We want to express our sincere gratitude to the 12 community members who joined our 2024 EMEA Programme Committee for their work in organizing this summit. The committee’s task was to plan programming that prioritized topics critical to EMEA trust and safety professionals, and they really drove a theme, sessions, and reached speakers that met that goal. Four of our committee members shared their thoughts on the this year’s theme and offered advice for maximizing the summit experience.
Ravi Bhalla
Ravi Bhalla, a seasoned professional with extensive experience in digital trust and safety, currently serves as the Vice President of Trust & Safety at Concentrix. With a proven track record in building and leading high-performing teams, Ravi is dedicated to creating secure and trustworthy online environments. He is responsible for promoting all aspects of user safety, security measures, compliance, and risk management. He led a
dynamic team to deliver & innovate robust content moderation systems, enhance overall platform security, and respond effectively to trust and safety incidents. Ravi is known for his commitment to continuous improvement, staying abreast of industry best practices, and
fostering cross-functional collaboration within the organization.
What drives you to pursue continuous learning and growth in the Trust & Safety field?
Trust & Safety is still an evolving space for the world but going to become one of the most important one. As all sectors are moving towards digital user experiences, it inevitable that all of us will need to learn about this to become successful and also create safer online experiences. Furthermore, the pursuit of knowledge in this field is fueled by the understanding that user trust is fragile and can be easily compromised. By staying informed about industry best practices, learning from past incidents, and anticipating future trends, I can contribute to building and maintaining a secure and trustworthy online environment. It is through ongoing education and adaptation that we can effectively navigate the complexities of digital trust and safety and contribute to the long-term success and integrity of the platforms we support.
What inspired you to join the Programme Committee for this year’s summit?
It’s fascinating to see the growing number of participants at the TSPA events each year and that attracted me to contribute to the development & success of this community. TSPA does a great job of organizing the summits across regions & they deserve all the support that anyone with experience can provide them. After I attended 2 summits last year, I was determined to get engaged in providing support & give my contributions.
Reflecting on the theme for this year’s summit, could you share an experience where collaboration had a big impact on you? It could be something that led to an innovative solution in Trust & Safety, helped you grow as a practitioner, or just a moment where collaboration was unexpected. Collaboration is a critical aspect of growing businesses and it’s needed the most in Trust & Safety as many teams still work in silos across platforms, service providers and regulatory bodies. After I attended the TSPA summits last year, I noticed that the impact of various sessions has started moving various internal & external team to think about creating collaborative environment for improved outcomes. One such example is that the policy teams across online platforms have started gathering real time experiences from content moderators to effectively made changes/updates to user policies. This is strengthening the platforms policies to make them clearer to end users, inform technology teams to make appropriate changes to the AI/ML models and eventually making life better for moderators by promoting objectivity. I strongly believe that bringing people together from various functions together at summits really helps them understand the full spectrum and appreciate the potential of working collaboratively.
This year’s theme includes three subthemes: Middle East and Africa, Future-Proofing, and All Digital Technologies. Which summit subtheme are you most excited about?
I am really excited about the subtheme “Trust & Safety in Middle East & Africa (MEA)”. This has been an under-represented geography over the past few years despite having close to 20% of global online user population, going through geo-political storms and still delivering great support for improving online user safety. This subtheme will bring out some of the key initiatives from MEA region to rest of the world and appreciate their contributions to T&S.
What is one key takeaway or experience you hope every attendee has at this year’s summit?
Tremendous amount of learning! TSPA summits are a great platform to interact with the community and learn from each other. As all the sessions are carefully vetted through a process & by the members of this community, the sessions are extremely helpful for learning new topics, aspects and developments in the T&S space.
Having attended TSPA events in the past, what advice would you give to new attendees?
I would really encourage all first-time attendees to go through the agenda thoroughly in advance, select the sessions that they’d like to attend carefully based on their objectives, make new connections and enjoy the event.
Ece Ozkan
Ece is a tech professional with over 12 years of experience in online safety, dedicated to striking the right balance between fostering innovation and upholding responsible tech practices while creating safer digital environments. In her career, Ece worked in major social and entertainment platforms (Meta, TikTok) in a range of roles including policy development, leadership/ people management, and program management. She managed teams developing policies and processes for areas including Violent Extremism, Fraud, Regulated Goods, and Privacy. Ece is an active member of the TSPA and an affiliate at All Tech is Human contributing to their mentorship program and annual Responsible Tech guide. Currently she is working as a Policy Advisor at Bumble.
