Simultaneous & Consecutive Conference Interpreting
Conference Interpreting for London, Manchester & Birmingham
Team-of-two simultaneous, ISO 20109 booths on-site, RSI on Kudo, Interprefy, Zoom, Teams. City boardrooms, sector federations, medical and legal symposia, IPO investor days across the UK.
- ISO 20109 booth standard (QEII Centre, ExCeL, Manchester Central, ICC Birmingham)
- Team-of-two pairing on any session over 90 minutes
- RSI on Kudo, Interprefy, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, WebEx
- 25+ languages, priority same-day for EU + Ukrainian pairs
- NDA-bound. UK GDPR compliant. Nothing recorded unless you ask.
What Conference Interpreting Actually Is
Conference interpreting is high-stakes multilingual communication at a scale that needs two interpreters per language pair, professional booths (on-site) or a certified RSI hub (remote), and full audio delivery to delegates via headsets, receivers, or in-app channels. It is what you book for a City AGM at the QEII Centre, an industry federation annual conference in Manchester Central, an international medical or scientific symposium at the ICC Birmingham, an ICC or LCIA arbitration hearing, or an IPO investor briefing with international press attending.
Two modes are used in conference work. Simultaneous is real-time from the booth into a delegate's headset, and it is the default for plenaries, board meetings and panels. Consecutive is turn-taking, and it suits opening addresses, keynotes, courtroom-style hearings and short bilateral meetings. Whichever mode you need, the pairing rule is the same: any session longer than 90 minutes needs two interpreters per language pair, rotating every 20 to 30 minutes. This is AIIC and ITI standard practice and it is what serious UK conference organisers expect.
Pricing
Conference interpreting is quoted per session and priced by mode, day length, language pair, and setup (on-site booth or RSI).
Booth hire, technical crew and delegate receivers are quoted separately or bundled through partner venues. Fixed rate confirmed before signature. B2B accounts invoiced on 30-day terms with round-number pricing.
How It Works
Four steps from first enquiry to post-session report.
Enquiry
Language pairs, date, venue or platform, expected duration, and subject matter. Two minutes on the form or a WhatsApp message.
Confirmation
Within 4 working hours in business hours: fixed quote, interpreter team assigned, mode locked (simultaneous or consecutive), platform confirmed.
Prep Pack
Circulate agenda, speaker bios, glossaries, slide decks, board papers, and any prior recordings at least 5 working days ahead. Interpreters build the terminology.
Session & Report
Interpreter team on the day. Post-session note back to you: attendance timestamps, any technical issues logged, glossary retained for follow-up sessions.
Where Conference Interpreting Fits Best
Five contexts where our conference teams are booked most often across London, Manchester, Birmingham and remotely from UK hubs.
Multi-National Board Meetings
City boardrooms, corporate HQ off-sites, hybrid setups with directors dialling in from Warsaw, Berlin, Kyiv, Madrid, Paris. Simultaneous into two or three language channels with minutes captured cleanly by name.
- Quarterly board and AGM sessions
- Cross-border strategy off-sites
- Investor days and post-merger integrations
- Committee and subcommittee sittings
Industry Federation Conferences
Sector associations, public affairs colloquia, regulator-facing consultations, and annual conferences drawing European or global membership into UK venues (QEII, Manchester Central, ICC Birmingham).
- Sector federation annual conferences
- Regulator consultations and roundtables
- Public affairs colloquia
- Multi-jurisdiction industry summits
Medical & Scientific Symposia
Learned societies, teaching hospitals and life-science conferences bringing international speakers into UK teaching hospitals and conference centres. Interpreters briefed on the discipline and its terminology in advance.
- Learned society annual congresses
- Continuing medical education (CME) days
- Life-science clinical conferences
- Multi-centre research collaboration meetings
Arbitration & Cross-Border Hearings
International commercial arbitration in London (ICC, LCIA), cross-border civil hearings, and multi-jurisdictional witness examinations where conference-standard delivery is required across days of proceedings.
- ICC and LCIA arbitration hearings
- Cross-border commercial disputes
- Expert witness examinations
- Corporate governance investigations
Press Launches & IPO Investor Days
Rapid-fire simultaneous into the room for international press attending a UK product launch or reveal, and IPO investor briefings at City venues where the offering is being marketed across European and Asian institutional investors.
- Product and platform launches
- IPO investor briefings and roadshows
- Corporate reveals with international press
- Livestream events with international coverage
Technical Setup: On-Site Booth or RSI
Two setups are used in conference interpreting: on-site with ISO booths, or remote (RSI) through a certified platform. The choice is driven by venue, audience, and how much of the delegate audience is dialling in from another country or region.
On-Site: ISO 20109 Booth Standard
The booth must be sound-isolated, ventilated, have direct line of sight to the speaker and the screen, and be equipped to ISO 20109:2016 (booth construction) and ISO 20108:2017 (interpreter workstation audio). QEII Centre, ExCeL London, Manchester Central and the ICC Birmingham carry compliant portable booths on their AV inventory. Where we work with your venue directly we confirm booth spec, receiver quantity for delegates, and a technician on standby before the session.
