London 2009 Review
Celebrating 40 years of quality, education and international partnerships
StudyWorld London 2009 took place in the Hilton London Metropole Hotel from 7-9 September. Despite worldwide economic problems, there was a positive atmosphere at the 40th anniversary event as new partnerships were created and old ones renewed. We were delighted to see a total of 835 delegates from 226 institutions, 306 agencies and 37 service providers from a combined 60 countries. StudyWorld London was sponsored by TVET UK and University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations.
Participants
This year over 300 educators representing the full-range of accredited institutions from 14 countries took part in StudyWorld London. Supporting these were 418 quality agents and educational consultants from 54 different countries, as well as over 90 individual service providers. As well as a strong attendance from UK and overseas English language schools, StudyWorld was happy to welcome a number of providers of languages other than English, including providers of Chinese, Russian and several European languages. Independent schools and FE/HE providers were also represented. Thirty-three per cent of the English UK membership was represented.
The top 10 countries represented by agents were Russia, Spain, Italy, Turkey, France, United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, Ukraine and China. Markets represented in 2009 that were not last year were Argentina, Philippines and Syria. The event attracted 37 service providers, our highest number in recent years, from seven different countries: France, Ireland, Netherlands, Spain, Turkey and the UK.
Seminar programme
Keeping tradition, StudyWorld London 2009 opened with an enhanced series of seminars on various themes and topics. Eight seminars were hosted by Languages & Travel, Asiaquest, UK Trade & Investment, Bell Language Schools, UK Higher Education Europe Unit, the UK Border Agency, and our sponsors Cambridge ESOL and TVET UK. A popular session was led by Barbara Woodward, UK Border Agency. She spoke to a large audience about the implementation of Tier 4 and answered questions on a variety of subjects. A key note of the seminar was the acknowledgement to keep under review the 50 page application document which has to be completed for visa renewals and extensions, and to look again at the regulations around students and unpaid work experience and the invigilation of exams.
Business appointments
The online appointment scheduling system eSchedule PRO, facilitated the appointments between participants prior to the event. This centralised system enables all participants to simply and quickly schedule appointments with potential and exisiting business contacts. eSchedule PRO saves time, prevents double-bookings and is accessible 24 hours a day. Participants had the opportunity to schedule up to 35 one-to-one appointments over two days, lasting 20 minutes. Over 10,000 appointments were scheduled for StudyWorld London, an average of 31 appointments per educator!
Venue
StudyWorld London 2009 was held in the Hilton London Metropole hotel, which is located in the heart of London. The hotel was voted the '2nd Best UK Conference & Event venue' by the readers of 'Conference and Incentive Travel' magazine at the UK Conference & Event Venue Awards 2008.
Familiarisation trips
All agents participating in StudyWorld have the opportunity to join one of the Fam trips, which are fact-finding trips essential for gaining first-hand experience of regionally-linked institutions and destinations, as well as for increasing product knowledge. Almost 100 agents took part in one of nine Fam trips that departed at the end of the event.
Agents travelled to various regions of the UK: Bournemouth, Central England, Oxford, Scotland, and Brighton, as well as to Northern Ireland and Malta & Gozo.
