Event Interpreter Checklist for Organisers

An event interpreter is the person who renders speech in the room, while the programme is happening. The checklist below is the practical sequence organisers use so that booking is not a last-minute note on a run of show. It covers documents, timings, equipment and what has to be true on site. Fees are on request and depend on the brief: languages, hours, format and whether equipment is included.

Use it as a list you can hand to a producer, not as a package. A forum, a factory visit and a board dinner do not share the same equipment. If the shape of the day is still unclear, the contact page is the place to describe it, and the request form is the place that asks the agency to confirm availability. The interpreters directory is where published profiles sit. Personal phone numbers and email addresses are not on those profiles.

Two weeks before you confirm an event interpreter

Write the date, the city, the venue and the language pair before you ask anyone to hold a day. Say the direction: which language the speakers will use, and which language the audience must hear. Say whether the work is simultaneous, consecutive or accompanying, and say it per session if the day mixes them. A two-week mark is a working target for a straightforward booking, not a rule that every date can still be filled. Popular weeks in Bali and Jakarta should be held earlier.

At the same time, name who inside your team owns terminology. Interpreters prepare from papers. If nobody on your side can answer “what do we call this product”, the glossary will be guessed. Decide whether the host and the interpreters are different people. They usually should be. A host runs the frame of the event. An event interpreter renders what is said.

What to send with the first request

• Date, city, venue and whether the day moves between sites.
• Language pair and direction, and the format for each session.
• Hours, including any rehearsal you want the team present for.
• A one-paragraph purpose: briefing, negotiation, ceremony or training.
• Whether a booth and headsets are required or already ordered at the venue.

One week before

Send the agenda, slides and any speeches that exist, and mark drafts as drafts. A late perfect deck is less useful than an early rough one. Add a name list with titles as they must be spoken, and a short glossary of terms that must stay in one language. Highlight numbers, names of laws, drug names or engineering specs if getting them wrong would matter.

Confirm the equipment owner. If the venue supplies the booth, say so, and say who the technician reports to. If the agency is asked to include equipment, that has to be in the scope now, not on the morning. Check the room: can a booth see the stage, or is a camera feed required? Is there a second room? Consecutive meetings do not need a booth. Simultaneous sessions do, or a position that is genuinely quiet, plus receivers for the people who need the second language.

The day before

Freeze the run of show except for names that are still unconfirmed. Send that version to the interpreters and to the host, so both are working from the same order. Reconfirm call time, the entrance, and who is allowed to change the sequence. If a speaker will read a text, send the text. If a speaker will not use a script, say so. Panels and questions are where unprepared names appear.

Agree the pauses if any session is consecutive. Tell those speakers they must stop. Tell simultaneous speakers they should not stop for the booth. Mixing those habits is how a format breaks. Also agree what the interpreters are not asked to do: they do not invent housekeeping, and they do not announce winners unless that line was written for them.

On the day

Check the floor feed before the audience arrives. The booth has to hear every microphone that will be used, including panel mics, not only the lectern. Put water and a clock where the interpreters can use them. Keep the technician in the room. A handover to a banquet captain is how a dead headset stays dead.

Give the team the final name list, including anyone added overnight. Point out the person on your side who can answer a terminology question without a meeting. Then leave them to work. Do not ask for a running commentary on how the interpretation is going. If a speaker abandons the slides, that is normal. If the language of the floor changes mid-session, tell the booth as early as you know.

After the event

Say what should happen to recordings. Interpreting a live session is not the same job as producing a written translation of a recording or the minutes. If you need that written version, brief it as its own task with its own deadline. Do not assume it is included because the team was in the room.

Keep the glossary if you will run the event again. The second booking is easier when the terms, the room and the format are already described. Send the next date through the same request. Fees stay on request, because a different city, a longer day or an added language pair is a different brief. Profiles do not list rates, and they do not list a way to contact the interpreter directly.