When Buenos Aires hosted South America Energy Week, Cultures Connection was given the privilege of providing the simultaneous interpretation services for two days.
Two days of debate, 46 specialist speakers and 315 representatives from the energy industry – just some of the statistics from the South America Energy Week 2018 that left quite an impression in Buenos Aires. The Alvear Icon Hotel was host to numerous leaders in the sector as they met to discuss, comparing situations in different countries and evaluating investment possibilities in the region. All this was made possible thanks to the simultaneous interpretation services that Cultures Connection offered on the 12th and 13th of November.
There were around 13 talks in total, with topics including the energy policies of different South American countries, the government efforts to promote projects involving fossil fuels and renewable energy sources, and potential opportunities of new industrial developments for the continent. Four of our interpreters worked to adapt the speeches of high level executives, investors, officials and experts, tackling the challenging technical terminology, from English to Spanish and vice versa.
The highest possible government authority from the sector in Argentina, the Energy Minister Javier Iguacel, explained how the country meets the increasing demand for energy and the undertaking of new initiatives. As expected, there were numerous panels that focused on issues in Argentina. These looked at the progress of the ‘Vaca Muerta’ scheme, the oil field which is often discussed in the news . He drew attention to the questionable capacity of Argentina’s electricity system and analysed the opportunities for the gas market in great depth.
South America Energy Week handled pertinent issues that proved that it had kept up with the times, by holding a series of panels dedicated to clean energy that caught a lot of people’s attention. Businessmen from BlackRock, Hogan Lovells LLP, IFC, Eira Capital and Solarif Financial discussed the most successful strategies that were both commercially and environmentally beneficial for their companies. Colombia and Chile were also given the opportunity to share their past experiences and plans for the future with regard to renewable energy sources.
Copyright: Cultures Connection.
Offering the complete interpretation experience
Not only did Cultures Connection offer professional interpreters for the event, they also oversaw the rental and management of sound equipment for two event rooms over two days. The service included a transmitter, two console tables, a sound booth, 150 sets of headphones, a sound operator and a room assistant for the delivery and organisation of the headsets needed for each room.
Mariana, one of the interpreters for South America Energy Week, noted how well the interpretation services were organised and the excellent sound quality she was able to work with for both days. Trained in Certified Translation at the University of Buenos Aires and in Interpretation by the Barnes and McDonough institutes, she has 20 years of professional experience in the technical sector.
With no material available to her beforehand, Mariana had to improvise when it came to preparing for the event: “I looked up the speakers and the topics, creating a glossary and listening to them on Youtube, if I could find them on there.”
Mariana finds her greatest challenge at these kind of events is often understanding the concepts at hand. “Many of the terms we already know. The difficulty is always the speed with which they say such specific terminology in English”, she tells us.
“On the first day, the speakers spoke very clearly but at a fast pace and the majority needed to be translated into English. The event was a panel-style on the second day and needed translation into Spanish”, she commented.
During the first day, all the interpreters worked for a full day. The second day required half of them to work full time and the other half for just part of the day. Precise translation and high quality sound services. Cultures Connection had all the energy needed to organise a successful event.
Translation into English: Madeleine Hancock
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