Back from Berlin: Steve Maule on GALA WorldReady 2026

We caught up with Steve Maule, VP of Global Sales at Acclaro, fresh off a few days at GALA’s WorldReady conference in Berlin. Here’s what stood out.

This was actually your first GALA. What took you so long to attend?

Ha. I know, I know. You can apparently be an industry veteran and a conference newbie at the same time. Better late than never, though. I’m glad I finally made it.

We can only imagine that AI was everywhere. Did anything actually surprise you?

What surprised me was how grounded the conversations were. We’re well past speculation at this point. Enterprise localization buyers have been running AI-driven workflows for a while now, and the stories coming out of sessions reflected that. Less hype, more lived experience. That shift felt significant.

What really fascinated me, though, wasn’t the tools themselves. It was the organizational reality teams are navigating while deploying them. That’s where things get genuinely interesting.

What’s one session that stuck with you?

I think I was able to take something away from every session I attended – in fact, in a few time slots I wanted to go to all 3 options!

There was a great session from the team at Preply about handling the “can’t we just use AI?” question from leadership. They’d built a decision framework to help prioritize and evaluate AI use cases, and the result was that localization moved from a reactive service function to actively shaping company-wide AI strategy. That shift to becoming a strategic advisor to the company felt like a model worth paying attention to.

What’s a conversation you heard more than once that people aren’t talking about publicly yet?

The commercial future of AI. Today’s low-cost experiments may not last. As heavily subsidized providers need to turn their models into sustainable businesses, costs are going to rise. Some of the workflows buyers are building right now may have a shelf life. I think our industry is only just starting to figure out how to manage that.

You network a lot at these events. What made this one different?

Frankly that’s the main reason I attend. It’s such an effective and efficient way of engaging with many interesting prospects and customers in the same location!

I was concerned that there would be so many people and I wouldn’t be able to have in-depth conversations. Thankfully the size worked in my favour, and I had talks that simply wouldn’t have happened in a more crowded conference.

It was also lovely to re-connect with some ex-team-mates and ex-customers from my time in the industry.

Speed networking on Monday evening was a highlight as well.

Last question: what was a non-localization highlight?

Leeds United beating Manchester United at Old Trafford. Watched it on my phone, propped up at a bar in Berlin, surrounded by a few very unhappy Man Utd fans. Timing-wise, it was basically perfect. I also treated the other bus passengers to a rendition of “Marching on Together” on the drive back to the hotel!