The 20th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS) came to Prague again, this time for the second time. The ICPhS Congress, which ran from 7-11 August 2023, is a long-awaited event in the world of phonetics and speech science, bringing together researchers, experts and professionals from across the globe once every four years to share their latest findings, theories and advances.

The congress was held at the largest congress and cultural center in the Czech Republic, the Prague Congress Center (KCP). KCP ranks among Europe’s top congress centers, offering stunning views of Prague and having a capacity for up to 9,300 participants.

The topic of this year’s ICPhS congress was “Blending Communities and Changing Cultures”. The scientific programme, which ran for five full days, included 869 total presentations, including oral and poster presentations. The presentations focused on the entire interdisciplinary field of speech sciences, as evidenced by the fact that the congress covered 29 scientific areas, among others. The culmination of the scientific program was the “featured speaker” Paul Boersma, the main author of the Praat analysis software, which is used for speech signal analysis by experts worldwide. His talk was entitled “Praat in the next 30 years”.

Social events are an integral part of every congress and the ICPhS congress was no different. From the very first day, participants were able to network professionally. A welcome toast in the exhibition area broke the ice between participants and partners and the first professional contacts were exchanged. On Wednesday morning, the participants gathered at the starting line of the Run for Fun & Walk for Fun. Despite the inclement weather, everyone enjoyed the morning activity together. At the end of the congress, the participants were treated to a spectacular congress dinner at the Pilsner Restaurant in the Municipal House, where they had the opportunity to taste Czech cuisine and excellent beer.

In addition to this rich variety of experiences, a VIP Prague Grand Tour – a sightseeing tour of Prague – was prepared for the participants and their entourage.

And because not only science but also family is so important, professional childcare was available in the venue during the congress.

In total, more than 1100 participants attended the ICPhS Congress, most of them from the USA, Germany and the UK. Some of the participants took advantage of the virtual connectivity and watched the congress from their homes and offices.

In conclusion, we would like to thank all those who participated in the preparation and organization of the ICPhS Congress. We would like to thank our clients, speakers, partners and exhibitors, participants and last but not least the project team led by Romana Klukova.