Remote (RSI) on Kudo, Interprefy, Zoom, Teams, WebEx
RSI adds a strict requirement on the interpreter's own audio: a headset with proper mic isolation, an ISDN-quality connection, no third-party audio in the room. It also adds a strict requirement on the incoming feed: every speaker on their own quality mic, no mixed room audio, no laptop-array pickup. We test the platform, the routing, and the interpreter's audio the day before any live session. Kudo and Interprefy are our default RSI hubs for full-day board meetings and symposia. Zoom, Teams and WebEx are used for hybrid setups where the interpreter is joining a pre-existing corporate meeting stack.
Team-of-Two Pairing Rule
Simultaneous interpreting is cognitively unsustainable past 30 minutes for a single interpreter. Accuracy drops, omissions rise, and technical vocabulary is dropped first. For any session longer than 90 minutes we book two interpreters per language pair, rotating every 20 to 30 minutes. The second interpreter is not standby, they are actively working in the booth throughout: preparing incoming speakers, holding the glossary, catching numbers, and passing terminology to the interpreter live on the mic.
This is standard AIIC and ITI practice. Booking a single interpreter for a full-day board meeting to save on cost is not a saving, it is a quality collapse: accuracy on names, figures and specialist terms drops sharply after the first 30-minute block. Every quote we send for a session over 90 minutes is priced as a team of two by default.
What Our Clients Say
Feedback from City board, sector federation and cross-border arbitration clients.
"Simultaneous into Polish and Ukrainian for a full-day board offsite at the QEII Centre. Team-of-two rotation was seamless, minutes came back cleanly and the glossary they built saved us a chunk of prep time on the follow-up session."
Company secretary, FTSE 250 industrials group
"We ran a two-day sector federation conference at Manchester Central with delegates from eight countries. The Tatkowski team turned up on spec, worked from the venue booths, and knew the file. Zero drama, exactly what a good conference feels like."
Director of policy, sector federation
"Ran RSI on Kudo for a City-based LCIA arbitration hearing. Audio quality on the interpreter feed was consistent across three days of testimony. Legal team on both sides could follow in real time."
Partner, international disputes practice
Enquire About a Conference
Short form or WhatsApp. We respond within 4 working hours during business hours.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between simultaneous and consecutive interpreting?
Simultaneous is real-time interpreting from a booth into delegate headsets, used for plenaries, panels and board meetings where the flow of speech cannot stop. Consecutive is turn-taking: the speaker delivers a passage, pauses, and the interpreter renders it. Consecutive suits opening addresses, keynotes, courtroom-style hearings, and short bilateral meetings where slower pace is acceptable.
Do we really need two interpreters?
For any simultaneous session over 90 minutes, yes. Cognitive load in simultaneous interpreting is unsustainable past 30 minutes for a single interpreter, and accuracy drops with technical vocabulary going first. Two interpreters per language pair rotate every 20 to 30 minutes and the off-mic interpreter actively supports the on-mic one with numbers, glossary and terminology. This is standard AIIC and ITI practice.
Can you do the conference remotely (RSI)?
Yes. We work into Kudo, Interprefy, Zoom, Microsoft Teams and WebEx as a certified Remote Simultaneous Interpreting supplier. The interpreter pair works from a professional workspace with mic-isolated headsets and a stable line. We test the platform, the routing and the audio the day before any live session.
What lead time do you need for a full-day event?
3 to 6 weeks is preferred for a full-day board meeting or symposium so the interpreter team can read the papers, build a glossary, and brief on subject matter. Short-notice bookings under a week are handled where interpreters are available in the language pair, at higher urgency rates.
Do you cover British Sign Language (BSL) at conferences?
Yes, subject to availability. BSL interpreters at conferences work in pairs on the same 20 to 30 minute rotation, and are positioned per the venue's line-of-sight requirements. Book as early as possible for any event over 90 minutes so we can lock in a properly matched pair with subject-matter fit.
What booth standard do you work to?
ISO 20109:2016 for booth construction and ISO 20108:2017 for interpreter workstation audio. The booth must be sound-isolated, ventilated, have direct line of sight to the speaker and the screen, and be equipped with a proper interpreter console. QEII Centre, ExCeL, Manchester Central and the ICC Birmingham carry compliant booths on their AV inventory.
Can we book the same interpreter for a series of quarterly board meetings?
Yes, and we recommend it. Continuity across sessions removes vocabulary drift, retains the glossary, and shortens prep time for each subsequent session. We assign a standing team and a named account contact for repeat-booking clients.
How is confidentiality handled at a board-level conference?
Every interpreter signs an NDA. Board papers, slide decks and prior recordings are circulated over encrypted channels, held only for the prep window, and deleted after the session. No independent recording, no screen capture, no logging. UK GDPR and DPA 2018 compliant handling on identifying information throughout.
