Abbott Vascular

The Challenge

Abbott is a leading health care company with scientific expertise that brings new products to market. A need existed to bring their international sales team from Latin America to a three day new product development training conference at Abbott Vascular’s headquarters in Santa Clara, California. Translation by Design was asked to provide simultaneous interpreters in Portuguese and Spanish and the necessary conference equipment. An onsite visit yielded unanticipated problems; i.e., the conference room was too small to accommodate the necessary soundproof interpreting booths.

In the simultaneous interpretation business, one must always expect the unexpected. For example, at the last minute, one of the sales managers added a whole new topic about his product. The interpreters did not expect this. Remaining calm and flexible while using creative problem solving and good judgment helped our interpreters’ teams succeed and excel in their challenging role.

The Solution

With close communication, we set up two table-top booths in the back of the conference room requiring less space. We secured two simultaneous interpreters for each language which is required for such technically demanding assignments. Each worked 20 minutes on task and 20 minutes off. Our team had to thoroughly review all scientific and sales materials in advance and was expected to be familiar with complex medical terminology. They signed legal confidentiality agreements before they entered the building and were escorted from room to room and had to interpret while walking around on a plant manufacturing tour.

The Result

TBD provided a complete turnkey package of simultaneous conference interpreters. Our state of the art interpreting equipment assured smooth communication in all languages simultaneously. Our technician worked with Abbott’s audio visual department to produce the highest quality audio fidelity. In the end, the multi-lingual training evaluations achieved a very high rating. Regional sales managers were eager to go back and train their sales team in order to bring their new products to market.