Send the interpreter an agenda, an attendee list with titles and pronunciation, the deck, a glossary of house terms and acronyms, and the figures and units that will come up, as early as you can, with the final deck the night before and a 15-minute check-in before the meeting.
As of
Author: Paul Dahoon Kim (Founder, MetaPret. Working Korean-English interpreter, ~100 engagements)
Last updated: 2026-10-09
Read time: ~6 minutes
Summary: A working checklist for anyone hosting a meeting with an interpreter: what goes in the briefing pack, when to send each piece, what to settle in a 15-minute check-in, how to handle confidentiality, and the mistakes that cost the most accuracy.
Send the interpreter a briefing pack as early as you can: agenda, attendee list with names, titles and pronunciation, the deck and documents, a glossary of house terms and acronyms, the numbers and units that will come up, and any script or video to be played. Send updates as they happen and say what changed, sign the NDA before documents go out, and hold a 15-minute check-in to settle names, speakers, seating, and whether side remarks are interpreted.
Who this guide is for
Whoever organizes the meeting: the executive assistant, the project lead, the person who booked the interpreter. You know the meeting; the interpreter needs what you know. The examples are Korean–English; the checklist works for any pair.
What makes a briefing worth the effort
An interpreter hears each sentence once. Most avoidable mistakes trace back to something the client knew and did not send:
- A name nobody could pronounce. Introductions start with a correction.
- An internal codename. "Project Halla" or "the B2 line" means something to your team and nothing to anyone else. Without a note, it gets rendered literally or skipped.
- An acronym with two meanings. "PO" is a purchase order to procurement and a product owner to engineering.
- A title that does not map. Korean titles such as 상무 and 전무 have no single English equivalent; each company sets its own. If the business card says "Vice President," the interpreter should say that.
- A number in an unexpected unit. Korean counts large numbers by 만 (ten thousand) and 억 (a hundred million), and Korean real estate often still quotes 평. Knowing which units to expect makes conversion fast and correct.
- A slide that changed overnight. The interpreter prepared version 3; version 5 is on the screen.
None of these is a skill problem. Each is fixed by one line in the briefing pack.
Where to look: make sure the pack reaches the interpreter
The briefing has to reach the person who will interpret. With an agency, ask whether materials go to the interpreter directly and how fast updates are forwarded; the night-before deck matters most. Booking directly, agree on one channel for materials and one for urgent changes on the day. On a platform, ask how documents are shared after the match and whether an NDA can be signed first. If two interpreters will alternate, both get the full pack.
How to check skill before booking
Your briefing material doubles as test material. Take a minute from your own deck or a past meeting with one house term, one acronym, one name, and two figures. Play it once, in both directions, record it, and score content fidelity, target-language fluency, and delivery. For the full method, see How to verify an interpreter's skill before hiring.
What to send beforehand
The briefing pack
Use this as a checklist. Send what exists and mark what is still coming.
- Agenda with times and who leads each item.
- Attendee list. Full name, title in both languages as printed on the business card, company, and role in the meeting. Add the romanization each person uses: one Korean surname can appear as Lee, Yi, or Rhee. For hard names, add a phonetic note or a short voice memo.
- Deck and documents. The latest version of every presentation, report, draft, or spec sheet that will be on screen or referred to. Slides with speaker notes beat a bare PDF.
- Glossary. House terms, codenames, product and model names, acronyms with their meaning in your company, and wording your team insists on ("partner," never "vendor"). If translated materials exist, include the official rendering of each term.
- Numbers and units. Revenue, prices, volumes, dates, and the units and currencies they will be stated in. Note fiscal-year differences between the two sides.
- Scripts. Remarks, toasts, or statements to be read aloud. Read text is faster and denser than speech.
- Video and audio clips. A link and, if available, a transcript, plus a note on whether the clip should be interpreted or played as is.
When to send it
- When the booking is confirmed: agenda, attendees, glossary, background. Early, incomplete material beats complete material the night before.
