Association Internationale des Interprètes de Conférence
With its headquarters in Geneva, this organisation has over 2000 members based in 65 countries. A.I.I.C. interpreters are recognised for their high professional standards and as such they are regularly employed by organisations like the European Union, The European Court of Human Rights, United Nations, The World Bank and many multi-national companies.
Our brief was to help A.I.I.C. to project a modern professional image world-wide and to enhance respect for the highly skilled profession of conference interpreters. It was particularly important to explain to conference organisers and their clients the difference between Interpreters and Translators. We were able to do this by highlighting some famous ‘gaffes’ where an unqualified interpreter had translated a word wrongly thus causing great offence to the audience.
To make the profession of Conference Interpreters better known in the business world, we set up a database marketing programme targeting all important conference venues around the world, using information supplied by A.I.I.C. members.Newsletters which were printed in English/French/German & Spanish were sent out to this key database and were also available for members to mail locally. Wherever possible mailings were personalised so the local A.I.I.C. member was given as the point of contact to receive the response.
Our brief also covered writing internal communications because many members felt cut off from the HQ in Switzerland. As part of our strategy to bring HQ closer to the members, we developed ‘Welcome Kits’ for new members containing aids for advertising and marketing their services.
Euro Strategies also developed information packs for members covering topics like how to handle enquiries from the media with examples of questions and suggested answers.
As a result of these efforts, A.I.I.C. achieved its objectives of raising awareness of the profession of Conference Interpreters and helping to build closer relationships with its world-wide membership.