Simultaneous interpreting in front of over 3,000 guests in Berlin

On 27 January 2020, we from the Nuremberg specialist translation and simultaneous interpreting agency AP Fachübersetzungen had the particular honour of being invited as guests and simultaneous interpreters for English to the largest BVMW (German Federal Association of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises) annual reception of all time. Every year, this traditional top event for small and medium-sized business owners welcomes over 3,000 representatives of German and international politics, diplomacy, science, economy and culture. On this occasion, we were able to considerably broaden our perspective regarding the latest economic developments in the course of highly interesting speeches, informative contributions and subsequent discussions, besides taking on the highly complex task of interpreting simultaneously into English.

Since it was founded by managing director Alexander Podarewski in 2010, the nationwide active Nuremberg specialist translation and simultaneous interpreting agency AP Fachübersetzungen has stood for linguistic and specialist excellence as well as timely and reliable delivery. For interpreting jobs at such high-profile events, every customer chooses the simultaneous interpreters ]very carefully, considering the high complexity of the speeches. Thus, the BVMW has also heard of our expertise at the highest level from a customer’s recommendation and has already commissioned us for several interpreting jobs in the area of economic policy. We have had the pleasure of interpreting simultaneously, inter alia, at the 2^nd Federal Conference and the first Diplomatic Reception for such prominent figures as the Danish Prime Minister and have implemented extensive specialist translation projects for the BVMW. Furthermore, we are especially proud of being an active member of the BVMW ourselves.

Our in-house specialist translators as well as consecutive and simultaneous interpreters transfer written and spoken words into all languages of the world. Our main focus is on the languages German, English, Spanish, Russian, Italian, Romanian, Arabic and French . In addition, we work together with a wide network of freelance translators and interpreters for many other languages of the world, e.g. for Dutch, Polish, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovak or Bulgarian. We are specialized in the areas of technology, law, medicine and pharmacy, but we also translate and interpret general texts and speeches into our working languages. Around 2,500 private, corporate and public sector customers already appreciate the impeccable quality of our thorough specialist translation and interpreting services, and we are confident that we will significantly increase our customer base in future!

The 26-year-old consecutive and simultaneous interpreter Saskia Sayeg (née Winkler) completed her training as a state-certified translator and interpreter with distinction at the renowned IFA (Institute for Languages and Foreign Studies) in Erlangen (Germany) in 2017, with English as her first and French as her second foreign language. Since November 2017, she has been working as a publicly appointed and sworn in-house translator and interpreter for English at the Nuremberg translation agency AP Fachübersetzungen. Here, she uses her extensive subject-specific and linguistic knowledge when translating legal, technical, medical and pharmaceutical texts. Ms Sayeg translates, inter alia, contracts and operating instructions as well as medical and pharmaceutical documents (e.g. package leaflets and summary of product characteristics) into English and German. Her activity as a simultaneous and consecutive interpreter also covers various interpreting settings: courts, notaries, lawyers, banks, hospitals and major events such as conferences and meetings. At a diplomatic reception, Ms Sayeg even interpreted for the Danish Prime Minister. 

Before starting her career as a translator and interpreter, Saskia Sayeg completed her training as a multilingual secretary in Nuremberg with English and French as foreign languages in 2013. During her training, she gained some first work experience as a translator and project assistant at a Nuremberg company. Before her training at the IFA in Erlangen, she got to know further facets of the translating and interpreting profession by doing an eight-month internship at a translation agency in Wales (United Kingdom). Outside her professional life, Ms Sayeg also regularly travels to English and French-speaking countries to expand her knowledge of the languages, regions and cultures.

The prominent speakers at the 2020 BVMW annual reception in Berlin included: 

BVMW President Mario Ohoven:

Financial intermediary and investment advisor Mario Ohoven, born in Neuss in 1946, has been head of the BVMW (German Federal Association of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises) since 1998 and is considered to be the voice of German small and medium-sized businesses. Moreover, he has been President of the CEA-PME (the European umbrella organization of national associations of small and medium enterprises) in Brussels since 2002. His bestseller “The Magic of Power-Selling” presents his “success strategy for perfect selling” in detail. On his website, Ohoven characterizes himself as “disputatious, honest, tireless”. 

German Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Peter Altmaier:

Peter Altmaier, born in Ensdorf in the Saarland in 1958, has been a member of the CDU (Christian Democratic Union) since 1976 and has had the title “Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy” since March 2018. After his military service, he studied law at Saarland University from 1980 onwards and completed the first and second state examinations in law. He then worked as a research assistant at the European Institute in Saarbrücken and was a senior civil servant at the European Commission from 1990 to 1994. In 1994, he became a parliamentary representative of the CDU, and he has taken over different departments in the German Federal Cabinet under the Merkel government since 2005. 

German Federal Minister for Family Affairs Dr. Franziska Giffey:

Before starting her political career, Dr. Franziska Giffey (SPD, Social Democratic Party), born in Frankfurt an der Oder in 1978, studied administrative law in Berlin and completed her studies as a public administration graduate in 2001. She then worked in the local government of Berlin and earned her “Master of Arts” degree in European administration management. During her studies, she was a representative of the federal state of Berlin to the European Union in Brussels and to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. She finally did her doctorate in political science in 2010. After having worked as district mayor of Berlin-Neukölln between 2015 and 2018, she has held the office of Federal Minister for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth since March 2018. 

