HOTEL OPERATORS

Simultaneous translation available through Conference Language Services, delivered in cooperation with your hotel's Audio-Visual Department, is a valuable product your Conference Sales Office and Audio-Visual Department can offer to their clients. Simultaneous translation is a profitable part of your conference service package because it comes with industry discounts. There are two ways in which hotel audio-visual departments increase their revenue when they offer Conference Language Services to their conference clients.

1. By obtaining interpreting services at an industry discount and reselling them to their clients at a markup.

2. By referring conference organizers to Conference Language Services and receiving a percentage of resulting sales.

Our equipment rates are slightly below the industry average, while the quality of our interpreters is considerably higher. We will be glad to use our quarter of a century of experience to help you decide what language services your client needs for the conference at hand and to prepare a free estimate of their cost.

It is best not to wait until a client requests conference interpreting to begin looking around, but to establish a relationship with Conference Language Services in advance. This will help you aggressively market a conference package that includes language services, and enjoy the peace of mind that comes from knowing that you are prepared.

We provide simultaneous interpretation in all languages. Interpreter, technician, and equipment rates vary substantially depending on the length of the conference, languages involved, etc., and cannot be accurately quoted in general terms. We prepare an estimate for each individual job.

Our main claim to fame is the outstanding quality of our interpreters. Since what determines the ultimate value of our product is the caliber of the person in the booth, for years we have dedicated our energy to finding the most talented interpreters and honing their skills. Years ago we pioneered several techniques that are only now finding their way into the mainstream of our industry: audience attention management, interpreter acting and writing skills, etc.

In a nutshell: Our equipment is the same, our translators are better.

Conference Language Services has been widely known in the industry for the past 27 years as a provider of language support. We supply state of the art infrared and induction loop equipment with very high attention to quality control and monitoring. The equipment is installed and operated by highly trained personnel with years of experience in the field. All language specialists used are professional conference interpreters, either U.S. State Department certified or in possession of higher levels of credentials.

If you may be interested in providing conference interpreting to your clients in the future, please call us to introduce yourself. Our philosophy is: let's get acquainted now so we are prepared for the future.

If you have questions or want to order services, call (773) 764-3224 or e-mail to mwaserman@aol.com.

HOW TO START

Conference Language Services, an elite translation service headquartered in
Chicago, has developed an equipment/interpreter conference package
specifically designed to be marketed through hotels. Booths, headsets and
interpreters are not among equipment traditionally offered to conference
organizers by hotels. This represents a lost sales opportunity, since the
client comes to the hotel to book a room well in advance of the conference.
At that time he has not yet made a choice of language service provider, and
is open to suggestions. Not offering him language services then and there
results in lost sales, because, by the time the client makes contact with the
hotel again, much time has elapsed and by then the client has usually
committed him or herself to an outside translation company and to an
equipment supplier.

Conference organizers usually book the venue in advance, not infrequently as
early as two years before the event. At this point the client usually makes
no contact with the Audiovisual department. Therefore, even if the latter has
language services on its list of services and products (which often is not
the case), it would still not have the opportunity to show them to the client
until the client came back to the hotel shortly before the conference to
finalize details and meet with the Audio-visual department representative. At
this point, however, it is too late. Most clients by then have already
committed to a provider of language services which probably costs them at
least as much and is likely to provide a lower quality service than
Conference Language Services is capable of. Thus it is both convenient and
beneficial for the conference organizer to purchase their language services
from the hotel.

In order to achieve this, two easy things have to happen:

1. The booking department must have the following standard question included
in the forms they fill out when taking an order:
Is this an international conference?
If the answer is yes, they can put the client in touch with the hotel's
Audio-visual department by giving the client the name and telephone number of
the appropriate A/V director and by supplying the client's telephone number
to the A/V director in question.

2. The Audio-visual Department should have language services included in
their list of services.

A frequently asked question:

Why do language services have to be ordered so far in advance, before
catering and all other services?

The answer is dual:

A. Interpreters work free-lance, and the top-level language specialists
Conference Language Services uses get booked substantially ahead of time. By
the time the client is ready to order, the top people may no longer be
available for the necessary dates. In addition, there are only so many local
interpreters in each city. We attempt to staff conferences, to the extent
possible without compromising quality, with local interpreters, to save the
client the cost of interpreter airfares, accommodations, and per diem.

B. The time of booking the conference room is often the last chance the hotel
will ever get to sell language services. By the time the client returns to
the venue, it is often too late as they have already retained language
services elsewhere.