How we interpreted for an online strategic meeting between distributors from 11 countries

Interpreting for virtual meetings

During the pandemic, most professional meetings were being held online. A longtime client of ours Atlas Copco approached us with a special request for tech support and simultaneous interpretation of their meeting between the company’s distributors hailing from 11 different countries.

Included on the meeting’s agenda was speaker input on last year’s results, prospects for 2021, new products, marketing, and the like.

The agenda also touched on several segments that the interpreter had to have an overview of. That’s why for this project we involved interpreters with expertise in financial and marketing terminology, technology, and innovation.

4 interpreters simultaneously interpreted in the following language combinations:

• English – Slovak
• English – Polish

Project duration: 2/2/2021, 9:00am – 1:00pm

Venue: The meeting took place online via ZOOM

7 steps to make online interpretation perfect

1. Preparations for the project began in December. In addition to interpretation and fine-tuning all the details, we also provided complete technical support through the ZOOM platform.
2. The interpreters had at their disposal all available materials and presentations for full-fledged preparation. A separate practice meeting (test) with the interpreters was also part of the preparation.
3. The second test took place with the client. We wanted to make sure that all those involved were able to install the necessary software.
4. We agreed on the organisation of a few details (e.g. who will lead the meeting, how the questions will be interpreted, etc.).
5. To ensure things ran smoothly, we created a manual and a drawing with instructions, which were distributed in advance.
6. Interpreters were connected from Slovakia and Poland while the meeting’s participants and speakers joined in from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Sweden, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Serbia, Croatia, Northern Macedonia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
7. We created 3 separate audio channels that participants of the meeting could choose from: the original English channel, and the interpretation channels for Polish and Slovak.

Internet connections can be unreliable, so being prepared for various worst-case scenarios was key

• In order to prevent certain problems from happing during the meeting, it was important that we did two test runs.
• Using detailed instructions and drawings, we tried to make the process of joining the meeting as easy as possible for the participants.
• With representatives joining in from 11 countries, we saw the quality of their internet connection as the greatest risk. We remained connected all throughout the meeting to check for technical issues with the speakers and the interpreters and we were available for additional questions or requests.