About StudyWorld / London 2008 Review

Another success in London

StudyWorld London 2008 took place in the Hilton London Metropole Hotel from 8-10 September. Its second year in London saw a total of almost 900 delegates from 249 institutions, 302 agencies and 32 service providers from a combined 59 countries, making another successful event.

Participants

This year 350 educators representing accredited institutions from 17 countries took part in StudyWorld London. In attendance were also over 410 quality agents and educational consultants from 52 different countries, as well as almost 80 individual service providers. An increased number of independent schools and HE/FE institutions from across the world attended. StudyWorld welcomed a number of providers of languages other than English, including providers of Spanish, Italian, French and German. We saw 42% of English UK members represented at the event, along with 41 other accredited English language providers from the UK and other English-speaking countries.

The top 10 markets represented by agents were Russia, Spain, Italy, International, Turkey, Germany, France, China, Colombia and Ukraine. Agencies from four markets that did not attend in 2007 that were represented in 2008 were: Mauritius, Mongolia, Nepal and Venezuela. This year exhibitors attended from seven different countries: Australia, France, Hungary, Ireland, Spain, Turkey and the UK and included StudyWorld London’s sponsors TVET UK and Cambridge ESOL.

Seminar programme

StudyWorld London 2008 began with a series of seminars on various issues and topics of interest. Seminars were hosted by Internet Advantage, the British Council, Cicero Translations, Cambridge ESOL and the UK Border Agency. Cambridge ESOL discussed Online BULATS, a means of language assessment for organisations. The UK Border Agency discussed the hot topic of the new Points-Based System and its application to the study travel industry.

Business appointments

With over 29,000 appointment requests sent between participants, the online appointment scheduling system eSchedule PRO, facilitated the appointment bookings between participants prior to the event. This centralised system, created to simplify and ease the appointment scheduling process, allows participants to view a complete and continually updated list of potential business partners then select those who they would like to meet. eSchedule PRO saves time, prevents double-bookings and is accessible 24 hours a day.

Venue

StudyWorld London 2008 was held in the Hilton London Metropole hotel, which is located near Paddington – in the heart of London - and has excellent transport links. The hotel was awarded '2007 Best Hotel in England' by the Best Hotels in Great Britain and Ireland Hotel Awards 2007.

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. Over 100 agents took part in the 10 Fam trips that departed at the end of StudyWorld London 2008.

Agents travelled to various regions of the UK: Bournemouth, Central England, Oxford, Scotland, and Yorkshire & Northumberland, as well as a trip to Ireland, Malta & Gozo and a specialist Business English UK trip to Central England. This year, for the first time, there were two Fam trips to Spain, one visiting the Valencia, Alicante, Madrid and Salamanca regions, and another trip visiting Barcelona, Madrid and Salamanca.

Feedback from participants

We received many positive comments about the organisation and the quality of delegates at StudyWorld London 2008.

• 98% of participants rated the overall organisation as excellent or good
• 97% of agents rated the educators they met as excellent or good
• 91% of educators rated the agents they met as excellent or good
• 88% of participants said they intend to book for StudyWorld London 2009

Comments from participants

'We are very satisfied customers. We have been attending StudyWorld (Arels) for many years and it just gets better and better.'
Jane & Duncan Hume, White House Education, UK

'I thought the whole thing was great! I have been in the business for 12 years but this was my first time at your show. I very much hope to attend in 2009. Organisation was superb, catering was superb and the facilities were superb.'
Mark Stricklin, Crown Guardianships, UK

'Thank you, great organisation! We value this workshop very much and look forward to seeing everyone again next year.'
Valeria Samborskaya, Business-Link, Ukraine