What drives you to pursue continuous learning and growth in the Trust & Safety field?
Trust & Safety is one of the most dynamic fields, and continuous learning is in its DNA. I think this field attracts people who like solving wicked problems, who are hungry for learning new things, who are persistent and won’t be afraid of going back to the drawing board when they face a setback – and that happens more often than one wants to admit! So, it is the existence of these wicked problems and exploring ways for solutions is what drives me to pursue continuous learning and growth in the Trust & Safety field.
What inspired you to join the Programme Committee for this year’s summit?
Having worked in this field for a long time, I’m excited about the increased recognition of T&S as an industry in the last few years. TSPA definitely played a huge role in putting T&S on the map, and the EMEA summit is crucial for discussing regional themes that are shaping the world we live in. Being an advocate for user safety has been something I’m passionate about, and similarly being an advocate for the regional challenges and opportunities is what made me join the Programme Committee.
Reflecting on the theme for this year’s summit, could you share an experience where collaboration had a big impact on you?
Collaboration has been at the heart of pretty much all the work I’ve been involved with throughout my career in T&S. Some examples on top of my head are around crisis times, and how different teams come together in no time to mitigate risk. Whether it’s a “known unknown” – such as the result of an election, or an “unknown unknown” – like a terrorist attack that no one could have foreseen, Trust and Safety teams handle crises on a regular basis, and in those challenging moments one realizes (or re-realizes!) the importance of collaboration. I am grateful for the perseverance, resilience and kindness of all the cross-functional partners I’ve worked with, especially during a fast moving situation.
This year’s theme includes three subthemes: Middle East and Africa, Future-Proofing, and All Digital Technologies. Which summit subtheme are you most excited about?
All of the subthemes are fascinating, yet I am most excited about Trust & Safety in Middle East & Africa (MEA). Within this region, there are several areas that needs more visibility and thoughtful discussions, such as: the young population and how social media/ online platforms could be a tool for change in the region (thinking about social media’s role in the Arab Spring for instance), ongoing crises and Trust & Safety teams role in protecting users of online platforms while balancing freedom of speech/ newsworthy content, internet throttling and elections, regulations just to name a few …
What is one key takeaway or experience you hope every attendee has at this year’s summit?
Camaraderie is a key element in Trust & Safety, and the chance to have an in person meeting with folks who have been through the same challenges as you do is quite powerful.
Having attended TSPA events in the past, what advice would you give to new attendees?
Attend as many sessions as possible and have an open mind about the discussion topics, oftentimes the problem one person is talking about could be very similar to a problem you/ your company is facing.
John Buckley
John Buckley is Google’s Lead for Child Safety Policy. John has spent 13 years working in the area of child protection and has spent 2023 focusing on building out approaches for Google on ensuring child safety risk with generative AI is addressed. Over their career John has had multiple roles in TnS, from operations, to intel, to investigations to programs and partnerships management.
What drives you to pursue continuous learning and growth in the Trust & Safety field?
Without continuous learning I can’t continue to serve users’ safety effectively. People, technology and behaviours change all the time. While some foundational aspects stay consistent, others are in a constant state of change. Without specifically allocating time to learning and growth, my ability to have impact for safety will diminish.
What inspired you to join the Programme Committee for this year’s summit?
I attended and spoke at the TSPA EMEA summit in 2023. It was my first time attending a truly local T&S event, this year I wanted to try and give back by hopefully helping to put on an event that continues to showcase EMEA.
This year’s theme includes three subthemes: Middle East and Africa, Future-Proofing, and All Digital Technologies. Which summit subtheme are you most excited about?
2023 was a year in tech defined by generative AI. One of the things I quickly learned in 2023 was that without foundational collaboration across tech, solo safety responses to generative AI risks are useless. During the year, I collaborated with other tech companies (via the Tech Coalition) to understand foundational child safety risks associated with generative AI, while also working towards shared learnings on mitigations and devising solutions to problems. This had a significant impact on me as it not only increased my own knowledge but hopefully also helped to enhance the robustness of the industry’s response to generative AI risks.
Which subtheme are you most excited to see at the summit?
Future Proofing T&S – It’s never easy, but being forward-looking in T&S is not always something we get space to do. I’m looking forward to hearing from colleagues on how to adopt a forward-focused mindset. I’m excited to learn about approaches to planning for T&S in relation to new technologies or manifestations of safety or trust issues.
What is one key takeaway or experience you hope every attendee has at this year’s summit?
Practical knowledge to help them move their own T&S career forward and hopefully (to rob a second) that they see themselves in the work presented.
