Our Department, together with our Research Centre for Professional Communication in English (RCPCE) and the Department of English of the City University of Hong Kong (CityU), successfully co-hosted the first-ever joint CityU-PolyU “Talking Across the World” (TAW) Conference. The conference aimed to elicit cross-cultural and interdisciplinary dialogue, with collaboration from the Asian Pacific Region of Association for Business Communication, the Italian Consulate in Hong Kong, and the China Business English Association.
The two-day event commenced with a pre-conference talk under the theme “the language of sustainability: a discourse-analytic perspective” on 16 May. Professor Franca Poppi from the Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Italy, discussed “Communicating corporate sustainability performance: A linguistic analysis across cultures and genres”.
On 17 May, the first plenary speaker, Professor Lifei Wang from Beijing Language and Culture University, mainland China, discussed the language management maturity of Chinese enterprises. The second speaker, Mr Jacopo Pesavento from Branding Records, Hong Kong, discussed building a lasting bond with Chinese customers. The conference was then divided into four sessions, with themes covering teaching practices, intercultural communication, and AI in business communication. A second round of parallel sessions included talks on professional discourse, globalisation, and digital media. The day concluded with a plenary talk by Professor Geert Jacobs from the University of Ghent, Belgium, discussing personal branding and leadership communication in podcasting.
On the second day, Dr Yunxia Zhu from the University of Queensland, Australia, used an activity-based theory to discuss intercultural communicative competence for global managers. Other researchers presented studies on AI communications. The day was filled with presentations and discussions. Mr Charles Lankester from Ruder Finn Asia, Hong Kong, gave a plenary speech on reputation and risk management, with examples from the Balenciaga scandal and Lancôme, and closed the conference.
The event attracted over 100 abstract submissions and 160 physical and online attendees. This successful joint conference is set to drive the future of business and professional communication research.
