Webinars and online conferences are now part of the new normal. Specifically, webinars are often multilingual because of their purpose. A webinar is a combination of two terms, web and seminar. It’s a seminar exclusively available to an online audience who can attend from different parts of the world. The features make it different from a webcast, where a physical audience can be present, although there is no interaction with the audience.
The market for webinars
Participants can join a webinar via a computer, smartphone, tablet, or laptop. They can hear and see the speakers through video and audio feeds. What make webinars more engaging are slide presentations and infographics. The interactive feature allows the speaker or speakers to reach and interact with their online audience.
Each year, the average viewing time for webinars increases. Right now, the average is close to one hour. The market is showing steady growth because webinars are cost-effective. From an educational and teaching perspective, webinars provide a higher degree of interaction that helps participants understand the subject better and faster.
Benefits of multilingual webinar delivery for business
Worldwide, businesses have to reposition their services in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many utilize online communication tools for meetings, conferences, getting in touch with staff and managers, holding parties, and providing training.
Because of the limitations imposed on travel and participation in physical gatherings, businesses find webinars the most effective way to reach customers and clients since webinars provide them an effective means to reach multilingual participants in a single meeting.
Webinars are applicable for product presentations, meetings, press conferences, training courses, and lead generation.
Your webinar can attract a global audience; therefore, it is vital to ensure that your presentation will be available in different languages. This means integrating interpreters into your webinar platform.
You decide on the interpreters you will hire after you’ve decided where your target audiences will come from. You can build your webinar strategy based on the regions that are important to your business. This information is crucial when you’re deciding which webinar platform you are going to use.
Choosing the webinar platform
One of the things you should consider is the size of the audience you will have. The next things to consider are the software features, such as synchronizing with social media, audience polling, question, and answer features, allowing guest speakers to join, and recording the webinar for distribution later.
Integrating webinar interpreters
Different webinar platforms have different methods of integrating interpreting services into the software and a list of the platform’s languages. In Zoom, for example, the platform supports Simplified and Traditional Chinese, French, Italian, German, Korean, Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese, Vietnamese, Russian, and English.
Webinars use simultaneous interpretation, so it should be included in your plans for the webinar.
Preparing for a webinar
Different webinar platforms are available, with several features, such as audio and video streaming. The modern software allows social media feeds and questions and polls to enhance audience engagement. You need to choose the platform that is most convenient for you to use.
Hosting a webinar goes through various processes. Choosing the right webinar platform is the first thing you need to do.
You need to prepare the material for the webinar. You should have a topic or theme and the right content to support the purpose of the conference. Your content should have a mix of audio, video, graphics, and texts to improve audience engagement. Your presentation should last for about 50 to 60 minutes.
If you are the presenter, you should practice. Using the right technology is not enough. You should know how to effectively deliver the content, inspire and engage them to listen, and make them understand what you want to impart.
The webinar is your chance to build a lasting relationship with your target audience. Therefore, you should deliver a professional quality meeting by showing the presentation with confidence.
Like the preparation for a live conference on-site, everyone involved in the webinar should have practice sessions. Allocate one week to have a walkthrough with the panelists and moderators. The panelists (if any), moderators, and interpreters should practice two to three days before the webinar.
Allow the day before the event to have one last practice session between the moderators and the interpreters. You need to ensure that everything works. The interpreters will be using the exact setup, including the communication tools (same laptop, microphone, headphones, internet connection, and room) used during the practice session.
Let the moderators and panelists know that the webinar will have a multilingual audience to tailor their speeches to the international audience. They should avoid slang and jargon that may be difficult to interpret. Their speech should be easy to translate to avoid misunderstandings.
What to look for before hiring webinar interpreters
Aside from the linguistic expertise, look for webinar interpreters with subject matter expertise. The language services provider should have a vast network of native-speaking interpreters with experience who will match your business sector and niche. The interpreters should be familiar with the terminology your business uses.
If your webinar lasts for 60 minutes, you should hire two interpreters for each language. Simultaneous interpreting is difficult, as the interpreter must memorize what the speaker said, and they need to take a break every 20 minutes.
Although the interpreters are experts in your particular business, it is vital to provide them with all the information about the seminar, especially the speeches, to prepare better for the question and answer session.
In case you are planning to distribute your multilingual webinar later, it is best to hire professional translators to translate the content into various languages.
Partner with us – We are experts in translation and interpreting services
We at eTranslation Services offer linguistic and subject matter expertise to businesses planning to have webinars for multilingual audiences. We update our skills and knowledge to cope with the times. With the restrictions imposed by the pandemic, you can use our translation and interpreting services to keep in touch and reach out to your international business colleagues, support services providers, clients, and consumers, through effective communication, such as webinars. Our translators and interpreters live in-country. They are native speakers and subject matter experts with years of experience in their chosen fields. Count on us to deliver high quality and accurate translation and interpreting services wherever you are. Please get in touch with us through [email protected] or call us at (800) 882-6058.