Interprefy | “We managed to show our customers alternatives to physical events”

Magazine:
7th Aug, 2020
Category:
Image:
Body:

Interprefy is a cloud-based remote simultaneous interpretation platform that enables interpreters to work from anywhere in the world and event participants to use a small app on their smartphones. It was born out of the realisation that simultaneous and conference interpreting hasn't changed much since 1945. This led Kim Ludvigsen to founding the company in 2014 in Zurich, Switzerland, with a mission to remove language barriers through the use of technology. Today a team of over 70 with a strong network of partners works remotely in various countries across the world, helping clients to scale their events and access diverse audiences.

HQ interviewed Richard Roocroft, director of global sales at Interprefy.


1) What makes Interprefy special?

As we are pioneers of remote simultaneous interpretation (RSI), aside from upholding the values of Swiss quality and security, our clients largely benefit from our deep knowledge of the interpreting and conferencing industry, and our proven capability of organising and operating large online and hybrid events. We’re the only RSI provider that offers extensive event support both before and during the event.


2) Who are your users?

We’ve helped hundreds of organisations of all shapes and sizes make their events multilingual and engaging, from SMEs to the largest corporations and intergovernmental organisations in the world. With a platform fit for any type and size of event, it’s our mission to make RSI a service available for everybody: SMEs, associations and even NGOs. Anytime, anywhere.


3) How did the pandemic change your business?

Our business was heavily focussed on in-person events, so the pandemic hit us hard in the first quarter of 2020, like it did with the entire events industry. That being said, every cloud has a silver lining. In fact, we were taking events online anyway to power the remote interpretation and nowadays we find the source already online and remote interpreting is the only way to make such events multilingual. Technically speaking, nothing has changed internally, however the pandemic has accelerated our business growth and we have formed many strategic relationships in much shorter periods of time as a result.


4) What main challenges have you faced and how have you overcome those?

When the global lockdown started, our business pretty much broke away overnight because hundreds of planned events got cancelled. But, as the rest of the industry pivoted to online, we managed to show our customers alternatives to physical events and were ready to take their events online with Interprefy Connect PRO or removing language barriers with one of our valued platform partners. Now we’re literally overrun with an unprecedented amount of events.


5) What are your plans for the future?

Interprefy is known to be the international standard for RSI, we‘re continuously building valuable partnerships with online events technology providers and language partners around the globe, as well as extending our own platform feature capabilities. The development roadmap we have is very exciting and there will definitely be some major announcements coming this year.


FOR MORE INFO:
RICHARD.ROOCROFT@INTERPREFY.COM
WWW.INTERPREFY.COM

Photo caption: Richard Roocroft

 

Article included in our summer 2020 edition of Headquarters Magazine (#95)

Other Articles

About Us

Supported by the Union of International Associations (UIA), the International Association of Professional Congress Organisers (IAPCO) and the Interel Group, the global public affairs and association management consultancy, Headquarters Magazines serve the needs of international associations organising worldwide congresses.