Trainer: Laura Vaughn Holcomb
Event title: Sound Simplified: solutions for online sound issues
Date and Time : Saturday, August 29, noon-14:30 EDT,
Participants: max. 50
Course fee: AIIC members and candidates: 60 CHF / Non-AIIC members: 70 CHF
Location: Online (Zoom)
Registration deadline: Wednesday, August 26, 2026
Register here
Description:
This workshop invites participants to reflect on our professional reality, ie, that we can’t interpret what we don’t hear. This means that when it comes to interpreting, hearing what’s said is the base of the pyramid. Step one. A precondition. A sine qua non.
Yet here we are, years later, now using online platforms to try and perform a very complex activity (interpreting from one language to another in real time), and facing the same essential conundrum: we can’t hear what’s being said. Or can we? Sometimes we can and sometimes we can’t? Like, we hear most of it and fill in the blanks, or stop interpreting, or don’t know what to do, or realize it too late.
In this workshop, the trainer will help participants strategize and troubleshoot around all things online sound by:
• Having them listen to different types of sound and explore what they personally like and dislike/can and can’t work with;
• Helping them understand which types of devices produce which types of sound;
• Teaching them to identify, diagnose and troubleshoot sound problems, and devising strategies for preventing bad sound in the first place;
• Sharing ways to effectively communicate with clients, techs and colleagues about sound;
• Reviewing their own practices regarding the sound they themselves are producing online;
• Discussing what to do in the moment when they are interpreting and the sound is just not great.
Most of the workshop will be grounded in the private market, when working with direct clients via Zoom, but much of what will be discussed, if cleverly adapted, can also be useful in institutional settings, for agency clients, or when working via other interpreting-enabled online platforms.
Targeted audience:
Interpreters who wish to become an authority on their own online sound experience and develop some agency in this regard.
Trainer’s Biography:
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After earning her Master in Conference Interpreting from Glendon College in 2015 (EN A-ES B-PT C), Laura Vaughn Holcomb returned as adjunct professor of the MCI’s healthcare interpreting practicum while also training for the interpret 2B program in Brazil. Laura went on to co-found Seven Sisters, designing and leading conference, healthcare and tech-focused workshops for interpreters and trainers. Since 2016, she and Lauren Michaels have run co>lab, an annual, week-long conference interpreting practice intensive held in Toronto and Mexico City. Laura is also a member of the AIIC Science Hub’s Technical Workstream.
Alongside her training activities, Laura is a practitioner and business owner, directing String & Can Multilingual, where she partners with organizations to support meaningful communication via interpreting, translation, subtitling and event production services that focus on great tech, creativity, inclusivity, aesthetics, and care. Although originally from the US South, Laura has spent much of her adult life in the broader Americas and currently resides in Guatemala. |