The International House Barcelona ELT conference held on February 9th and 10th this year, was once more a great success. With more than 500 people attending from more than 15 different countries from around the world and many from within Spain, it was truly an international event. One school from Minsk sent 23 people over by bus so that they could attend!
This year the 5 plenaries were given by Dr John Field, Monica Poulter, Dorothy Zemach, Chi Suan Chong and Scott Thornbury. These plenaries, along with 30 workshops, made for an interesting weekend! The talks covered a range of areas of interest – for teachers of adults, for teacher trainers and with special strands dedicated to teachers of Young Learners, Managers (in conjunction with the IATEFL Lamsig group) and using Technology in the classroom (in conjunction with the IATEFL LTSIG). One of the most common comments from the people who went to the conference was “there is so much that I want to go and see – but I can’t see everything!”
Lucy Horsefield, COO of International House World Organisation said – "It was an absolute pleasure to attend this conference and see so many ELT professionals so engaged and motivated. I was extremely impressed by the excellent quality of the sessions. The focus of expertise within each strand of sessions meant that delegates could choose to attend talks that were really relevant and useful for them. Congratulations to the IH Barcelona team!"
This year also saw the conference supporting a charity called Camfed. This is a charity which tackles poverty and inequality by supporting marginalized girls to go to school and succeed and empower young women to step as leaders of change in sub-Saharan Africa. This was an initiative of Fiona Thomas – COO of Net languages, which was one of the sponsors at the conference. She raised 570€ for the Camfed charity which will support 3 girls to go to school for a year with all of the provisions that they need.
The feedback to the conference has been great – with around 95% of attendees saying that they would recommend the event and come back again next year. If you would like to join us at the next conference, please keep a space in your diary for Friday 8th and Saturday 9th 2019.
