Multi-language OS help

[Betty Didcoct]

I am preparing to do an OS for about 200 - 250 people in Belgium at the end
of April. It will be the second OS I have led as part of the 7 days
conference (this year we have 4-5 one and 1/2 hr sessions and some free
time for OS in the middle) for this international membership organization
of healing practitioners and teachers.

We will have about 7-8 languages with no one dominant, and many people
speaking only their own language. Everyone will have head-sets for
translation of my introduction. Each person will present their contribution
to OS in their own language which will be translated (through 2 and
sometimes 3 translations to get it to all the participants!) Then no formal
translation will be available for the individual OS sessions.

As last year, each sheet will have a number as well as their title and
brief description. People in the audience will make notes, using the
numbers of the discussions they are interested in signing up for if they
cannot read the sheet.

When attending a session, each person will have to find their own
translators if the  session is in a language they do not understand.
(everyone has name tags marked with the languages they speak well enough to
help.)

Taking this self-responsibility was only moderately successful last year
because everyone wanted to participate and it was tricky to find someone
willing to give up their own session of interest to go to another group to
translate for someone. It worked OK because last year English was a
predominant language. This year we do not have that advantage.

So questions #1 is --
Any suggestions how the translation issue could be improved?

We will have a communications wall on which each group will post the notes
from their sessions. (Hopefully we will have a good area that is inviting
for convening, reading, and conversation. So far I don't have an adequate
sense of the site from the site chair.) We are lining up volunteer
translators to help translate the postings. At this point, I am thinking
they will just post their translations near, under, or over the original.
We only have access to a few laptops, so that cannot be the main
communication tool (although we do hope to have results of the sessions go
back to the office and possibly made into a proceedings booklet later.)
Brief synopsis' will be in the newsletter.

The group does not have a task/project to do together or any major
decisions to make (as they have in the past) so we expect the topics in the
sessions to be all over the map, as far as content goes. The theme is very
general and will not narrow the focus of their topics.

Questions #2
Any thoughts about how to better share the rich contributions in the
sessions with the whole group?

I have been learning lots by reading the postings here, have contributed
only a few times (I seem to have trips away from home scheduled when the
discussions really take off and I come home to a bizillion messages which
overwhelm me for participation, but they make for rich bedtime reading!)

Thanks for any suggestions you can give.

-Betty

_________________________________________________________________
 Betty Didcoct              TIES Consulting
   betty at ic.org               Building TIES between people to
   phone:   208-682-3550      facilitate better meetings &
   fax:     603-687-4698      healthier organizations
__________________________________________________________________