Does the ongoing global economic crisis affect the conf-interpreting trade? If yes, how?

..it most certainly does and I most certainly do... and not just crisis-driven but in addition to a previous trend towards commoditization at the expense of communication: communication used to be the very raison d'être for conferences - as in what transpired within the conference hall - I'm afraid that is no longer the norm, what goes on inside the hall is more often than not a mere ritual where the only ones sweating blood over communication are the interpreters, everybody else (organizers, sponsors, speakers and audiences) got the memo and they're there for the trip, the coffee-breaks, networking, the social programme, ancillary events, the proceedings, another couple of lines for their cv's...you name it.

From meetings that do w/o CI to language regimes that shrink to a couple of languages instead of the usual - and needed! - 3 or 4, conferences that used to last 3 to 5 days getting compressed to 1,5/2, constant attempts at cramming speakers within sessions beyond reason, driving them to un-intelligible speeds, adding no-interpretation break-out sessions, trying to get away with 9/10-hour working days with normal teams, trying not to pay for cancelled days, un-relenting downwards pressure over travelling conditions, changing recruiting patterns over as little as 5% "savings" -and less "aggro", the new name for proper working conditions...!

And now this so called remote interpreting... where in anticipation of machine interpreting they want to treat us and what we do as if we were devices, not professionals.... don't get me started :-): mind you, it's not change as such I object to (change is one of the welcome features of CI!) but de-naturing.

This being said, proper CI continues to be practiced (one just has to be selective) for how long is the question :-(.