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Planning an event is no small task. Between lining up speakers, managing tech, and coordinating logistics, there’s one key element that often gets overlooked—language accessibility. If your audience speaks more than one language, interpretation services aren’t just helpful, they’re essential.
But if you’ve never worked with interpretation services before, the process can feel a bit overwhelming. Do you need simultaneous or consecutive interpretation? Human interpreters or AI solutions? Headsets or apps?
This beginner’s guide is here to break things down in simple terms. Whether you need conference translation or want to make a webinar more inclusive, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know about interpretation services, so you can deliver an inclusive experience for everyone in the room (or on the screen).
Let’s start with the basics. Interpretation services are solutions that translate spoken content from one language to another in real-time. They help bridge the communication gap between speakers and attendees who don’t share the same language.
At events, interpretation can be done by professional human interpreters, translation software, or a mix of both. The goal? To help attendees understand, engage, and participate without needing to speak the language of the presenter.
Whether your audience includes international stakeholders, multilingual team members, or local communities with diverse backgrounds, language access helps everyone feel seen and included.
Interpretation services can:
Even if your event is relatively small, offering interpretation shows you care about your audience, and that goes a long way.
There are two main types of interpretation services: simultaneous and consecutive. Knowing the difference will help you choose the right fit for your event.
Simultaneous interpretation is when the interpreter speaks at the same time as the original speaker, with only a brief delay. It’s commonly used at large conferences, multilingual panels, and live broadcasts.
Attendees hear the translated speech in real-time—either through headsets or streaming tools—while the speaker continues without interruption.
Pros:
Cons:
With consecutive interpretation, the speaker pauses after every sentence or two, allowing the interpreter to repeat what was said in another language.
It’s often used in smaller meetings, interviews, or legal settings where accuracy is critical.
Pros:
Cons:
Traditionally, interpretation services were handled by trained professionals who listened, processed, and translated on the spot. That’s still a popular and effective option, especially for high-stakes or nuanced conversations.
But in recent years, AI interpretation tools have emerged as a powerful alternative.
Live interpreters bring a human touch, cultural nuance, and the ability to read the room. They’re invaluable in sensitive settings or when emotional tone matters just as much as the words.
However, hiring professional interpreters can be expensive and logistically complex, especially for multiple language events. You’ll need to book them ahead of time and sometimes provide travel accommodations.
AI interpretation tools like Wordly provide live translation services in dozens of languages, without the need for headsets, booths, or on-site interpreters.
They’re especially helpful for:
AI tools may not capture every cultural nuance, but they’re rapidly improving and often offer high accuracy for most use cases. Plus, they scale easily, making them great for events with dozens of sessions and languages.
Once you’ve picked the type of interpretation and how it’ll be done, the next step is figuring out how to deliver it to your audience.
Here are a few common methods:
Events may use:
This setup is reliable but can be costly and complicated to manage, especially if your event spans multiple rooms or venues.
With the rise of smartphones, some events now offer interpretation through attendee phones via a dedicated app. Attendees can select their preferred language and listen to real-time audio translation right from their device.
For online and hybrid events, interpretation can be built right into the platform. Attendees select their language from a dropdown, and the translated audio or captions stream alongside the presentation.
Platforms like Zoom have added support for interpretation channels, and companies like Wordly integrate directly with platforms to make setup easy.
The image below shows five different ways attendees can access live interpretation services.
Not all events are the same, so choosing the right interpretation setup depends on several factors:
Small in-person meetings might be fine with consecutive interpretation or a single interpreter. Larger conferences or webinars usually benefit more from AI simultaneous interpretation options.
The more languages you need, the more complex and expensive things can get with human interpreters. AI tools scale better and support multiple languages at once.
Hiring a team of interpreters, setting up booths, and renting headsets can cost thousands. AI tools tend to be more affordable and predictable when it comes to pricing.
Do you have AV staff to manage the interpretation equipment? Or would it be easier to use a plug-and-play solution that works across devices? This can help you decide which route to take.
If your content is highly emotional, legal, or complex, a human interpreter might be a good option. But if your goal is accessibility, general understanding, or multilingual inclusion, AI solutions usually do the trick.
Remote events have changed the game when it comes to interpretation. What used to be limited to booths and headsets can now happen entirely online, across time zones, with a fraction of the setup.
Many virtual event platforms allow you to:
Tools like Wordly let you deliver real-time interpretation without hiring interpreters or shipping hardware. It’s all browser-based, and attendees just click a link, choose their language, and follow along.
This kind of scalability is especially helpful if you’re running multiple sessions, have a rotating speaker lineup, or want to keep things flexible.
If you’ve never added interpretation to an event before, here’s what you can expect:
Interpretation services are no longer just a “nice to have” feature—they’re a must-have for reaching wider audiences, fostering inclusion, and hosting globally friendly events.
Whether you go the traditional route with live interpreters or take advantage of flexible, affordable AI tools like Wordly, the most important thing is that your message is heard—and understood—by everyone in the room.
If you’re just getting started, don’t stress. You don’t need a massive budget or a whole AV team to offer interpretation. With the right setup, even first-timers can pull it off smoothly.
Need help choosing a solution or curious about how AI interpretation works? Schedule a personalized demo with Wordly and see how easy it is to make your next event multilingual.
