In an increasingly globalized economy, businesses are more and more aware of the importance of accessing to customers and suppliers in international markets. In this context, exhibitions, trade fairs and business-matching events have created a necessary playground to help businesses connect with each other.
However, arranging a large number of interpreters sometimes brings challenges to the organizers. In this article, we would like to introduce to you the necessary steps to coordinate a large number of interpreters for exhibition and business-matching events.
1. Appointing specific companies to each interpreter
If possible, you should appoint specific companies to each interpreter in advance, then provide information of these companies to the interpreters so they can prepare well for the event. Information includes website, product catalog and their purpose to participate in this event. If the budget is limited, an interpreter can handle several companies, however, he/she also need to be notified which companies he/she will take care in advance.
If you know the language level of the interpreters, we would recommend you to assign to interpreters who have more experiences “difficult” cases, including companies that trade scientific and technical products, or those that have strict requirements for the event. Interpreters with less experiences can take care of companies with simple industries and products, or those that just participate in the event for the first time and have no specific requirements.
2. Providing vocabularies
In order to help the interpreters be well prepared for the event, you should provide them with 1) specialized vocabulary, and 2) type of the event. For example, an event for mechanical-machinery industry often repeats the names of precision mechanical machines such as lathe, milling machine, welding machine, surface treatment machine, etc. At the same time, in a business-matching session, the participants often exchange samples, discuss about delivery deadlines, quality standards, memorandums, contracts, etc. Regarding healthcare section, please refer to our blog article COVID-19 Multilingual Terminologies for a list of the recent pandemic – related terms.
3. Briefing
Before the event day, you should send email to or call each interpreter to confirm the attendance status and remind them of the dress code and the time they need to be at the event. In addition, before the event starts, you should gather all interpreters to brief about the main contents of the event, conduct rules, other tasks (such as taking notes for the meeting, keeping business cards of guests), or changes in agenda, if any.
Event organizers can either use traditional interpretation/translation companies or use interpreter reservation platforms, i.e Freelensia, because these companies always have large interpreter networks.
See also