Having attended TSPA events in the past, what advice would you give to new attendees?
Don’t be afraid to say hello to people (everyone is lovely!), take a look at the speakers, and if there are topics of interest, grab them after they speak! Also, make time (if you can) to stay after the main summit track is done, as some of the most interesting conversations happen then.
Dr. Michelle Teo
Dr. Michelle Teo is a Chartered Counselling Psychologist by trade and the Clinical Director at Zevo Health. She has over five years’ experience in T&S including front-line wellbeing service provision to content moderation teams, designing and evaluating wellbeing services based on clinical evidence, and
engaging in industry research. In addition, she holds qualifications in Change Management and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion which deeply inform her professional work.
What drives you to pursue continuous learning and growth in the Trust & Safety field?
I have a vested interested in continuing to learn and grow in the T&S field for two reasons: 1) I am an avid user of online platforms and search engines so I want to ensure that I learn as much as possible about the challenges in moderating these platforms, and 2) my husband is a content moderator and I want to ensure that every conversation I have ensures his protection against mental ill health. These two reasons feed into another. If I can learn more about the challenges in moderation then I can talk to the right people about these challenges, conduct research, and work cross-industry with other T&S professionals to design interventions for moderators that tackle these issues.
What inspired you to join the Programme Committee for this year’s summit?
Participating in the EMEA Summit and attending TrustCon last year really showed me how much care and effort goes into planning these events. I wanted to join the Programme Committee this year to ensure we are choosing the right themes and proposals to address the growing learning needs of the industry. Perhaps a bit selfishly, I also wanted to ensure that the conversation around the wellbeing of content moderation teams is being addressed at these events. I liken wellbeing in Trust and Safety to the arts in schools – it’ll be the first to go when it comes to budget cuts – but having worked on the front lines with moderators, I know just how crucial these supports are for them.
Reflecting on the theme for this year’s summit, could you share an experience where collaboration had a big impact on you?
A great deal of the work I do with Zevo Health has been a collaborative experience, whether this is internally or with our customers. The most notable learning in the last five years has been collaborating with our customers’ HR and wellbeing personnel to design escalation pathways and policies to address critical incidents that occur. These might be individual incidents like a content moderator experiencing suicidal ideation or it could be group-based incidents like the recent Hamas-Israel conflict. Without a proper escalation pathway and policy that involves all key stakeholders, we’re putting moderators’ psychological health at exponentially increased risk. Our strongest pathways are created in collaboration with our customers – we need to understand all the avenues of support available to moderators, build them into the pathway, and close the communication loop from end-to-end. A documented pathway ensures everyone knows their role in managing a critical incident and can be accountable for their responsibilities. It’s critical in ensuring we are mitigating further risks of harm.
This year’s theme includes three subthemes: Middle East and Africa, Future-Proofing, and All Digital Technologies. Which summit subtheme are you most excited about?
I’m really excited to see the All Digital Technologies subtheme. We have several customers that are in e-commerce, dating, and community networks and when I compare the challenges of moderators in these industries to social media, though there are commonalities, we can see distinct differences, too. I want to learn more about how these industries operate, the challenges they face, and the innovations that could impact moderators’ psychological health and wellbeing. I think this subtheme will really let these platforms shine!
What is one key takeaway or experience you hope every attendee has at this year’s summit?
I really hope that everyone gets to attend at least one session or have one conversation where they learn something new or can consider something in their work from a different perspective. That’s what I think is so great about our main theme: The Power of Collaboration. We’re focusing on how to help one another based on our unique strengths and there is so much power in understanding a problem or solution from someone whose strengths are not your own.
Last year I got to connect with experts in tooling, policy, engineering, etc. – understanding how they consider and tackle problems has strengthened my own critical thinking skills. For example, after speaking with numerous experts, the recommendations we provide to our customers about improving internal systems or processes are based on a deeper understanding of what tooling companies are capable of, how policies are developed, or how critical incidents are addressed operationally.
Having attended TSPA events in the past, what advice would you give to new attendees?
Review the agenda beforehand and choose a handful of sessions that you have no expertise in. I learned so much attending presentations and panels where I thought, “this is so far out of my wheelhouse!” Gaining new knowledge and perspective is the best part of these events so be curious and dive into the unknown! Oh, and don’t be afraid to just walk up to people during breaks to say hello and learn what they do. In my experience, T&S professionals are so friendly and everyone I spoke to was genuinely interested in sharing their knowledge and learning from mine.
