When you are at an event and the entire room is singing and dancing along to ATP, you just know you‘ve come to the right place! Last weekend, I attended the 1st Moderators‘ Day in Cologne, and I was completely blown away by the high quality of skill, professionalism, creativity, and performance shown by the organisers and attendees alike. The event, initiated by Kerstin Stromberg, Head of Deutsche Moderatorenakademie , had so many fun and eye-opening experiences and activitie

Remember when I emceed my close friends‘ wedding anniversary? It was the start of a wonderful journey that let me to become an event moderator! As a conference interpreter, I'm experienced in speaking publicly. I learned quite a bit about public speaking when I was at uni. I practised speaking in front of an audience with confidence and ease in consecutive interpreting seminars and developed rhetorical and speech skills with the help of video analysis. I‘m used to speaking to

AI tools can be very helpful and support us in our work. Many things are already possible, but some are not—especially AI Interpreting is not as mature and glitch-free as the Internet claims. We tested the AI language translation tool LiveVoice at the Best of Events trade fair, noticing that AI does not follow a natural flow of speech (which is also true for other automated speech-to-speech translation tools). Interviews or panel discussions are a particular challenge for AI.

Last weekend, the 23rd Annual Members’ Meeting of the VKD Professional Association of Conference Interpreters took place in Fulda. In addition to the official agenda, reports from the executive board and committee members, discussing motions, and electing new board members, the new cohort of the VKD Mentoring Programme was introduced. The aim of the programme is to facilitate young colleagues’ entry into professional life as freelance conference interpreters. To this end, exp

Last week, I attended best of events international in Dortmund, the leading trade fair for the event industry. It was a great opportunity to get an overview of current developments, trends and key topics shaping the sector. I listened to several talks, which once again highlighted just how quickly the industry is evolving and offered valuable food for thought for my own work. The discussion with Nina Cisneros, Ronja Grebe and Annika Matthes on participation and social sustai

It's that time of year again! Here are my TOP 9, featuring interpreting highlights that made this year truly memorable. I always enjoy doing this review, because with everything else happening in my professional and private life, it gives me the chance to reflect on these standout moments of 2025. My interpreting year started with a two-day assignment in the beautifully snow-covered town of Wuppertal , at a conference for painters and decorators. In January still, I had the o

“Context is key“ was one of the things we were taught at university. The principle is as simple as it is logical: if you don’t understand what you’re translating, you cannot provide a logical rendition. And even if a word is incomprehensible because it is pronounced differently or the speaker is mumbling, you can still understand what is meant due to the context! Let me give you an example: many years ago, I had the opportunity to interpret a lecture on different types of dan

If you’re working in the language industry you will probably know that our tools are changing faster than you can say Terminology Extraction. And ever since genAI has burst into our everyday lives like a conference speaker with something to say, one thing has become clear: without training, you won’t survive as a freelancer!  Generative AI is not competition for language professionals. Much rather, it’s a superpower booster! It will help you structure background information i

AI has changed the events and interpreting industry, and until now I have spent most of my time interpreting from the booth. But now we hear more and more about AI solutions that are supposed to reduce costs and be more efficient. During my last assignment at a global team meeting online, it became clear that machine intelligence is not the go-to tool for simultaneous interpreting! In this particular setting, one participant came from Ireland. For years now, we’ve been famili

Last week, I attended the AI in Translation Summit to explore Artifical Intelligence from a professional, ethical and business standpoint, along with 2,500+ language professionals from all over the globe. For 3 days, we learnend and discussed about tools and techniques, mindset and growth, as well as ethics and confidentiality when working with AI. All this input has left me highly inspired and motivated to navigate the exciting developments in Large Language Models and chatb