BP Interpreting Days :: Session Selection Survey

Consecutive interpreters often face the challenge of processing large amounts of information while maintaining accuracy, clarity, and coherence. This presentation introduces a practical three-step framework: Listen, Structure, and Deliver. Participants will explore techniques for identifying key ideas, organizing information under pressure, and producing clear, accurate interpretations without becoming overwhelmed by details.

This presentation is based on a lawyer-linguist's experience of interpreting for out of the box clients: business interpreting for nuns selling a convent and other properties and then for members of a cult accused of offences of modern slavery, forced marriage and people trafficking further to a police raid! The session will focus on how to handle jobs like these ones where interpreters may be way out of their comfort zones when entering worlds which are largely closed to others.

This workshop will be led by a lawyer-linguist who has 24 years interpreting experience under her belt. We will consider the reasons why many of us feel that our profession is constantly being undermined in terms of lack of status and a seat at the table with other professionals such as lawyers and doctors. How we can earn more respect and proper financial recognition is up to us to work out and at this workshop we will trade suggestions to help put us in the driving seat.

In an unregulated profession, how can clients recognise genuine expertise and how can interpreters make their skills visible? Italy’s UNI 11591:2022 turns knowledge, abilities, autonomy and responsibility into assessable requirements. This session explores how certification works, what it can add to professional positioning and where its limits lie, asking whether a shared framework can strengthen trust and give interpreters a stronger voice in a changing market.

Interpreting in the legal sector means dealing with a different set of clients, scenarios, and expectations. This hands-on workshop is built for interpreters active in other areas of specialisation who want to add legal interpreting to their practice: overcoming objections when negotiating with law firms, the do's and don'ts of working with legal clients, the main scenarios you'll encounter and who's in the room, plus specific techniques and terminology to do an outstanding job.

Working exclusively with direct clients is not a privilege reserved for the most established interpreters, it is a deliberate strategic choice available to anyone willing to build the right system. This session walks you through how to map a niche, identify and approach direct clients, structure your follow-up without being pushy, and build a referral network that works quietly in the background. Practical methodology, no fluff, applicable from day one.

Your website doesn't need a complete redesign to become more visible. This session shares practical, easy-to-implement steps that can help interpreters improve their online presence in both traditional search engines and AI-powered search. From keywords, page titles, and service descriptions to structured content and local visibility, participants will leave with a checklist of concrete improvements they can apply to their own websites to make it easier for potential clients to find them.

Wedding interpreting is one of the most emotionally demanding and financially rewarding niches in our profession and one of the least known. This session covers everything you need to enter or strengthen this specialisation: how a ceremony differs from a conference structurally and emotionally, what couples and planners actually need from you, how to price and package your services, and what to prepare before the day. Practical, niche, and immediately applicable.

Procesas información a velocidad de la luz, absorbes terminología en tiempo récord, estructuras discursos y te mantienes tú alerta y la adrenalina, a raya. Esas son habilidades increíbles cuyo valor se diluye a ojos de la intérpretes porque ya las hemos automatizado. Por esa propiedad intelectual invisible para ti otros pagarían mucho. En esta charla veremos cómo cartografiar tu experiencia en cabina para hallar tu tesoro latente personal y ponerlo a rentar en paralelo a tus congresos.

What happens when you are hired for a (really) long-term assignment involving highly technical content, three shifts (yes, nights too!), ten interpreters at once on site in noisy, extreme environments, formal *and* heavy duty outfits, and PPEs? How can interpreters manage it all, learn the lingos, know the people and dynamics, work all the way to a happy client and balance their work-private life while keeping all their other clients' needs met as well? The good news is... It could work!

Knowing how to do long consec and what your opinion on the latest AI tool is a big deal today. But so is knowing how to handle the awkward client, the impossible request, the LinkedIn pile-on or the colleague who you think has crossed a line. Rarely taught, these moments often define our reputation just as much as our interpreting. So let's face these questions together and talk about the choices that help build the kind of reputation that clients trust and colleagues respect.

Sports law interpreting mixes two worlds: legal precision and sports jargon. One assignment can take you from a court hearing to a press conference. The register shifts fast, and so does the vocabulary.
We will explore practical do's and don'ts for freelancers working in arbitration cases, disciplinary panels, and contract negotiations. We'll cover terminology prep across bodies like FIFA and CAS, plus tips on confidentiality, conflicts of interest, and pricing this niche.

