Tips for Event Organisers

• Contact your interpreters at least a few weeks before the date of your meeting.
• To ensure a better flow of information with your interpreters, make sure that you contract your interpreting services directly with your interpreters or their secretariat. If this is not possible, remember to contact your interpreters directly a few days before your meeting.
• When requesting a quote for interpretation services, share the programme of the event, even if it is a draft. Your interpreters or their secretariat will set up the right team based on working hours, languages, and the subject matter of your meeting.
• If you request consecutive interpreting services, remember that this type of interpreting requires at least as much skill as simultaneous interpreting and, by its very nature, doubles the duration of the meeting.
• Interpreters can best prepare for your meeting if you send presentations, talking points, the latest programme and/or promotional materials to the interpreters at least a few days before the meeting, even if in draft version. Be sure to share with the interpreters any new or updated speech texts you receive on the day of the meeting. If you wish, all your documents will be handed back to you at the end of the meeting. In addition, with the TKTD Working Conditions attached to each contract, the interpreter commits to confidentiality before, during and after the assignment.
• If your topic is very technical, you can request a preliminary meeting with your interpreters a few days before the event, either in person or online.
• If you have a list of terms that participants are familiar with, share it with your interpreters.
• If the venue is too small to accommodate a booth, you can use an infoport/bidule/tour guide system, which allows simultaneous interpreting without a booth. However, this system should be multi-channel so that the interpreters can hear the speaker directly through a separate headset. Otherwise, interpreters may find it difficult to follow the speech over the ambient noise. Some participants may also be disturbed by the voice of the interpreters in the room.
• Similarly, if the venue is not suitable for booth set-up, only one or two people need interpreting, and the meeting is relatively short, whispering (chuchotage), a form of simultaneous interpreting, may be considered. However, in this case too, other participants may be disturbed by the voice of the interpreter who is constantly whispering.
• If your participants are in different cities and you are going to broadcast the interpretation, please note that you must first inform your interpreters. In cases where the interpreter is not in the same venue and/or platform as the speaker, make sure that the requirements of the Remote Interpreting Guidelines published by AIIC, the International Association of Conference Interpreters, in January 2019 are met to avoid problems arising from a drop in audio quality.
• If booths and equipment in conference centres, hotels or other meeting venues are to be used, ensure that they comply with TS ISO 2603 for fixed booths and TS ISO 20109 for equipment.
• If the meeting venue does not have booths and equipment for simultaneous interpreting, ensure that you work with equipment rental companies that provide technical equipment in accordance with TS ISO 4043 for portable booths and TS ISO 20109 for equipment.
• If simultaneous interpreting booths are placed at the very back of a large auditorium, make sure that they are placed on a platform with a direct view of the speaker and the stage. To avoid technical incompatibilities, it is advisable to hire the interpreting equipment and the venue’s sound system from the same company.
• As it may be difficult for interpreters to follow the presentations when the booths are far from the screen, it is recommended that monitors be installed in the booth or, if this is not possible, that printouts or electronic copies of the presentations be provided to the interpreters.
• In any case, technical equipment providers are the experts in technical matters. When you explain your needs and expectations, they will offer you the best solution in that regard.
• It is useful to appoint a coordinator at the conference venue who is responsible for passing on information to the interpreters. It is particularly advisable to employ a “coordinator interpreter” who does not work in the booth in addition to your coordinator, especially in cases where several interpreters are working and/or interpreting services are provided at more than one venue.
• It may be useful to allocate a separate ” interpreter’s room” to ensure information flow with interpreters, especially in meetings where a large number of interpreters are working and/or interpreting services are provided in more than one location.

For more detailed information, please refer to the Working Conditions of TKTD and the web site of AIIC, the International Association of Conference Interpreters.