authority responsible for the economic, social and cultural development of Irish-speaking regions. He previously served as Special Projects Manager and Regional Manager for the Western Region, where he has experience of community development, micro enterprise support and managing internal process optimisation projects.

An Irish speaker living in the Gaeltacht for 18 years, Ruairí combines traditional language preservation with modern innovation, currently leading the development of an Artificial Intelligence unit to advance Irish language initiatives. He holds extensive experience in regional development and enterprise management, having served as CEO of Comhar Creidmheasa Cholm Cille (a member owned Credit Union) for 10 years and also has extensive experience in the renewable energy sector.

A Deloitte trained chartered accountant and management consultant with a BSc in Finance, Computers and Enterprise, Ruairí is passionate about leveraging technology and business expertise to support minority language communities. He is fluent in Spanish, German, and French, bringing valuable multilingual perspective to language preservation efforts.

Samuel Frontull is a PhD candidate in Computer Science at the University of Innsbruck, where he previously earned both a Master’s and a Bachelor’s degree in Data Science and Computer Science. He has teaching experience, having lectured on topics like discrete structures, theoretical informatics, and machine translation since 2019. His research focuses on machine translation and other NLP applications for low-resource languages, with a primary emphasis on Ladin, his native language. Additionally, he has contributed to theoretical computer science, where he continues to work on developing data-driven methods for program complexity analysis.

Seda Akbulut has been an ICANN employee for over nine years. She manages the Universal Acceptance (UA) Program for three years, working to promote a multilingual and digitally inclusive domain name space. Achieving UA requires joint efforts of various stakeholders. Therefore, she engages with diverse communities to promote UA and drive projects like UA Day. Seda holds a BSc in Mathematical Engineering and an MBA.