Barcelona became an exclusive automotive showcase for a day with over 2.000 delegates

An ambitious international event: 40 interpreters in streaming in 8 languages

Executive summary

We were approached by a sophisticated profile luxury automobile brand that wanted support in maintaining its leading edge. We knew we’d have to deliver our very best to this top-ranking company that defines itself by its progressive approach to both product design and marketing, earning an annual EUR 60 billion doing it. Its wide range of automobiles are celebrated for their quality, and for keeping up with the times in their design, while maintaining some classic features that never go out of style. The company is among those that are paving the way to automated driving, and they wanted to offer an exclusive event dedicated to presenting their latest innovations in this area. When they approached us to manage the event’s linguistic services, requiring 40 interpreters in 10 languages, we got ready to deliver our very best.

Challenges

The client wanted to ‘create’ a new type of event, the first of its kind… It was a totally fresh concept for them and for the suppliers involved, including CPSL, and we had to fully understand the client’s vision. We also had to understand the requirements in terms of planning, setup and technical equipment, and given the scale of the event, this presented a huge challenge.

The interpreters themselves had a special set of challenges to deal with. The whole event had to be organized within tight time constraints. Although CPSL strongly emphasized the importance of sharing reference materials as early as possible, the information was still arriving the night before the event at 11pm. The interpreters were also required to work very long hours for the event – they all had a half day for briefing and most of them worked the day of the event from 8:30 to 00:00. Of course, it was also essential to respect budgetary limitations, and such a large team of people required close control by excellent management. The event required a massive effort from all involved, as well as great collaboration and fluent communication.

How CPSL helped?

Fortunately, there was an excellent relationship with the event organizers chosen by the client, and we were able to achieve success. In addition, our team of interpreters was extremely professional and able to adapt to last minute changes. One of CPSL’s strengths is its vendor management, and this was crucial to the success of the event. We have a large database of interpreters, and this allowed us to select those with the right language skills and experience in the automotive industry. Most of the interpreters were recruited from Barcelona or Madrid (some came from abroad for Chinese, Japanese and Korean), which helped us to remain within budget.

CPSL’s own experience with automotive events was also key – it allowed us to ask the right questions to the client and thus understand their vision for the event. It also helped us to understand the required setup and equipment.

Given the number of interpreters needed for the event, we sent two of our own people to organize the team and be close to the client and respond to their needs at all times. We prepared a detailed planning for each interpreter and a global one for the CPSL team to know exactly where each interpreter had to be at every moment. We managed to achieve seamless organization and flawless interpretation.

Results, Return on Investment and Future Plans

The efforts paid off. Thanks to CPSL work in the area of interpreting management, the client achieved a first-class brand reputation. For the client, the event became an exclusive new brand platform, especially focused on presenting cars with artificial intelligence and showing how this will change the very concept of driving. The exclusivity was a key aspect of the event, making each guest feel very special to be included.