General interpreter training methods have largely been developed towards the end of the 20th century, which poses the question whether they still meet the requirements of today’s markets and how can training be adapted to meet new challenges and circumstances. To this end, the intensive linkage of research, training and practice is of fundamental importance in order to guarantee the type of professional training which enables students to learn the specific competencies required for professional practice. This paper first discusses competencies in general before turning to interpreting competencies. It then focusses on one example, the competency of preparation, which might become ever more important in the future and thus warrants more attention in interpreter training. The scientific starting point is the general competency model of Kouwenhoven (2009). It serves as the basis for the Interpreting Studies view of preparation competency which will be examined from the perspective of situational intelligence (Jonnaert et al. 2007). Although preparation is a topic of discussion in Interpreting Studies publications, it is argued here that it needs to be more intensively integrated into regular conference interpreter training courses as it plays an essential role in situational intelligence, which constitutes as an important factor in competency-based interpreter training. Using two special training formats, the “Freitagskonferenz” and “SIMinar”, it will be shown how useful these formats are in terms of improving this important competency and how significant they are in promoting situational intelligence, thereby facilitating the shift from routine expertise to adaptive expertise, which with the changing times has become more necessary than ever before.