‘A smile is the same in every language’: Overcoming language barriers in placemaking

Bringing communities together on an international scale comes with new challenges – language barriers, being one of them.

We sat down with Will, Senior Event Producer at We Are Placemaking, to hear about how he and the team overcame barriers while producing the first ever Uzbek Culture & Food Festival in London.

So, London’s first ever Uzbek Food Culture and Food Festival in London – tell us all about it?

Producing this festival was an experience, and a huge achievement, to say the least.

It was?OshPaz, the company famed for its award-winning traditional Uzbekistan recipes here in the UK, who asked us to produce the first?Uzbek Culture and Food Festival?in London, in collaboration with the multiple government organisations (Ministry of Culture and Tourism in Uzbekistan, the Embassy of Uzbekistan in England and Uzbek Diaspora UK).?

The aim of the festival was to give visitors a taste of what Uzbekistan’s diverse and rich cultural heritage has to offer – from traditional cuisine and craftmanship, to music and dance performance. And to see 6,000 guests enjoy this against the backdrop of London’s iconic Tower Bridge was just incredible!

Sounds great! Though surely producing a new, large-scale, and multifaceted event comes with its challenges?

We’ve produced such a wide variety of large-scale, creative placemaking events this year – the Mayfair Coronation Garden Party and the launch of Borough Yards to name a few.

Producing inaugural events in the public realm is nothing new to us, and neither is working in different languages: myself and the team have worked with nationalities from all over the world. It was only last year, for example, that we spent weeks in Milan producing a district-wide Christmas activation for leading property developer, Coima.

Working with multiple organisations over 3,000 miles away in Uzbekistan, however, was something we were yet to experience.

he language barrier was something we were conscious of from the onset. Reviewing contracts in different languages, was a particularly interesting task, as well as communicating about complex aspects of the event including site design, and justifying why elements had to be a certain way.

We always remain steadfast with clients, but did so even more consciously and overtly because of the language barrier – remaining clear and concise in our delivery. After all, you have to respect that many of these professionals were in an even more challenging position – organising an event in a different language and in a faraway country.

We know London and knew exactly how to make this event work. But it was important, as with any project, that we provided plenty of time for any miscommunications to be resolved.

So, what happened on the day?

During the event, everyone was from different countries and spoke different languages. But a smile is the same in every language, so we made sure to remain our usual positive selves and help the client feel at ease. It was great because, when the client was smiling, we could tell they were pleased with how the event was going too!

You just have to take the time and be patient. With a placemaking event of this scale, there’s a lot of turning plates: liaising with artists, performers, stall holders, chefs, social media managers, stylists and so many more – some of whom were flying from Uzbekistan to be at the event.

I think it comes down to communication – whether that be in the same language or not. We always take the time to communicate effectively with our clients from concept creation through planning and to the delivery of the event. Similarly, we maintain great communication and create long-lasting relationships with our suppliers, who we know can deliver the best possible results.

There were a lot of moving parts – moving an 1,563 kg pot from Uzbekistan to London for the ceremonial cooking of the Uzbek dish plov, being the biggest!

But once we had overcome language challenges, providing services like production management, artist liaison, logistics and supplier management became easy again. We communicated effectively with co-organisers, as well as our sister safety team We Are OPS, to make this happen.

And did you get any feedback from the client?

OshPaz said it was an absolute pleasure collaborating with us, and that our “dedication and expertise were instrumental in making the festival a resounding success.”

They really appreciated our professionalism and passion for placemaking, which is the biggest compliment for us.

What’s more exciting, is that the team are already in talks with the Uzbekistan embassy to do the event again with us next year, which is such a testament to all the hard work that went into this placemaking event.

Find out more about our creative placemaking events.