The official organizer of Polyglot Gathering 2017 is E@I, a non-profit organization based in Slovakia, which coordinates various projects supporting language learning (lingvo.info, slovake.eu, lernu.net, deutsch.info, mluvtecesky.net, russky.info among others). The main organizers are the following:
Lýdia Machová: Head organizer
Lýdia is a professional conference interpreter and language mentor from Slovakia. As an autodidact who learns a new language every two years, she believes the secret to language learning is finding the right method (for yourself) and keeping at it long enough in a systematic way. As a language mentor at www.languagementoring.com (www.jazykovymentoring.sk in Slovakia), she advises people to achieve just that. She currently speaks 9 languages (Slovak, Czech, English, German, Spanish, Polish, French, Esperanto, Russian in the order of learning).
Email: lydia.machova@polyglotbratislava.com
Peter Baláž: Head organizer
Peter Baláž, in Esperanto known as Petro, is an Esperantist, publisher and editor; he was selected as the 2012 Esperantist of the Year. Baláž lives in his hometown of Partizánske and speaks, to various degrees, Slovak, Czech, German, Polish, Russian and English, as well as Esperanto. Peter is especially active in the international Esperanto movement and educational projects, and in 2005 he became the coordinator of E@I. He is also known as an organiser of international events (mainly, but not only, Esperanto-meetings). He is a former board member of Wikimedia Slovakia and, since September 2012, a member of its Revision Committee. He owns the Slovakia-based publishing firm Espero, founded in 2003, which publishes mainly Esperanto works. For more info see Wikipedia.
Email: peter.balaz@polyglotbratislava.com
Dorota Rodzianko: Administration and finances
Dorota, 28, is from Poland and currently lives in Slovakia. She studied economics. Since 2010, she has been organizing international events in various European cities and countries. Since 2012, she has been mostly in charge of administration of participants and finances. She has experience in organizing events with 50 to 300 participants (she was also involved in the organization of a worldwide event with 1300 participants).
Email: dorota.rodzianko@polyglotbratislava.com
Matthieu Desplantes: Web support
Matthieu is from France but has been living in Slovakia since October 2013. He studied computer engineering for five years in Paris and now works with both computers and languages. He speaks (to various degrees) French, Esperanto, English, Slovak and Russian, and has basic knowledge of a few more languages. He has been involved in the organization of several international events, most of which are related to Esperanto. He also has a blog about languages.
Email: matthieu.desplantes@polyglotbratislava.com
Dimitrios Polychronopoulos: Sponsor relations
Dimitrios has a Master of International Studies and a Global Executive Master of Business Administration. He has lived in countries as diverse as Greece, Taiwan, Norway, France, Spain, the USA and the Philippines. He has travelled to more than 100 countries, all seven continents and speaks 14 languages at different levels. At the Polyglot Gathering 2016, he launched yozzi.com, a platform for people to practice writing and editing in their target languages, which aims to become the lang-8 for advanced learners.
Email: dimitrios.polychronopoulos@polyglotbratislava.com
Cesco Reale: Conference activities
A scientific communicator, Cesco deals with games, languages and maths, creating festivals, exhibitions and conferences. He speaks more than 10 languages, including Latin and Esperanto, and holds the IPA certificate in phonetics. He is also the UN representative for the World Esperanto Association and the creator of Limbas, language seminar in Italy. Visit his YouTube channel at: https://www.youtube.com/user/matematikemulo/playlists.
Email: cesco.reale@polyglotbratislava.com
Miroslav Šedivý: Volunteers coordinator
Miro was born in Bratislava just a few kilometers from the Iron Curtain which allowed him to secretly watch the cartoons on the Austrian TV and believe that the whole world behind the fence was speaking Austrian. Today he still doesn’t speak Austrian.
Email: miroslav.sedivy@polyglotbratislava.com
Zuzana Dohnalová: Accommodation, meals and trips
Zuzana studied management at the Comenius University in Bratislava. She is a founder and manager of the company Symsite Research, which for more than 20 years has been bringing daily economic news to foreign investors doing business in Slovakia. She worked as a chief editor of the quarterly Business Operations Report Slovakia, being published by The Economist Group. She worked as a financial manager for the non-profit Center for Philantropy. She volunteers as an interpreter for the Christian seminar Father Heart. She is a mother of four and within her local community organizes family camps and writes plays for youth theater.
Email: zuzana.dohnalova@polyglotbratislava.com
Polyglot Gathering 2017 in Bratislava is being prepared in cooperation with Judith Meyer and Chuck Smith, the initiators of the Polyglot Gathering event series and head organizers of the first three editions of the Polyglot Gathering in Berlin.