“Victoria's just an incredible city. I've been to many other places around the world and every time I come home, I'm grateful that this is where I landed.”

In addition, as a member of Destination Greater Victoria’s Local Host Program, Bird had access to support and resources to help her put together a bid to attract the congress to Victoria.

But she would need to show the city was more than just a hub of phonetics excellence—it also needed to offer a beautiful travel destination. Happily, Victoria more than met the requirements.

Phonetic excellence with Indigenous roots

UVic is home to one of the oldest phonetics programs in Canada, founded by Professor Emeritus of Linguistics John Esling, who later became president of the International Phonetic Association and Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

The university has a long tradition of collaborating with First Nations communities to build capacity for Indigenous Language Revitalization, as well as conducting phonetic research with speakers of First Nations languages to learn from their incredibly rich sound systems. 

Bird’s work combines the two, focusing on documenting the phonetic details of the sound systems of the local languages, with the goal of contributing to revitalization efforts.

“Our understanding of what we’re able to do as humans, how we’re able to communicate, the sounds that we make—we've learned a huge amount by working with the speakers of the languages that we have right around us. 

“We're still learning incredible things about our articulatory system, the speech apparatus and how it works, based on these languages, which is pretty amazing.”

Bird hopes these discoveries are valuable for new learners, helping to keep these languages alive for generations to come. “We can feed this research directly back into supporting learners as they are fine tuning their pronunciation, so they can talk about the sounds and what they mean, as part of a larger Indigenous language revitalization movement.” 

Leveraging expertise from coast to prairie

The bid tapped into Canada’s phonetics expertise to form the organizing committee, led by Bird as chair, with Esling as honorary chair. 

From UVic, University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University and Vancouver Island University on the West Coast to the University of Calgary, University of Alberta, University of Lethbridge and University of Saskatchewan in the Prairies—this was a team effort.

“Between us, we have a huge amount of expertise in socio-phonetics, phonetic typology, language learning and teaching, second language acquisition of pronunciation, speech technology and Indigenous language revitalization,” said Bird. “So, the big subfields within the discipline are covered by our local team.”

With this firm academic foundation, Bird worked with Victoria Convention Centre, Destination Greater Victoria, the City of Victoria and Professional Conference Organizer (PCO) Venue West to put together an impressive bid, with letters of support from the Canadian Linguistic Association, Canadian Acoustical Association and Acoustical Society of America.

Bird is also hoping to leverage the destination’s proximity to Seattle, Washington, a hub of the speech tech industry intertwined with Canada’s own researchers and entrepreneurs.

A connected and welcoming destination

Victoria’s accessible location also proved valuable to association members flying in from around the world, looking for an easy-to-reach destination. 

And as Bird points out, the city is set up well for travellers and easy to get around, with plenty of outdoor activities and Indigenous culture to interest newcomers. One excursion Bird has in mind is a tour by the Songhees First Nation focusing on their traditional land use, landmarks and important cultural sites.

“I love Victoria. I'm really excited to host people in these beautiful territories and give people a chance to come to Vancouver Island.”

Shifting currents in the Salish Sea

So now the bid is won, what should we expect from the 2027 International Congress of Phonetic Sciences in Victoria?

“Our theme is Shifting Currents,” said Bird. “It’s partly a reflection of our geographical location, surrounded by the shifting currents of the Salish Sea and the Pacific Ocean. 

“It's also a reflection of the shifting currents towards research that centres the communities of practice that we work with and which our research both relies on and benefits. So, it’s a reflection of the shifting landscape of what it means to be a researcher in current times.”

Plenary sessions will spotlight speech tech, clinical phonetics and community-engaged phonetic documentation to celebrate cultural and linguistic diversity, including Indigenous and heritage languages and multilingualism.

A lasting legacy for linguistics 

Of course, Bird hopes attendees enjoy their time in Victoria and come back—but she also plans for the conference to leave a positive legacy for people, planet and place.

Academically, she believes their central theme of shifting currents—moving towards a more inclusive approach to communities of practice—will make a difference.

“There’s always a target population for your research—so how do we shift the way we do research, so they play a bigger role in shaping the research and benefitting from it? 

“We have opportunities to build really strong connections with industry and community partners at this conference, that will hopefully shift the way we all work together.”

Bird is also planning for the conference to provide a platform for engagement with the Songhees, Esquimalt, and W̱SÁNEĆ peoples who have called the island home since time immemorial.

This could include special sessions on Indigenous languages, presentations by Indigenous scholars or community members—and a conference logo designed by an Indigenous artist. 

“I’ve already talked with Venue West about prioritizing Indigenous businesses in terms of contracting different parts of the work that needs to be done. 

“Some of that will be unseen from the perspective of the visitors, but that's definitely a priority for me and for our committee.”

Leading the way in environmental sustainability

Meanwhile, environmental considerations come naturally in Victoria. 

UVic is the first Canadian university to partner with Ecovadis, the world’s largest provider of business sustainability ratings, and Victoria Conference Centre is designated carbon neutral as part of Ostrom Climate’s Offsetters Community.

More widely, Destination Greater Victoria has been Biosphere Certified by the Responsible Tourism Institute and in the 2024 Global Destination Sustainability Index (GDS-Index), Victoria ranked 22^nd in the world and top in North America.

For her part, Bird is hoping to make the conference zero waste and encourage the use of public transit and active transportation among delegates.

Shaping a conference to nurture connections

Bird’s goal is to shape the conference to foster relationship building, networking and making connections.

“I'm inspired by the idea of bringing so many people together, in an event that I'm able to shape,” she said.

“I'm someone who really values bringing people together, building relationships and seeing the potential that comes out of gathering people.

“I think it will just be an incredible opportunity for really fruitful research, conversations, sharing—and also just a lovely place to visit!”