Bavarian Minister President Dr. Markus Söder:

After his graduation from school in 1986 and basic military service, Dr. Markus Söder, born in Nuremberg in 1967, studied law at the Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. In 1991, he completed the first state examination in law and worked as a research assistant at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. In 1998, he obtained the academic title Dr. jur. (Doctor of Law). He entered the Bavarian parliament in 1994 and from 2007 onwards, he took over several different ministerial positions before he was elected Bavarian Minister President in March 2018. At the last Bavarian state parliamentary election in 2018, he stood as a top candidate for the CSU (Christian Social Union) and has been leader of the CSU since January 2019. 

German Federal Minister for Development Dr. Gerd Müller:

After his basic military service, Dr. Gerd Müller (CSU), born in Krumbach in Swabia in 1955, studied pedagogy, psychology, political science and economic science at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt. He completed his studies with a diploma in business education. In 1980, he worked as the managing director of an association, and in 1988, he obtained his doctorate at the University of Regensburg. Müller was a member of the European Parliament between 1989 and 1994 and has been in the German Parliament since 1994. Since 2013, he has held the office of Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development under the Merkel government. 

President of Senegal Macky Sall:

Chérif Macky Sall, who was born in Fatick, a town in western Senegal, in 1961, studied geology before starting his career as a politician. He joined the Senegalese Democratic Party, was elected mayor of Fatick and held several ministerial positions before he was appointed Prime Minister in 2004. Between 2007 and 2008, Sall presided over the Senegalese National Assembly. However, he joined another party, the “Alliance pour la République”, in 2009, and won the election for President of the Republic as a candidate of this party in 2012. Sall was re-elected President in 2019. 

President and CEO of Siemens AG Joe Kaeser:

Joe Kaeser was born as Josef Käser in Arnbruck, Lower Bavaria, in 1957. He studied business administration in Regensburg and worked as a commercial manager in the “Components” area at Siemens from 1980 onwards. In 1994, he became CEO of two US Siemens subsidiaries and also made his name sound more American: Joe Kaeser. He took up the position of Chief Financial Officer of Siemens AG in 2006, and he was elected President and CEO in 2013. A year later, Kaeser joined the supervisory board of Daimler AG, and his membership of this supervisory board was extended for another five years in 2019.

Once again, the top-class speakers at the 2020 BVMW annual reception were able to impress us with their strong and ground-breaking messages for German small and medium-sized businesses. 

Mario Ohoven, President of the BVMW, argued strongly for immediate abolition of the solidarity surcharge since it was imposing a financial burden on German small and medium-sized companies. Ohoven went on to suggest a reduction of corporate taxes to 20-25% in order to ease the burden on SMEs. Thus, in his view, the competitiveness of German companies would improve, and Germany would still be able to rank at the top of the list of the most significant economic nations in future. In their speeches, Altmaier and Söder also demanded lower tax rates for German small and medium-sized business owners for the benefit of the economy. In turn, Giffey, the German Federal Minister for Family Affairs, complained about the negative effects of the massive shortage of skilled professionals on economic growth and emphasized the importance of German family businesses for economic prosperity. 

The Senegalese President Sall and the German Federal Minister of Development Müller shifted the focus of the event onto the African continent: they declared themselves in favour of German investments in the African countries in order to contribute to Africa’s prosperity and growth and to reduce unemployment as well as illegal migration. Finally, Joe Kaeser, President and CEO of Siemens AG, made it clear to everyone how important the interests of SMEs are for Germany: “Small and medium-sized business is a culture, an attitude. It is what constitutes ‘Made in Germany’.”

We from AP Fachübersetzungen saw the occasion of the BVMW annual reception in Berlin as a unique opportunity to prove our specialist competence again by interpreting simultaneously. Furthermore, it was an excellent chance to strengthen our existing relations with national and international colleagues and network partners and establish contacts with potential new corporate and public sector customers. 

In the course of the event, we were asked several times about our service portfolio. This comprises general translations as well as specialist translations in the areas of technology, law, medicine and pharmacy, and if required, we also translate economic texts. Our services equally include translations of websites, contracts, instructions and terms and conditions, and our translations are, of course, also certified by sworn translators of public documents for submission to German and foreign authorities. Our range of interpreting services is just as diverse as our translation services: we interpret both simultaneously and consecutively at trade fairs, conferences, GMP inspections, diplomatic talks and in court. We also offer whispered interpreting and telephone interpreting as special forms of interpreting.

The guiding principles of our work go far beyond the generally accepted standards in the specialist translation and simultaneous interpreting industry. When proofreading our translations afterwards, we attach particular importance to quality by using a dual control system and only having qualified native speakers make corrections. Moreover, we are known to customers from the metropolitan area of Nuremberg for our flexible express service with urgent projects and our fair price-performance ratio. We are open to all our customers‘ requests regarding translating and interpreting at all times and are easy to reach in person, by telephone or by email.