01/THE CLIENT

The Spanish Association Against Cancer (AECC) works to educate in health, support and accompany cancer patients and their families, as well as to finance research projects that will allow better diagnosis and treatment of cancer. It is a non-profit organization formed by patients, relatives, volunteers, collaborators and professionals and takes action throughout Spain. They lead the effort of Spanish society to reduce the impact caused by cancer and improve people’s lives.

02/THE CHALLENGE

The AECC must address different communication challenges in Spanish, as well as translation and interpretation into other languages to carry out certain projects and actions within the framework of the wealth and diversity of activities they organise each year. The importance of the service provided by the association together with the visibility they want to achieve in order to reach patients and family members motivates them to carry out actions of a very diverse nature and scope. Given their strong digital reputation and social impact, the work has to be addressed from the point of view of linguistic consulting, specialised translation services and professional interpreting for events. In particular, one of the projects that has posed the greatest challenge was its “1st CROSS-BORDER CONGRESS OF PEOPLE WITH CANCER AND FAMILIES”, which has been held in times of pandemic, with all its implications in terms of organization by all parties involved. In this regard, our task was to cover the event with the best interpretation of conferences and to provide the technical means for servicing the plenary sessions and simultaneous workshops that were held during the Congress, for two days. The event was attended by health professionals, public officials related to the association, patients and family members. To this end, presentations and face-to-face workshops were combined with remote ones, but also different media were used, such as videos, presentations and other formats. The event was broadcast in streaming, a service provided by a specialized producer, and through a specific platform developed by another technological partner.

03/THE SOLUTION

In order to provide them with the most appropriate solution, the important thing in this case was the organizational challenge that involved having several presentations and workshops held simultaneously and in streaming format. In order to offer the highest quality, it was decided that the interpreters would work directly with the producer in charge of the streaming service and with the help of the event’s broadcasting platform. This way, being all in the same location, regardless of whether the service could be followed remotely, it was possible to minimize any possible connection, offset or coordination problem. This was quite a challenge for us, but the solution was based on the creation of a team of four professional interpreters, who divided their working times throughout the two days in the most appropriate and productive way. In addition, for the provision of simultaneous interpretation, booths were installed to do impeccable work from all points of view. Since everything took place in COVID19 times, we had the idea and precaution of preparing four individual interpretation booths, fully equipped and ready to use, in order to avoid interactions and reduce contacts. This idea was highly valued by both our client and our team of linguists. Thanks to the integration of all the parties involved in the project, the Congress was held without problems and with a high degree of satisfaction on the part of our end customer. It is not always easy, but, again, it was a challenge far surpassed thanks to teamwork.