A wonderful DOS Conference!

The 2012 Directors of Studies Conference took Greenwich by storm from the 5th to 7th January, helping to kick off the new year in style! Held at the Devonport House Hotel for the second year, International House World Organisation (IHWO) welcomed 90 delegates to historic maritime Greenwich, in south-east London, for three days of idea sharing and discussion.

With Directors of Studies (DOSs) travelling from as far afield as Auckland, Hanoi and Buenos Aires, it was great to see both familiar faces and plenty of new ones.

Following on from the success of the first IH Online Teachers’ Conference in November, IHWO demonstrated its faith in technology by asking Neil McMahon, IHWO’s Academic Coordinator, to beam his session in live from Argentina. Neil used a webcam and online platform, kindly sponsored by Oxford University Press, to deliver his presentation on IHWO Resources straight to the conference room. This also enabled other DOSs that had been unable to attend to see Neil’s session online.

Friday was packed full of topical discussions with guest speakers. IHWO welcomed Jeremy Harmer, Luke Meddings, Nicky Hockly, Robin Walker and Chia Suan Chong, who struck up some fascinating debates on Dogme teaching, digital literacies and English as a lingua franca that were still being hotly contested late into the night.

The pub quiz and fish and chips evening became a closely-fought battle as some of the best brains in IH sparred over their knowledge of IH, 1960s music, the events of 2011 and the Olympic Games to earn their place on the medal-winners’ podium. The evening’s entertainment was kindly sponsored by the IH Trust to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Teacher Training at IH London.

Saturday morning was dedicated to management sessions providing practical advice on everything from delegation to leadership and administration. This was followed by a variety of great workshops on a wide range of subjects.  Some of the conference sessions were videoed and will shortly be available on www.ihworld.com .

IHWO would like to thank Christina Margraf and Shaun Wilden for organising another fantastic event and huge thanks also to all our speakers and sponsors for their generosity in supporting this conference.