In the world of diplomatic interpreting, knowing how to interpret is only the beginning. If you want to survive – and thrive – not just among interpreters, but alongside seasoned diplomats and civil servants alike, success also depends on your ability to read the room and navigate protocol, cultural nuance and unwritten rules that shape every interaction. Want to know more? This will be a safe space to tackle real-life cases and reflect on the challenges interpreters face in sensitive settings.

Cognitive overload is not a sign of weakness — it is an occupational condition every interpreter faces, regardless of experience. Drawing on fifteen years in the field and what the research actually says about working memory and fatigue, this session offers a practical framework for recognising overload early, managing it in real time, and building routines that protect your performance over the long term. Honest, research-informed, and immediately usable.

Interpreting for people with speech difficulties can be technically and emotionally challenging. Drawing on practical experience with patients with acquired brain injuries, this presentation offers strategies for facilitating communication in medical and legal settings. It covers preparation, communication aids, visual supports, structured questioning and non-verbal communication, while addressing ethical boundaries, managing expectations and interpreter self-care in complex interactions.

There is an assumption by many clients and professionals that interpreters are also cultural brokers - somehow we should not only be expert linguists but should also be able to explain all and any cultural references and nuances that may crop up in an interpreting session
This despite the fact that most of us haven't had any training in this area and may be familiar with the client's culture to a greater or even lesser extent. We may help or harm our clients if we act as their culture broker.

The AI Reality Check - Honest assessment of AI capabilities and limitations / The Human Advantage – Interpreters irreplaceable value propositions / Strategic Positioning - Business strategies for thriving alongside AI / Future-Ready Skills - Professional development roadmap 2026-2030 / Current Landscape - The 2026 reality of AI capabilities

Assignments rarely come with unlimited time, perfect briefing material and complete background information. Every interpreter prepares. The question is, can you do it better, and get more out of it? This session is a pitch for a more holistic approach, with very little AI. Shocking? I know it. Especially in this day and age. But it’s the mindset that matters. So we’ll talk anticipation, the bigger picture, and making sure judgement – that ultimately makes all the difference – never fails you.

Drawing on a real courtroom interpreting event in Portugal, this presentation offers an insider’s approach to court interpreting through Dell Hymes’ S.P.E.A.K.I.N.G. model. By dissecting a concrete case, the session highlights practical insights and training needs for interpreters who act as genuine language experts in the courtroom.

Managing multiple working languages in real-time interpreting requires far more than passive fluency; it demands exceptional cognitive control, active language suppression, and rapid-fire mental agility. This interactive workshop explores the inner workings of the polyglot brain through the lens of cognitive load theory and inhibitory control. Designed for practicing interpreters, language professionals, and researchers, the session moves beyond theory into immediate, hands-on practice.

Interpreters in sensitive settings often encounter concepts that lack a satisfactory equivalent or where direct translation fails to achieve the intended communicative effect. Rather than viewing these as purely linguistic challenges, this presentation explores them as ethical dilemmas. Drawing on interpreting theory, ethics, and real-life case studies, we propose a practical framework to help interpreters decide what to prioritise when ethical duties point in different directions.

Whether you hate them or love them, you cannot do consecutive interpreting without symbols. But how to take notes most effectively? How to develop (language-neutral) symbols that are easy to remember and decipher? And how to train your memory to deliver high-quality consecutive interpretation? My workshop will answer these questions and help you to develop and/or refresh your note-taking technique. Let’s dive together in the fascinating world of lost symbols!

Your inbox is full, your pipeline is a mess, you're losing pieces here and there and admin is eating your billable hours. This workshop shows you how to build a practical Notion workspace, from email workflow, to daily to-do, project database, client CRM, and calendar, and how to connect it all with Claude AI and Notion automations. No tech background needed. You will leave with a working system you can implement immediately and finally spend your time interpreting, not managing.

The legal sector is particular, with its own codes and unwritten rules. In this session, we'll explore how to get your foot in a law firm's door: who to target in your initial outreach, the main objections law firms raise when considering a new provider, and how to position yourself as an authority in the field. A practical session: we'll work through real objections together and gather answers you can put to use right away.