International House World Organisation is proud to have hosted the first ever IH Study Abroad Conference. The event took place in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, and was a lively and informative few days.
IH Study Abroad schools were pleased to welcome partner agents, industry guests and top conference presenters to the event. Delegates were treated to engaging sessions from Patrik Pavlacic from Student Marketing; Jacqueline Kassteen from Jackfruit Marketing; Bonnie Lancaster from Study Travel Magazine and Johan Asplund from Dream Studies. As well as this, delegates had the opportunity to be involved in an interactive panel discussion on the school-agent relationship, lead by Tim Eckenfels, Executive Director of IH Sydney/Bondi/Darwin and Claudio Cesarano, CEO of Media Touristik AG.
“Being a World Organisation, we were pleased to spend the IH Study Abroad Conference with industry leaders – schools, agents and marketing specialists - from around the globe to focus on trends and changes that are affecting all parts of the international education industry” said Tim.
Schools had the chance to showcase their destinations and programmes to conference guests during the high-speed, 1 minute pecha-kucha style presentation session - a fun filled and exciting way of sharing information. There were also plenty of opportunities for school representatives, agents and industry professionals to network during the stand-up roaming meetings.
As well as plenty of input sessions during the conference, there were many opportunities to socialise and build upon relationships too: from a traditional Bulgarian opening dinner complete with folk music and dancing and a banquet lunch of local culinary delights; to rooftop drinks at a Sofia sky bar and a team treasure hunt around the city!
Chair of the IH Study Abroad Committee, Gavin Eyre, said: "It was an amazing opportunity for IH Study Abroad schools to receive our partners in Sofia for a very informative couple of days. We look forward to continuing this new tradition next year!"
A big thank you to Bernice and Lynne from Schools & Agents and Claudia from The PIE News for reporting on the event, as well as to Genevieve and Nicoletta from Guard.me for being our event partners.
