The 43rd Annual International IATEFL Conference 31st March to 4th April 2009 in Cardiff and International House World was there.  Over 1600 delegates from around the world came together to share ideas and discuss teaching issues and given that one of the main themes of the conference was technology in teaching, it is apt that 13,000 more followed the conference online.

Shaun Wilden, the teacher training coordinator for IHWO, outlined to a packed room how IHWO was meeting the demands of professional development in the network in his talk International House CPD furthering career opportunities teachers. The talk was well received with people keen to learn how we offered teacher development both in face-to-face and online. If you would like to see the content of Shaun's talk, visit http://tinyurl.com/c6yos2

For more details of our online courses please visit www.ihonlinetraining.net

On 26 September International House Milan celebrated the European Day of Languages by holding an educational development conference – ‘From good practice to better practice’ – at San Donato. The event, aimed at state school language teachers, was a great success.

The morning plenary sessions examined relevant issues such as CLIL, the use of the Internet for teacher development and the importance of culture in language learning. This was followed by an afternoon of workshops targeting the specific needs of local teachers. Michael Carrier rounded the day off by addressing the question “What English should we be teaching, anyway?” in a well-received plenary.

The event aroused a lot of local interest – over a hundred teachers attended and the mayor and representatives of the town council were also present. A great day was capped off with a ceremony where local children were presented with their Cambridge exam certificates.