My boss was away from his desk so I was talking with one of the managers for about half an hour.
The boss was out, so for half an hour I was chatting with one of the executives.
I was talking with a director for about 30 minutes while the boss was out of the office.
「ずっと~していた」は過去の出来事なので、過去進行形を使うのが適切ですね。
上記で使った単語やフレーズの意味を確認しておきましょう。
・席を外して - away from one's desk, out of the office(単にout でもOK)
・…と話す - talk with ..., chat with ...
英訳③の while は接続詞で「~の間ずっと」という意味です。