My takeaways from Loc360 Berlin 2026, co-hosted by Acclaro and Phrase

By Alicia von Achten, Business Development Director

I’ve been to enough industry events to know when a conversation is actually going somewhere. Loc360 Berlin, which Acclaro co-hosted with Phrase in March 2026, was one of those days. Small group, honest conversation, and a few things that stuck with me long after I got back home.

The “seat at the table” talk finally had teeth

Chris Dell opened with a keynote that most people in the room probably needed to hear. His point: localization teams are still too often seen as “translators” or process runners, and a big part of that is on us for not controlling the narrative.

What made it land was the specificity and how we can affect change. Get into planning conversations before decisions are made. Tie outcomes to metrics leadership already tracks. Control how you’re seen by others inside your company. Chris’ former CEO at Booking.com used to push him on that last one constantly: “What do you want to be famous for?” Annoying question, yet very useful.

AI is an opening (if you frame it right)

The AI conversation here felt more grounded than most. Chris used the Gartner Hype Cycle to argue that we’re moving out of “peak inflated expectations” and into something more honest. Organizations are finding out that AI doesn’t just solve translation, and governing it well is harder than it looks.

Localization teams have been doing that governance work for years; managing Machine Translation quality and post-editing workflows for example andthe opportunity right now is to walk into that conversation and lead it, rather than wait to be asked.

In my experience talking with clients, the teams struggling with AI in their programs are usually struggling with program maturity, not the technology itself. That’s a reframe worth making.

Three companies, one common thread

The panel brought together practitioners from Trivago, Personio, and Phrase, all at different stages.

Trivago has shared OKRs (Objectives & Key Results) with product and support teams, which means localization co-owns outcomes rather than just fulfilling requests.

Personio is in the middle of a slower shift from language-first to market-first thinking.

Phrase built their localization program from scratch inside a localization platform company, which meant real accountability from day one.

Different contexts, same direction: all three have stopped framing localization as a support function and started framing it as a business function. The language they use internally, the metrics they track, the relationships they invest in and it all reflects that.

What the round table surfaced

The afternoon session was the most candid part of the day, and a few things stood out.

Most teams are still fighting to move localization from “execution support” (internal training, help pages) into the “mission critical” category (consumer product, marketing, new markets). The path there almost always runs through data and relationships, not just delivery quality.

The relationship that came up most as a potential lever: data teams. If you can connect localization activity to performance metrics, the strategic conversation gets a lot easier.

Why I’m glad I was there

There were people in the room who are doing real work to make localization more valued inside their organizations; they shared common challenges along with great ideas on how to overcome them.

What I keep coming back to is that the teams making the most progress have gotten comfortable talking about business outcomes, not just quality and speed. Seeing this shift energizes me and helps me to understand where I can continue to support individuals to get a seat at the table and a louder voice for localization. If any of this resonates with where you are, I’d genuinely love to talk.

Loc360 Berlin was co-hosted by Acclaro and Phrase in March 2026.