Diplomacy
2 heads of state · exclusive provider · high-security protocols
The day after we interpreted for the President of Vietnam at APEC, Bilingva was on the Stanford campus for something even more demanding: a historic summit between Prime Minister Kishida Fumio of Japan and President Yoon Suk Yeol of the Republic of Korea, moderated by Secretary Condoleezza Rice. Two heads of state, three working languages, and no margin for error.
A historic summit at Stanford
Stanford’s Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC), with the Freeman Spogli Institute and the Hoover Institution, hosted PM Kishida and President Yoon for a summit discussion on the future of science and technology — decarbonization and clean energy, quantum technology, and startup innovation — moderated by Dr. Condoleezza Rice. Coming just after the August 2023 Camp David trilateral summit, it was a meeting between two U.S. allies whose rapprochement had, a year earlier, seemed almost unthinkable. Bilingva provided the Japanese and Korean interpreting and all of the equipment.
Four booths for two languages
For an event at this level, the interpreters asked to work solo rather than share a booth — so even with two languages plus an English pass-through, Bilingva built four full simultaneous-interpreting booths in the auditorium. Each principal and delegation listened in their own language while most of the audience heard English. Because the booths couldn’t sit in the amphitheater seating, we routed the stage’s video signal back to the rooms where the booths were set up, so interpreters could see the speakers they were rendering. And when the press corps arrived without their own audio gear — wanting a clean, real-time feed of the interpretation for their broadcasts — we had come prepared with extra splitters and cables, and set every one of them up.
Interpreting under head-of-state security
Clearance was as tight as it gets. We loaded in and built the entire setup the morning of, on a compressed schedule, with the leaders arriving that afternoon. The Secret Service ran a security sweep, and every staff member cleared an additional checkpoint to get back into the building — our years as a vetted Stanford vendor made that possible. Because the venue was carved into rooms of different clearance levels with movement tightly orchestrated, we coordinated directly with each head of state’s security detail to hand off and pre-set the President’s and the Prime Minister’s receivers on the correct channel before they were seated.
Where every detail is protocol
Between two nations with a complicated history, accuracy wasn’t only technical — it was diplomatic. Nothing could be softened or lost, and even small points of protocol carried weight. At one point a member of President Yoon’s security detail asked that his audio level be matched exactly to Prime Minister Kishida’s — a piece of the house program audio that wasn’t ours to control, but we relayed the request immediately and the audio team obliged. On a day like this, being the calm, prepared team that makes every request happen is the whole job.
Bilingva delivers simultaneous interpreting and equipment for the highest-stakes events — head-of-state summits, diplomatic convenings, and technical conferences — with vetted interpreters and technicians who thrive under pressure. Serving government and institutions since 2005. WOSB-certified, SAM.gov registered.