A key support in multilingual conferences
Simultaneous relay interpreting is an essential technique for multilingual conferences, facilitating the transmission of messages in several languages, especially when direct interpreters are not available for all language combinations. At major international events, such as the recent Dockers Safety Conference held in Alicante and organized by the European Transport Workers Federation, this method has proven its value in optimising the flow of communication in real time.
On this occasion, our interpreters worked in a highly demanding environment, managing languages such as Italian and German through the relay technique. This means that our Italian and German interpreters received the information from a “base” interpretation, in this case, English-Spanish. The English interpreters listened to the speaker and simultaneously translated into Spanish, allowing the German and Italian interpreters to use this interpretation as a basis for conveying the message in their respective languages to their audience.
This interpreting system, although complex, ensures accuracy in communication when direct coverage of all languages is difficult to achieve. For the audience, the process is smooth and perceived as a direct simultaneous interpreting, allowing them to easily follow the content presented without distraction.
The Importance of Relay at the Dockers Safety Conference
The Dockers Safety Conference was an event where attendees depended on clear, real-time communication to understand technical and strategic issues. The ability of our team of interpreters to use relay and coordinate effectively was key to the success of the conference. The interpreters had to adapt quickly to the style of the speakers and the specialised topics, which included technical terminology related to port security and logistics operations.
In addition to the technical skill of the interpreters, the success of the relay system depends on careful pre-planning. Prior to the event, our team conducted a detailed analysis of the content, terminology and flow of the sessions to ensure that each interpreter had the right context and could work in sync with their colleagues.
Relay interpreting offers several advantages:
Resource optimisation: It allows a wide variety of language combinations to be covered without the need for an interpreter for each language pair.
Fluency at multilingual events: Gives the audience the feeling of direct simultaneous interpreting, enhancing the user experience.
Adaptability: It is ideal for international conferences and congresses where the audience comes from different countries and where agile and understandable communication is needed.
However, it also entails certain challenges:
Precise synchronisation: Requires interpreters to work flawlessly to avoid lags in the final message.
Thorough preparation: Interpreters need additional preparation and must coordinate with the background interpreters to maintain consistency in the message.
The success of this methodology at the Dockers Safety Conference reaffirms our team’s commitment to ensuring an efficient, accurate interpretation service tailored to our clients’ multilingual needs. Relay interpreting requires meticulous preparation and perfect synchronisation between interpreters, and our professionals once again demonstrated their ability to meet this challenge with outstanding results.