- As drafts appear: the deck, even unfinished. Most of the terminology is already in it.
- The night before: the final deck. Late changes are normal; say what changed ("slides 12 to 15 replaced, new figures on slide 20") so the interpreter does not reread forty slides.
- On the day: a printed or tablet copy the interpreter can annotate.
The 15-minute check-in
Meet before the counterpart arrives, or call before a remote meeting. Settle:
- Names. Read the attendee list aloud.
- Who speaks. Which people on your side speak, in what order, and who takes questions on which topic.
- Seating. Where the interpreter can hear every speaker and see the screen, usually beside or just behind your lead speaker.
- Sensitive topics. What not to raise, and where you will speak carefully on purpose.
- Side remarks. Should what your team says among themselves be interpreted to the counterpart? Practice varies, so decide it here rather than leave it to the interpreter.
- Signals. How you ask the interpreter to wait, and how they ask a speaker to repeat a figure.
Confidentiality
Sign the NDA before sending documents, not after. Professional interpreters treat what they hear as confidential; an NDA makes it explicit. Share files through an access-controlled link, collect printed copies at the end, and agree what happens to the interpreter's notes.
What not to do
- Hand over the deck at the door. Ten minutes with forty slides is not preparation.
- Ask for a summary without saying so. If you want the gist of a long statement rather than a full rendering, say so before the meeting. Switching silently makes the counterpart wonder what was dropped.
- Add jobs on the day. Minutes, a lunchtime document translation, or a switch from consecutive to simultaneous each needs to be agreed at booking. See Consecutive vs simultaneous.
Remote meeting extras
- Audio test on the actual platform 15 minutes before, with the interpreter's own headset.
- Slides as a file in advance. A shared screen can lag or blur.
- A backchannel. A private chat with the organizer for names, terms, and audio problems.
- Clips tested over the platform. Video through screen share often has weak or delayed audio.
More in In-person vs remote interpretation.
How MetaPret handles a request
When you submit a request with the language pair, field, city, dates, and format, MetaPret builds a short interpretation test from that engagement's field, covering both directions of the pair. Candidates are sourced and tested for the city and dates of each request. Each passage plays once, and each recording is scored in each direction on three axes: content fidelity, target-language fluency, and delivery.
Assignment runs in this order: eligibility to work at the location, availability on the dates, then the interpretation test. On a private comparison page, you see each candidate whose test was confirmed, under a pseudonym, with their scores. Names appear after you pick one, and that is the point to start sending the briefing pack. Open requests are posted on the MetaPret board.
Verified supply is deepest in Seoul today; verification travels to wherever your meeting is. The full method is published at How MetaPret tests.
FAQ (FAQPage schema)
Q: What should I send an interpreter before a business meeting?
A: Agenda, attendee list with titles and pronunciation, deck and documents, a glossary of house terms and acronyms, expected figures and units, and any script or video.
Q: How far in advance should I brief an interpreter?
A: Send the agenda, attendees, and glossary when the booking is confirmed, drafts as they appear, and the final deck the night before with a note on what changed.
Q: Should the interpreter sign an NDA before seeing materials?
A: For anything confidential, yes. Sign it before documents go out and share files through an access-controlled link.
Q: Will the interpreter translate side conversations on my team?
A: Practice varies between interpreters, so do not assume either way. Decide in the pre-meeting check-in whether internal remarks are interpreted.
Q: What extra preparation does a remote meeting need?
A: An audio test on the actual platform, slides sent as a file, a private chat for terms and problems, and clips tested in advance.
About the author
Paul Dahoon Kim is the founder of MetaPret and a working Korean-English interpreter with around 100 professional engagements across military intelligence, international cooperation, and corporate business interpretation. He still personally takes on a small number of high-stakes engagements every quarter to stay current with the field.
About page · Contact: cs@metapret.net · LinkedIn