As a Flemish government agency that is strategy and knowledge-driven, VISITFLANDERS is committed to the sustainable development and promotion of Flanders as a top tourist destination. Their goal is to use tourism to help Flanders flourish as a destination for their residents, entrepreneurs, and for their visitors. 

Akamai powers and protects life online. Leading companies worldwide choose Akamai to build, deliver, and secure their digital experiences — helping billions of people live, work, and play every day. Akamai Connected Cloud, a massively distributed edge and cloud platform, puts apps and experiences closer to users and keeps threats farther away.

Event Tech Live (ETL) is the only event portfolio dedicated to event technology. ETL's mission is to connect global event professionals with the latest advances in Event Tech, championing thought leadership and bringing together the community 365 days per year. ETL has been running in-person, virtual, and hybrid events to connect industry professionals to new technologies for over 10 years. 

Between the 12th and 15th of February 2023, the World Government Summit convened at the Madinat Jumeriah, Dubai, to explore the topic of "Shaping Future Governments." Distinguished thinkers, prominent experts, and influential decision-makers from across the world came together to exchange ideas and collaborate on devising critical tools, policies, and models necessary for shaping governments of the future.  

Giggabox is a global event production agency creating and organising corporate events, conferences, and professional events on a global scale. At COP27, they facilitated the Resilience Hub events for their client, Global Resilience Partnership.

BDO is an international network of public accounting, tax, consulting and business advisory firms that provide professional services under the name BDO. It is the fifth-largest accounting network in the world. 

The International Seabed Authority (ISA) is an autonomous international organization made up of 167 Member States, and the European Union. It is mandated under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) to organise, regulate and control all mineral-related activities in the international seabed area for the benefit of mankind as a whole.

Overview

The 2022 Women in the Law of the Sea Conference celebrated the 40th anniversary the adoption of UNCLOS in New York in September. The three-day conference took place in a hybrid format and gathered over 330 participants who joined either from the Permanent Mission of Singapore, the United Nations headquarters in New York or remotely. Structured around nine panels, the Conference was the opportunity to hear from leaders and experts in ocean governance and the law of the sea. 

For this event, like in over 30 other in-person, hybrid and virtual events since 2019, ISA turned to Interprefy to enable remote simultaneous interpretation.

The Challenge

A venue without the technical setup 

Because the Conference happened during a high-level week in New York, ISA had venue issues which meant a new venue had to be found last minute for the first day of the event.  The available venue, however, happened to lack any technical setup. 

Though accustomed to working together, ISA and Interprefy found themselves just a few days away from the start of the event with an added challenge to resolve: the lack of even internet connection at the event venue.

The Approach

Leveraging an international network of professional AV providers

ISA informed Interprefy about the lack of technology resources at the venue and the Interprefy Team jumped on board to help solve the situation. At that point, it was a matter of either finding the technological setup and enabling an internet connection or calling the event off. 

The Interprefy Team searched among their trusted network of audiovisual providers in the area and secured the assistance of Mainline AV International. 

A technician from Mainline AV International travelled to the event venue on the same day of the event and took care of everything in-person.

Photo Credit: International Seabed Authority. A camera was set up at the front of the room to capture the delegates (photo above) and another one at the back of the room to film the speakers and presentation (photo below). The technician sourced by Interprefy ensured that the feeds remained stable and of the highest quality at all times so that the remote interpreters, remote attendees, and in-person attendees could follow seamlessly. 

The Outcome

The AV team sourced by Interprefy managed all the cabling, the cameras, the internet and the remote simultaneous interpretation set-up onsite and ensured the event could take place.

Additionally, having an Interprefy partner already trained in the ins and outs of remote simultaneous interpretation on-site meant that the interpretation streams were easily set up and the in-person and remote attendees could follow the Conference successfully in the language of their choice. 

Thanks to the Interprefy Team who did their magic and provided us with literally everything, from the internet access, to equipment, to the person to support us on-site, sort of last minute, we could run the Conference successfully.- Katharina Serrano, Programme Management Officer at ISA

The Congress Rental Network (CRN) is a worldwide network of industry-leading AV companies, all equipped with the latest Bosch Congress equipment for hire, that caters for any event where audiovisual equipment and support personnel are required.

The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) is the global organisation of national parliaments. Its origins date back to 1889 when it set up as the first multilateral political organization in the world, encouraging cooperation and dialogue between all nations. IPU helps build strong parliaments and defends human rights, peacebuilding, sustainability and gender equality.  

178 Members and 14 Associate Members got to meet in person again in Indonesia for the 144th Assembly of the IPU. Delegates discussed and initiated parliamentary action to address the climate emergency that affects our planet. 

Herbalife Nutrition organises many events for its distributors across the globe every year. The events typically last multiple days and include a range of presentations, team activities and live shows. For their Barcelona event in 2022, the event featured speakers in 24 languages and an audience of over 18,000 who attended the event in person. The company aimed to provide live interpretation in 27 languages. To achieve this, Herbalife required strong partners pulling together.