Not Really Localization

What do you know about interpreters? It's not the same as localization; not even the same as translation.

I've had clients ask me to help them source interpreting projects, but it's a different kettle of koi. Some observations:

1. Unless you've got idle resources at your beck and call, this is not something to be cobbled together at 4:30 on the afternoon before you need interpreting.
2. As in translation, there are fields of expertise. An interpreter well versed in legal proceedings may not be the best candidate to interpret technical discussions at a life sciences conference.
3. Interpreters appreciate - and do much better with - any subject materials you can offer, preferably in both source and target languages. Brochures, datasheets, documentation, terminology lists, Web pages and similar publications help set the interpreter's brain in the direction needed to do the best job.
   
4. Interpreting is exhausting. (Try it sometime.) These people conk out after 30-45 minutes and need a break. They often travel in pairs for this reason, to spell each other.
5. Simultaneous interpreting is different from sequential interpreting. An example of the former is what goes on at the U.N, usually with headphones and isolation booths. If you don't have that kind of infrastructure, you're probably faced with sequential interpreting, in which a bilateral meeting becomes a trilateral one, as the interpreters become a third party to the meeting, slowing things down to interpret everything in both directions.
   
6. A good translator does not necessarily a good interpreter make. Don't assume you have the latter because you have the former.
   
7. Nobody can believe it's as expensive as it is.