Like it or not, webinars and online meetings and events are now part of our everyday lives. But what happens if we need to engage in more than one language?

At Grasshopper, we’re used to providing consultation materials in Welsh and English at face to face events, but the pandemic has opened the door to staging bilingual events using online simultaneous translation technology. A successful bilingual event takes time and effort to get right.

There are a few platforms out there which can provide an interpretation feature but our current go-to is Zoom. Here are some tips on set up:

• Zoom requires 3 working days to set up the interpretation feature on your account, so the earlier you start planning, the better!
• Ensure that you set up your event correctly. There are step-by-step guides on the Zoom website.
• When setting up a webinar, be sure to click ‘Enable Practice Session’, ‘Automatically record webinar on the local computer’ and ‘Enabled language interpretation’.

Preparing participants

Your attendees will also need to make changes to enable them to listen to the translation. Here’s what we’d suggest you send participants beforehand:

• Bilingual events are best viewed and listened to on a PC/computer (rather than smartphone/tablet).
• Participants must have the Zoom app downloaded to their device (the browser will not work). Include a link to the download page and select ‘Zoom Client for Meetings’.
• Step-by-step instructions on how to get the app up and running and offer some coaching pre-event if needed.

Keeping your interpreter happy

Simultaneous interpretation is a draining vocation and there’s a limit to how long an interpreter can work – a general rule of thumb is 20 to 30 minutes at a time.  Bear this in mind when working out the event’s running order and arranging speakers in a way which gives the interpreter a natural break.

Practice

We’d suggest conducting a series of dummy runs with your colleagues. On event day, make sure you have a practice session with your actual panellists and interpreter before the event goes live.

Starting the webinar

Once you’ve hit the ‘Start Webinar’ button to let the public in, do an informal technical introduction to explain:

• The Zoom app is needed to access interpretation – suggest that anyone without it, leaves to download it and returns through it.
• How to access the interpretation: move the mouse to see the globe icon at the bottom of the screen. Click the globe and select the interpretation language (on a Mac there is no icon, it has three dots at the top right-hand side for language selection).
• If your audio is bilingual, then presumably your vision will also be dual language. We favour the split-screen method with Welsh on the left and English on the right – select ‘Side-by-Side’ mode from the dropdown menu next to the green bar at the top of the screen.

Recordings

If you need recordings of your webinar in both languages so that they can be put on a website, then there is only one method available. One team member records locally in one language while another member records the interpreter’s track.

And finally…

• Have your interpreter’s details close to hand
• Make someone else a co-host (and ensure that they have your presentation, script and running order) so they can also control the session in the event of a power cut / internet goes down
• Practice, practice, practice

Take a full-on worst case scenario attitude to the whole thing and you will stand a better chance of staging a misshap-free event. Good luck!