For many of us, mastering muting, unmuting and other basics of virtual work and schooling has proved to be more than enough of a challenge on top of everything else this past year. But not for St. Louisan Susanne Evens.
鈥淚鈥檝e been working remotely for 20 years,鈥� Evens, the founder and CEO of AAA Translation, explained to St. Louis on the Air. 鈥淲e were well prepared in that way.鈥�
She and her team of translators around the world have been busy in recent months tackling a different challenge: how to make large-scale international gatherings possible, and still understandable, in a virtual age. The COVID-19 crisis has had a dramatic effect on conferences, especially the sort of large-scale events during which interpreters have historically played a critical role.
In partnership with tech company ProLingo, AAA Translation has developed an app that makes live translation doable during virtual, multilingual gatherings: .
On Wednesday鈥檚 show, Evens joined host Sarah Fenske to talk about this innovation and other important work she and fellow translators have been doing during the pandemic.
Pre-COVID-19, Evens鈥� translators were accustomed to flying around the country and the world to assist with conferences.
鈥淲ith the pandemic, everything came to a screeching halt. 鈥� The global conference industry alone is a $235 billion industry, and St. Louis alone took a $5 million hit in events and conferences,鈥� Evens said.
AAA Translation was already accustomed to working with ProLingo on various technical fronts in recent years, and the COVID-19 crisis prompted the two companies to team up on a virtual solution.
鈥淲e鈥檙e good in the translation field, and they are the techies, so we formed a partnership where we are going to conquer the world, hopefully,鈥� Evens said.
She explained that users can access the tool as they would any other app by downloading it to a smartphone.
鈥淓very event has a special code that you have to put in, and off you go,鈥� Evens said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 very simple, very easy, very secure.鈥�
As a conference session proceeds, attendees using the app will hear live interpretation in their language.
鈥淲e鈥檝e done over 200 events [already], and it all was very seamless,鈥� Evens said.
鈥�鈥� brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is hosted by and produced by , , and . The audio engineer is .
