Meeting the rise in demand
2020 and 2021 saw an unprecedented rise in demand for conference interpretation services. Since travel was largely out of the question, Calliope turned to remote simultaneous interpretation (RSI) to ensure business continuity. Although remote interpretation is second best to having the interpreters on-site, it is a viable option when travel is impossible, impractical or unsustainable, and does offer some unexpected advantages. When the interpreters work online, geography and long distances no longer constitute a hurdle to recruiting the best professionals. Having RSI in our toolkit has not only enabled us to meet the demand, but also to select from a larger pool of interpreters and recruit those professionals whose experience best fits the requirements of any given event from medicine to marketing. When Hazel Cole, our member for Canada, was asked to provide Brazilian Portuguese interpreters with a specialisation in cardiology, the obvious solution was to turn to our Brazilian member, Livia Cais. Thanks to Livia, with her extensive experience of medical meetings, working over Zoom with a team she selected, the presentation given in Canada was relayed seamlessly to the medical practitioners in Brazil.
Innovative technical solutions
Calliope has stayed ahead of the curve from the very beginning of the pandemic; our members have worked as a team to assess all the technical resources available to make RSI as smooth an experience as possible. We are constantly researching the available communication platforms, trying out new ones as soon as they come onto the market and testing online collaboration tools – all for the benefit of our clients. Some developers even turn to Calliope to help introduce a new product. When the platform Run the World was first launched in Argentina, it was our South America member, Veronica Perez-Guarnieri who was asked to coordinate the interpretation service.
Intra-network cooperation for the benefit of our clients
The members of Calliope America support one another on a daily basis. We share knowledge of the interpreters on our local markets and we advise one another on the interpreters with the right profiles for a particular event. If one member is not available, he or she is replaced by another member as leader of an interpretation team, in the full knowledge that the service will be seamless and of the quality the client has come to expect from Calliope. We even have our own Zoom wizard, Livia, who is always available to host calls for our clients and to help us understand the complexities of operating this communication platform.
Calliope America with Pablo Chang-Castillo in the United States, Cristina del Castillo in Mexico and Sharona Wolkowicz in Costa Rica, together with Hazel Cole, Veronica Perez-Guarnieri and Livia Cais, backed up by the entire Calliope network are here to help you with all your interpreting needs. You will find us to be experienced and reliable providers of conference interpretation services, including remote simultaneous interpretation.
