Translating conference materials into Spanish: what gets translated, what needs a certification and what do you send your interpreter?

For a conference in Arizona, translate into Spanish everything attendees read and keep, from the program and registration form to the signs and slides, and have a second person read the translation before it goes to print. A translator’s certification is needed only when a document goes to an office that asks for one, such as USCIS. And send your interpreter the agenda, slides, speeches and list of names as soon as you have them.

If you were looking for “event translation services”, that covers two jobs: as the American Translators Association (ATA) puts it, “Translators do the writing. Interpreters do the talking.” This guide covers the written side and what your interpreter needs to read beforehand. For the live side, read our guide to conference interpreting in Phoenix and Scottsdale.

Which conference materials should you translate into Spanish?

Everything a Spanish reader needs to find their way through the day, plus whatever they take home. If time runs short, this order works:

1. Signage for registration, rooms and the schedule: it is the first thing people read when they walk in.
2. The program or agenda, with the same rooms and times as in English.
3. The registration form and the evaluation survey.
4. The slides for the main sessions.
5. Brochures, flyers, the banquet menu and name badges (on a badge, the job title is translated, not the name).
6. The press release and social media posts.

At an AA or other 12-step convention, AA literature in the program follows the fellowship’s own rules.

Which documents need a certified translation, and which don’t?

Only a document going to an office that asks for one, such as USCIS, an immigration court or a consulate, needs a certified translation. What your audience reads needs a non-certified translation, done carefully and read by a second person.

Document	Who reads or receives it	Non-certified or certified?	Source
Program, agenda, slides, signs, brochures and flyers	Your audience	Non-certified: a careful translation and a second person’s review	No rule we read asks for a certification; ISO 17100:2015 is the voluntary standard for translation services
Registration form and survey	Your audience	Non-certified, with short labels: text translated from English tends to grow	W3C
Waiver	The person who signs it	Non-certified and very careful; whether it holds up legally is a question for an attorney	Ask an attorney
A foreign-language document for USCIS	USCIS	Certified: a full English translation that the translator certifies as complete and accurate, with the translator’s certification that they are competent to translate	8 CFR 103.2(b)(3)
A document for an immigration court or a consulate	The court or the consulate	Certified: with the translator’s signed certification that the translation is accurate and that they are competent to translate	8 CFR 1003.33 · Department of State
A report to an agency or to the event’s funder	That office	Whatever that office asks for: ask before you translate	The office that receives it

Table sources, checked October 21 to 23, 2026: the ones linked in each row.

In those rules, “certified” means the translator’s signed statement that goes with the translation, not a license or a government approval. It is also not the same as a “certified translator”, a personal credential from an association such as ATA. For those documents, see our certified translation page.

How do you translate slides without breaking the layout?

To translate a presentation to Spanish, send the editable file (PowerPoint, Google Slides or Keynote), not a PDF, and only once it is final. If you have a glossary, a style guide or an earlier translation, send them too: ATA’s guide to buying translation services lists them among the materials to give a translator.

Leave room in every text box. According to the W3C, the consortium that publishes web standards, text translated from English usually comes out longer, and short text such as titles and labels grows the most in proportion. In its example, “FAQ” became “Preguntas frecuentes” in Spanish.

Bilingual slides need even more room. If a session includes a video, send the script or the subtitles, and check with the AV team on the interpreter’s view of the screen.

What should you send your interpreter, and when?

Everything that will be said or shown on screen, as soon as you have it. ATA’s guide to buying interpreting services recommends sharing as much information as possible so the interpreter can become familiar with the subject, and telling them about any change. AIIC, the International Association of Conference Interpreters, asks speakers to hand in any text or notes for their speech, even if they will not follow them closely (Guidelines for speakers).

• The agenda and the minute-by-minute rundown.
• The speaker list, with titles and how to pronounce each name.
• The slides, the speeches and the script of every video.
• A glossary of acronyms, program names and slogans; for consular or binational events, also titles and Mexican agency names.
• One contact person, as AIIC Greece & Cyprus recommends.

If something is confidential, say so and ask how your interpreter handles it. According to AIIC’s guidelines, its interpreters are bound by professional secrecy. How far ahead Didi needs the materials depends on the job: when you write, include the date, the hours, the venue and the audience.

Can you use machine translation for the materials?

For a draft, yes. For print, only after someone fluent in both languages has revised all of it. ATA’s page on machine translation explains that the machine only guesses the most likely translation: if you cannot read both languages, “you will never know if it has guessed correctly.” It also warns that free online services may store and analyze the text you translate with them.

Revising machine output even has its own standard, ISO 18587:2017, on full, human post-editing. If you searched for how to translate a PowerPoint to Spanish for free, the tool gives you the draft, not the revision.

The bilingual volunteer on your committee can make a good second reader, but ATA’s translation guide notes that being a translator “entails more than simply knowing two languages.” For a waiver, or a document going to an office, don’t settle for the machine draft.

Which Spanish should you use for an Arizona audience?

Mexican and U.S. Spanish, since most Hispanic residents here are of Mexican origin. In Maricopa County, 1,246,410 of the 1,491,377 Hispanic or Latino residents are of Mexican origin, close to 84 in every 100, according to the Census Bureau’s 2024 American Community Survey (table B03001; the share is our calculation).

Decide with the host whether the materials say “tú” or “usted”, and keep it the same. Use the words people use here: “renta”, not “alquiler”; “audífonos”, not “auriculares”.

And use one glossary throughout. Area 03 of Alcoholics Anonymous, for example, published the program for its August 2026 assembly in Phoenix in English and in Spanish (Area 03), with the same rooms and times; in Spanish, GSR is RSG and CPC is CCP.

Send us your files

Need document translation services in Phoenix for your event? Send the editable files on WhatsApp at (602) 332-9460, with the date you need them, who the audience is and whether any of them goes to an office, or contact us. We reply to most inquiries within 1 hour during business hours.

For event materials, Didilia De La O quotes each job on its own, once she sees the files and the deadline. Documents going to an office follow the prices and times on our certified translation page.

If you also need an interpreter, we quote it once we know the date, the hours and the audience. Prefer to talk? Call (602) 332-9460.

What this guide does not answer

This guide is for information only and is not legal advice. It does not tell you whether a translated waiver, contract or consent form is valid or binding on the person who signs it: that is a question for an attorney. Documents for a court follow that court’s rules.

It also does not cover interpreting at hearings, depositions or meetings with attorneys: that is court or legal interpreting, a different service with its own rules. For Arizona courts, the Judicial Branch credentials spoken-language interpreters through its own program, the ACICP.