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Joint conference: Talking Across the World &
Business and professional communication in a changing world

16 – 18 May 2023 

The Department of English of the City University of Hong Kong (CityU), and the Research Centre for Professional Communication in English (RCPCE), Department of English and Communication of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) present the first edition of their joint effort in fostering research in business and professional communication. 

Drawing upon the successful framework of the "Talking English Across the World" (TAW) Symposium which reached its 7th edition, this event extends its scope by joining forces for the first time with the Department of English of CityU for a 2-day conference preceded by a pre-conference event aimed at bringing together academics, professionals, and institutions to promote a cross-cultural and interdisciplinary discussion, and to elicit dialogue about business and professional communication in Asia and the world. It is a CityU-PolyU joint conference in collaboration with Asian Pacific Region of Association for Business Communication. 

This conference aims to stimulate discussions about professional communication practices in a changing world by highlighting the role of discourse in reflecting and constructing the changes. The changes can be the emergence of digital genres, the increasing attention to multimodality, crisis management during the pandemic, re-definition of the 'workplace' and globalisation with subsequent changes in leadership and management communication, as well as the shift of corporate discourse to focus on environmental, social, and governance themes (ESG). In response, the conference creates a platform to shed light on new rhetorics disseminated by businesses across sectors and markets, as a result of corporate peer pressure, increased activism and consumer engagement on social media, and growing risks for reputational damage and financial impacts on corporations.