ZURICH, Switzerland — Multilingual event technology company Interprefy was founded in 2014 to help solve a very specific practical challenge trade shows were experiencing at the time — delivering multilingual interpretation at events and trade shows in a flexible and scaled way. Events relied heavily on on-site interpreters, physical interpretation booths and dedicated hardware, which made it difficult to provide language access at large events.
Interprefy addressed this problem by introducing a remote simultaneous interpretation platform that allows interpreters to work offsite, giving organizers a larger interpreter pool to choose from and attendees the convenience of accessing interpretation on their own devices.
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“For event organizers, this reduced complexity opened up new possibilities for supporting multilingual audiences without redesigning the event floor or adding significant and, in most cases, highly-expensive infrastructure,” Interprefy’s CEO Oddmund Braaten said.
Industry Changes Lead to Language Support Evolution
As the needs of the trade show industry changed, so did Interprefy’s solutions. In response to shows becoming increasingly global, as well as hybrid, Interprefy expanded its solution offerings. Now, the company also offers secure AI speech translation and AI-powered live captions in more than 60 languages.
Interprefy allows event organizers to apply multilingual technology across events of any size and language mix through the tool’s real-time audio translation and live captions. This allows shows to deliver multilingual content to audiences at sessions happening in real time. As a result, attendees —whether they’re onsite or remote — can access translation services from a show’s main stages, breakout sessions, education tracks and virtual components.
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“Organizers increasingly wanted to make more sessions accessible to multilingual audiences, but not every session requires professional interpreters. Smaller sessions, breakout rooms or secondary stages often couldn’t justify the cost or logistics of human interpretation, even though there was clear demand for language access,” Braaten said. “AI made it possible to extend multilingual access at scale. It allows organizers to offer more languages, reach international audiences more efficiently and support multilingual participation across a wider portion of the event program.”
In addition, Interprefy can be customized to the language of a specific show, ensuring translations are as accurate as possible.
“Interprefy AI’s Custom Vocabulary is used to improve accuracy in trade show environments,” Braaten added. “By training the AI on event-specific terminology — such as product names, brand names and industry acronyms — organizers can ensure that translated content reflects the language used on the show floor.”
Fostering Meaningful Connections
Interprefy also gives exhibitors the opportunity to communicate with a broader audience, facilitating meaningful connections with potential customers.
“When product presentations, demonstrations and theatre sessions are easier to understand, conversations on the show floor become more effective,” Braaten said. “This helps exhibitors engage with international visitors and maximize the value of their participation.”
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