Some of them may do brilliantly at high-level diplomatic conferences, but feel less comfortable with the glib speakers usually encountered at sales meetings. Likewise, whether your meeting is about prudential rules in banking supervision, laparoscopic surgery or object-relational database systems, finding colleagues with prior exposure to your field should not be a problem, as AIIC interpreters have many very technical meetings under their belt. However the subject matter and the type of conference should be specified as early as possible into the recruitment process, to ensure that you get the interpreters with the most appropriate profile. Also, if the meeting is very technical, a briefing session with the speakers is advisable. Due to quality and health concerns, AIIC rules specify that interpreters should not work in excess of two 3-hour sessions a day, separated by a break of at least 90 minutes.
Longer sessions are of course possible, provided that the team strength is increased.
At any rate, interpreters and delegates alike will be grateful for periodic coffee and meal breaks. If you plan to have break-out sessions, they should be carefully planned from the outset so that extra teams of interpreters can be recruited if need be. Simultaneous Interpretation equipment Enquire whether your conference venue has built-in simultaneous interpretation booths or whether mobile booths will have to be rented. It is important to make sure that interpretation booths comply with the relevant ISO standards. Sub-standard booths weigh heavily on the interpreters' output, especially if the problems are poor ventilation and sound quality.