This was a meeting of Education Ministers from around the world held over three days in the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, Westminster.
We were booked to provide simultaneous interpretation in six languages, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Arabic and Russian, to 600 delegates. Subsequent to the booking, the date of the new King’s Coronation was set for the weekend immediately before the event which created one or two headaches around access to the venue. These we had to overcome by making early deliveries of equipment and arranging access on foot for our team. It also meant that the first day of the programme had come a bank holiday.
In addition, with only a few days to go, the event specification was changed. The number of delegates was increased to 650 and an additional breakfast meeting room was added. This additional room required an extra three interpreter booths, an additional IR transmission system, 5o delegate receivers along with 15 delegate microphones.
Notwithstanding the late changes, we were able to install all nine booths across two rooms along with all the necessary equipment as well as making sure that we had sufficient skilled interpreters available across both internal venues.
This was a tricky job, involving many moving parts and various external constraints around the venue. However, we successfully overcame these and all worked well across the three day event.
