eTranslation Services

Planning an Online Multilingual Event

People attend events for a wide range of purposes, one of which is to gain new information. Successful knowledge transfer is essential for enjoyable activities. The purpose of holding events is to disseminate information, ideas, and convincing statistics that are relevant to the attendees.

Current Trends in Holding Events

With the dawn of online events and their recent popularity, it has become more crucial for us to adapt to the platform. It comes with many challenges, especially for online multilingual events.

Consider the following scenario: you’ve been invited to attend a virtual conference. You’re looking forward to the event because you’ll be able to learn something new, share your ideas, and network with other attendees.

When you first log in, you’ll notice that no one speaks your native tongue. You don’t comprehend the slides on the screen, and because they were delivered in a language you don’t understand, you missed the instructions on “how to get language interpretation.” You beg for assistance in the chat room, frustrated and annoyed. Because the person in charge of monitoring the chat does not understand your language, no one responds to you.

This is exactly the problem that we want to solve when planning an online multilingual event.

7 tips to keep in mind in organizing an online multilingual event

To begin, you’ll need to set aside a budget for interpreters, audio engineers, and equipment. Second, you’ll have to agree on the placement of simultaneous translation booths (if that’s the case). Third, you must decide which dynamic will be most helpful in delivering interpretation headphones to your virtual audience.

We’ve put together a checklist of things to think about while arranging an online multilingual conference to help you overcome these obstacles.

Choose an accessible platform.

Online events are held through either streaming platforms like Streamyard or online meeting applications such as Zoom. Decide which one will best serve your event and make sure that either you or your tech team is well-versed and experienced with it. The last thing you’ll want is to go into the event empty-handed and awkwardly trying to figure out the settings.

Promote that your event will be multilingual.

Make it clear from the start that interpretation services are available, whether on a website or in advertising materials (social media, flyers, email blasts). Make sure everyone knows what kind of language services are accessible and what platform you’ll be using ahead of time. You convey a clear statement about your aim to create a multilingual space by advertising language services in promotional materials.

In the visual elements of your event, make sure there’s a good mix of English and the language(s) spoken by your audience.

When possible, show presentation material in both English and the target language(s). Always include a greeting in your audience’s native tongue on the welcome slide. The opening speech sets the tone for the event, so make use of it by encouraging attendees to embrace multilingualism. Remind attendees that language assistance is available for those who require it.

When speaking, use a headset, tabletop mic, or earphones with a built-in microphone so that the interpreters can properly hear you.

Make sure you utilize a microphone and headset because interpreters can only translate what they hear and comprehend. You don’t need anything extravagant, but a good headset is well worth the money if you want to improve audio quality and have a better experience.

If you will have any guest speakers, make sure to brief them regarding this. Keynote speakers are essential but you have to make sure that they are understood. Otherwise, all of the information they share will be for nothing if the audience is not able to understand them.

Explain how to get language interpretation in the language of your audience.

Don’t presume that attendees will know how to use language services when they arrive at your event. The notification should be made in all of the languages for which you provide translation services. Regardless of how simple and obvious it is for you to access language services, your event must begin with a step-by-step explanation of the process. To aid comprehension, we propose that you include visual components.

Prepare to assist participants who are having trouble accessing language services despite the audio explanation and visual instructions. Technicians are useful in this situation because those who are encountering problems may require one-on-one assistance to troubleshoot while the speakers continue to run the event.

Ensure that you have a strong internet connection.

Since you will be the one handling the stream, make sure that your tech team is equipped with a reliable internet connection.

Wi-Fi is slower, less dependable, and less secure than a hard-wired Ethernet connection. Interference and crosstalk are not a problem with Ethernet connections, as they are unaffected by the presence of physical objects. The greater speed of an Ethernet connection will deliver a better experience with faster data transmission whether streaming video or working with bandwidth-hungry applications.
Remind participants of online etiquette.

An online event is still an event. It doesn’t mean that proper conduct should be thrown out the window! Make sure to remind participants of proper decorum, especially to stay muted except for question-and-answer portions and the like. Leaving audience members unmuted may disrupt the experience for all.

To be able to translate, interpreters must hear the speaker clearly. The interpreters will be unable to listen and comprehend if the background is too loud. Interpreters can only interpret what they hear and understand, so keep that in mind.

You can improve the overall audio experience by muting attendees and directing their complete focus to the main floor. Meeting hosts can mute attendees on a lot of platforms. Test the platform ahead of time, become familiar with this tool, and most importantly, warn your participants that by default, all microphones are muted, and they must unmute themselves or use the raise hand feature to communicate.

These are just a few tips to help you plan your online multilingual event! Let us know in the comments if you have any questions.

Get in touch with the experts when you need interpreting services

Here at eTranslation Services, we work only with interpreters and translators who are native speakers and have years of experience behind them. It is our mission to deliver the best language service to all our clients. Thus, we see to it that we assign projects to the right linguistic expert. If you have a conference, seminar, workshop or business meeting coming up that needs interpreting services, please get in touch with us via email at [email protected] or call us at (800) 882-6058 so we can discuss your requirements.

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