A conference with simultaneous interpretation needs one booth for each language it is interpreted into, at least two interpreters per booth, and a receiver with headphones for every attendee who does not follow the speaker’s language. That is the general rule in the professional standards of AIIC, the international association of conference interpreters: two per language and per booth, three if a two-way booth also provides relay, and a working day of no more than two sessions of two and a half to three hours. Mobile booths are covered by ISO 17651-2:2024. Those four figures drive the budget, the room plan and the agenda. Anything that does not fit them is solved by adding people, not by asking more of the same team. For an association, agency or brand taking its conference to Argentina or elsewhere in Latin America, they are also the checklist to hand to the local partner.
How many booths: one per output language
You count output languages, not the languages spoken on stage. According to AIIC, the number of booths equals the number of languages interpreted into, with one exception: at a two-language conference a single booth may suffice, because the interpreters work both ways.
An example to make the maths concrete. A conference in Buenos Aires with sessions in English and Spanish, and a Brazilian delegation that needs Portuguese:
- Spanish booth, two-way: renders English into Spanish and, when a speaker talks in Spanish, Spanish into English.
- Portuguese booth: interprets into Portuguese. When the speaker uses a language that booth does not work from, it takes relay from the Spanish booth.
- Result: two booths and three audio channels (English, Spanish and Portuguese) plus the floor sound.
Every extra language means another booth, more interpreters and another channel in the system. That is why languages should be set with the registration list in hand, not just in case.
How many interpreters: two per booth, at minimum
AIIC is plain about it: as a general rule, an interpreter does not work alone in a simultaneous booth. The minimum team is two per language and per booth, and they alternate. The organiser guide from AIIC Greece and Cyprus turns that into an example: an event with four languages needs eight interpreters, two per language, working 30-minute shifts.
There are two cases in which the number goes up:
- Relay from a two-way booth. If a booth works in both directions and also feeds the others, AIIC standards require at least three interpreters in it. In the example above, the Spanish booth would have three.
- Long days. The AIIC table states that the team grows when working hours stretch.
The standards allow fewer interpreters in exceptional cases, provided quality and the interpreters’ health are protected. That is an exception agreed with the team, not a saving decided on a spreadsheet.
The working day: how long a team works and how to shape the agenda
According to AIIC, a team’s working day does not exceed two sessions of between two and a half and three hours each. In practice, that shapes the conference agenda:
- A three-hour morning and a three-hour afternoon, with lunch in between, fits into one day.
- A dinner with speeches after a full day of sessions does not: it is a third session and needs another team or reinforcements.
- Parallel sessions multiply booths and teams. Two rooms with interpretation at the same time are two complete setups.
The other factor is preparation. AIIC Greece and Cyprus asks organisers to send interpreters papers, presentations and background material in the conference languages as early as possible, to name a single contact person for the team, and to keep the team leader informed of any programme change. An interpreter who gets the slides the night before will interpret worse, and not for lack of skill.
Equipment and room: what must be settled before the first test
Simultaneous interpretation is, to a large extent, a sound problem. The room checklist from AIIC Greece and Cyprus is specific:
- Soundproofed booths, one per output language, with silent ventilation and a direct view of the speakers and the room. Mobile booths are covered by ISO 17651-2:2024, which replaced ISO 4043:2016 and covers the design, use and siting of those booths in the room.
- Interpreter consoles, a mixer and a transmission system to the receivers.
- Wireless receivers and headphones for attendees, and microphones for everyone who speaks, including from the floor.
- A test of all equipment before the conference starts, run jointly by the interpreters’ team leader and the sound engineer.
Point 3 is the one most often underestimated. If a delegate asks a question from the floor without a microphone, the booth cannot hear it and the question does not exist for anyone following in another language. At the 5th World Congress of Asturianía in Buenos Aires, which closed with an assembly voting on its conclusions, the conference system combined gooseneck microphones at the speakers’ table with wireless microphones for the floor for exactly that reason: every delegate who takes the floor has to be heard.
If the conference is also streamed, the stream needs one channel per language or, at least, a decision on which language goes on air. What changes between the room and the broadcast is covered in our hybrid event production guide.
Remote interpreters or machine translation?
There are three ways to do it today: interpreters in the room, interpreters working remotely from a hub or from home, and machine translation. The AIIC Greece and Cyprus guide asks organisers to tell the interpreters from the outset if they will work remotely, because it is technically more complex.
On machine translation, a clear signal comes from institutional interpreters themselves. The Interpreting Europe 2026 conference of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Interpretation, held on 26 and 27 November in Brussels under the theme “Human voices, smart technologies”, will display closed captioning and automatic translation in all official EU languages. In other words: the machine comes in as a visible complement, and the debate is how it coexists with the human voice, not how it replaces it.
For a conference, the practical rule is this: plenaries, negotiations and voting assemblies with interpreters; captions or machine translation as support on screens or in lower-risk sessions, always tested beforehand with the real speakers and terminology.
How to set this up from abroad with a local partner in Latin America
An association, agency or brand from Europe, the United States, Canada or Mexico taking its conference to Buenos Aires or another city in the region brings the programme, the speakers and the languages. Everything else is solved on the ground: a room that can take booths with a direct view, the conference system, the receivers, the joint test with the interpreters’ team leader and the coordination of live agenda changes. Whether the interpreting team travels in or is hired locally, the local partner is the one who sets up the room so it can work.
The rest of the process is in how to plan a corporate conference. The technical side, with sound, screens and streaming, is part of our audiovisual coverage. And if you are an agency or association that needs a partner in Argentina or across Latin America for a multilingual event, see how our strategic partnerships work.