Have you ever got to wondering during EAMT conferences what it would be like to host one at your own site? The organizers always seem very busy, but they are also clearly enjoying themselves. I can tell you from experience that it is an often crazy, sometimes daunting, but most of all exhilarating adventure.

The European Association for Machine Translation (EAMT) has now opened the bidding for the site of the EAMT 2028 conference. The first step is an expression of interest, in which we ask you to gather the first members of a local planning team, do some research on what a conference on your site would look like, and send us the information.

We will evaluate the expressions of interest and then select a shortlist of potential sites. If selected, we will then work with you to create a final bid with a full proposal and budget. At the beginning of November we will make the final selection for the conference.

The right location will be in Europe, the Middle East or Africa (EMEA), will be able to host a conference of 220+ participants for 4 days during May-June 2028, and will have an active and enthusiastic group to act as the local planning team.

Expressions of interest are free-form documents that outline your ideas for a conference. They should include the following:

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Information on the proposed site and conference facilities

• Location: city
• Proposed conference venue (university, hotel or convention centre).
  • EAMT has been growing: it had about 220 participants in 2026, so the suggested location needs to accommodate 220+ people for the main conference sessions plus room for registration, a large poster or exhibit room, and at least 4 conference rooms for hosting parallel half- or full-day workshops and tutorials on the last or first day (at least 100 people in total).
  • Computing & audiovisual facilities at the venue

Proposed conference dates

• It should take place during May – June 2028
• 3 days main conference + 1 day for workshops and tutorials (workshop/tutorial day can be before or after the main conference)
• Choose dates that do not clash with other machine translation or translation studies events that might involve the same types of participants.

Catering and social events

• Conference catering includes 2 coffee breaks + lunch for all conference days. Include a description of the service provider and their estimate of the cost per day per attendee
• Each conference has a welcome reception on one evening and a conference dinner on another. Provide us with a description of your ideas for each along with a rough cost estimate.

Local planning team

• Tell us what kind of team you will put together for your planning. Name the chair (or why not 2 co-chairs?) of the planning team and at least 3 other members.
• Indicate whether any national or regional computational linguistics or translation studies associations would be on the team
• Is it possible to have student volunteers during the conference? Include information on that.

About the cost estimates

• We do not expect you to have a full budget proposal at this stage, but we would like to see well-researched estimates with some level of detail on the costs of the venue (including any costs for computing and AV facilities), catering and social events.

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The schedule for the bidding process is:

• September 25, 2026: Bid submission deadline
• October 9, 2026: Shortlist and feedback to bidders
• October 23, 2026: Final bids due
• November 6, 2026: Final bid chosen

EAMT president Sara Szoc will serve as the conference’s General Chair and will collaborate with the local arrangements team to shape the conference.

Please send your expressions of interest to:

• Mary Nurminen, EAMT Conference Bids Chair    mary.nurminen@tuni.fi
• Sara Szoc, EAMT   President saraszoc@gmail.com

Do you have any questions? We’d love to hear them! Send us a mail.