Eaquals celebrated their annual conference in the wonderful city of Venice on 28^th-30^th April 2022.

The conference was officially opened by Eaquals Chair, Thom Kiddle, who welcomed 200 attendees in person to the event and reflected on the anticipation and excitement there was in finally making a full return to our annual conference. The recipient of the Eaquals Annual Teacher Award for 2022, Dalia Fakesh, was congratulated and although she couldn’t be there in person, a short video recording from her was played. The recipient of the Eaquals Scholarship Award 2022, Miranda Karjadiu, was in attendance and received her certificate during the opening.

Three days of innovative presentations, workshops and discussions included a full day Management Training Workshop, delivered by Ania Kolbuszewska, on “The Eaquals Academic Management Competences Framework – practical applications” which had been launched at the previous conference. The opening plenary, delivered by Professor Steve Walsh, on “SETTVEO: Evidence based reflection and teacher development” was well-received by attendees. Gisella Lange opened the second day with her plenary “A CLIL/CMILE Journey in the World” where we looked at successful implementation of CLIL programmes around the world. Closing the three-day event was Professor Waldemar Martyniuk with his wonderful plenary on “Language, Languaging, Plurilanguaging: considerations on the nature of language, language learning, and language teaching” providing us with many astute observations on the nature of language learning which we observe on a result basis in the world around us and particularly in our sector.

After a relaxing boat ride, the conference gala dinner took place at Salone del Ridotto, in Venice - an ideal location for an evening of feasting and, of course, networking.

Reflecting on the event, Lou McLaughlin, Executive Director of Eaquals said:

“We were delighted to once again have a high number of attendees at the conference, reflecting the re-opening of travel within the international education sector. The mood was definitely one of positivity, hope and moving forward sustainably which was echoed by the focus on continued quality of delivery alongside well-being for students, staff and all working within language education”.

The next Eaquals annual international conference will be held in Tallinn, Estonia on 27-29^th April 2023.