Page 34 - ELG2109 Sep Issue 477

EVENT .

meets
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Where the world meets

ICEF Berlin makes an ideal launch pad to get back in the swing

t’s been a long time coming, but at last we’re able to meet up,
catch up and get going. And where better to do this than at
the world’s largest B2B networking event for the international
Ieducation industry?
Organised by ICEF, which has been hosting exhibitions and
conferences since 1991, the 27th annual event in Berlin will see
over 800 agents and more than 500 providers from 110 countries MAIN PHOTO BY NIKOLAUS BADER FROM PIXABAY
descend for up to four days at the city’s InterContinental for a range of
seminars, webinars, presentations and meetings. It’s an opportunity to
both reconnect and establish new contacts with student recruitment
specialists and educational institutions.
Make a plan
To get the most out of Leave yourself
an event of this size,
it’s best to make a bit of wiggle room for
a plan. There’s
time to organise those informal chats that
in person and can cement relationships
online meetings
for three of the over a coffee break
four days, and the
organisers have allocated “I enjoyed the meeting because it was well-organised and fruitful.
up to 25 minutes per meeting. This means you could have up to It was very easy to schedule and reschedule the meetings with
74 meets over the course of the conference, though this would be education providers.”
a fairly gruelling schedule. Better might be to leave yourself a bit of “This was our first time to join an ICEF virtual event. It was a simple
wiggle room for those informal chats that can cement relationships process not much different from setting up the meetings normally via
over a coffee break. the scheduler. We were surprised at how smooth everything ran during
The first day on site includes registration from 10 am, a networking the virtual event. Definitely would join again. Staff were on standby to
lunch, the official event welcome and then an afternoon of seminars, provide instant assistance, which was fantastic.”
webinars and provider presentations. In the evening you can attend “The experience was truly awesome. Three packed days and the
the welcome reception, which ends at 9 pm. organisation near to flawless. With Covid rampant, we still managed
Days two and three have been allocated for meetings, both in person the face-to-face experience without the danger. Well done ICEF!”
and online. Day four is online meetings only.
The first three days are being run as a hybrid event. This means that Keeping safe
on-site participants can meet in person or virtually with those who To ensure the safety of attendees, the following anti-Covid precautions
aren’t there physically but are attending. Those off-site can also meet will be implemented:
with others online. Meetings will be scheduled for the event through • To attend in person, delegates must have received two vaccines
a programme called Marcom eSchedulePRO, which uses integrated and will be tested daily.
Zoom and allows particpants at up to four locations to take part in any • Social distancing will be observed, along with one-way systems in
one meeting. Delegates can start scheduling their meetings up to four high-traffic areas.
weeks before the event. • There will be hand-sanitising stations and regular disinfecting of
high-touch areas.
Who you’ll meet • Wearing masks will be encouraged, especially when moving
Educational delegates are expected to be made up of language around the event.
schools (38%); universities and vocational training institutes (35%); • The highest vigilance for food and drink hygiene will be
secondary, boarding and high schools (23%); and multi-sector and maintained.
additional service providers (4%). • Some seminars will be available online for those who don’t want
While delegates will be there from over 110 countries, most of the to attend in person.
education sector will come from just five. In descending order they are
the UK, Canada, the USA, Spain and Germany.
Although agents who attend have a wide range of areas of interest, ICEF Berlin essentials
such as work/travel and post-graduate degrees, by far the largest
number of them (96%) have language courses as their main area of
concern. The largest region they recruit students from is the EU (34%), When: 31 October - 3 November
followed by non-EU countries in Europe (24%), Asia (18%), South and Where: InterContinental, Berlin
Central America (10%), Africa (8%) and the Middle East (7%). How: Three days hybrid, one day virtual
Why: To establish and strengthen international education
What people say industry networks
Many previous attendees are enthusiastic about ICEF events. Here are Register: icef.com
just a few of their comments:
34 September 2021