Conference Equipment Supplier for the 2010 FIFA World Cup

2010 was a momentous year for the Congress Rental South Africa team as we were chosen to supply all Simultaneous Interpretation equipment and microphones for the meetings and ceremonies leading up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup. These meetings included the 60^th FIFA Congress opening ceremony and conference, as well as numerous smaller meetings for the executive committees and member associations such as UEFA, AFC and CONCACAF.

Meetings began as far back as February, where we provided Simultaneous Interpretation and conferencing equipment (all BOSCH) for the FIFA Medical conference in Sun City. This was a week-long conference that required the interpretation of 4 languages for approximately 150 – 650 delegates, depending on the rooms used on each day. The FIFA Medical conference was the start of what was to be a long list of FIFA related conferences.

As the country was counting down to the 11^th of June, FIFA had a countdown of its own. The various meetings began a week before the opening match, where the aim was to make decisions and reach agreements on a range of topics. The final meeting was held the day before the opening ceremony of the 60^th FIFA Congress. In this meeting, all countries bid to host the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cup and provided justifications as to why they should be chosen as the next host country.

For each of these meetings, only BOSCH interpretation equipment and conference microphones were used. Due to the number and volume of conferences that occured simultaneously across a large geographical area, we utilized the full range of BOSCH conferencing microphones from the New Generation, the Concentus System as well as the newest Wireless System. The required languages varied considerably between meetings, however, the most common were English, French, Spanish and German. Additional languages included Russian, Italian, Korean, Indonesian, Farsi, Arabic, Mandarin Chinese and Vietnamese.

Next up was the 60^th FIFA Congress, which brought together the 208 FIFA member countries across the globe. The likes of President Zuma, former President Mbeki, President of FIFA Sepp Blatter, Pele, Sir Bobby Charlton, and Franz Beckenbaur attended this congress. An opening ceremony was held in Gallagher Estate where the congress was officially declared open, achievements from the past year were toasted and honorary guests received Orders of Merit. Through the use of the BOSCH Digital receivers, each of the 2000 delegates were able to listen to the proceedings in their chosen language.

The following day all delegates attended the official FIFA Congress at Sandton Convention Centre and once again, we provided all the Simultaneous Interpretation and conferencing equipment, including 1500 receivers, 7 interpretation booths and 30 BOSCH New Generation delegate microphones.

A quick summary of all events supplied:

This entire process was truly a wonderful opportunity and experience. We would like to thank everyone who was involved in each conference, including our staff members, suppliers and clients. It was a resounding success, and we should all be proud of what we achieved!

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