re: Hawking visit
Hawking came to Brussels in 2001 and gave a lecture about branes.
The auditorium was the one I used to attend to when I was a student 25 years before...It was quite strange to see the place again and we were so crowded that evening it got very hot!!
Hawking and his team had it all prepared and there were translations projected on screens plus the robot voice to hear.
Amazing isn't it? I took pictures, made a link and almost 5 years later, can share it here!