StudyWorld London 2011

English UK refreshed the format of StudyWorld this year, replacing the first evening's formal dinner with a short party for newcomers, followed by a glittering Welcome Reception intended to make it as easy as possible for delegates to start networking from the start.

Opening the event, Tony Millns, the chief executive of StudyWorld organiser English UK, said that students increasingly realised that in order to be world-class, they had to have studied somewhere else in the world. He continued: "Despite problems, we're optimistic that this business will continue to grow."

He was equally upbeat by the end of the event. "A lot of good business has been done here, and I've had lots of positive feedback about the quality of both schools and agents, as usual. People also seem very happy with changes we've made to the programme, including encouraging educators to arrange private viewings and hospitality for agents on the Tuesday evening."

StudyWorld sponsor PPI was also very happy with the event. Director Danny Silvester said: "[The] Welcome Reception was a massive improvement on previous years and I'm proud to be part of it. People are coming over to see us because the logo is on everything. Just from the logo and the StudyWorld T shirts we've had so much exposure, and that's fantastic. It's been a massive rise in our credibility, it says we're a company which is education based, support based, shows we're embedded in the industry. 80 per cent of our clients are in the industry. The industry is massively important to us. We see ourselves are being part of the language travel industry."

Siobhan Baccas, who organises StudyWorld, said it had been a record-breaking year. "Not only did we have almost 900 attendees at the event, but we had our biggest-ever number of exhibitors, which tells a lot about the quality of the business we do here.

"And we were delighted with the way the Welcome Reception went. It was a fantastic surprise for delegates going into the room and finding gold drapes, intimate seating and a fantastic centrepiece bar - it really had the wow factor. It will be a challenge to top that next year - but we'll try!"

Participants

This year 231 accredited institutions from 16 countries took part in StudyWorld London. Supporting these were also 388 quality agents and educational consultants from 59 different countries, as well as almost 100 individual service providers. As well as a strong attendance from UK and overseas English language schools, StudyWorld was happy to welcome a number of educators teaching languages other than English, including new providers of Mandarin in China and Spanish in Mexico. Independent schools and further and higher education providers were also represented and 33% of the English UK membership attended the event.   

The top 10 countries represented by agents were Russia, Spain, UK, Italy, Turkey, Brazil, Germany, Switzerland, France and Ukraine. We were delighted to welcome 78 agencies and 38 education providers to StudyWorld that had not attended before. The event attracted a staggering 42 exhibitors offering various products and services from print and design to insurance to IT software.

Seminar programme

The event opened with four hours of seminars, including a major presentation from Jeremy Oppenheim of the UK Borders Agency on visa regulations, including new guidance for Highly Trusted Sponsors. There were also sessions on English UK's Partner Agency Scheme, how language centres should comply with visa regulations, on simple rules of marketing and predicting global trends.

Business appointments

The online appointment scheduling system, Marcom eSchedule PRO, facilitated the appointments between participants prior to the event. Participants had the opportunity to schedule up to 35 one-to-one appointments over two days, lasting 20 minutes. The Marcom eSchedule PRO saved time, prevented double-bookings and was accessible 24 hours a day. An extraordinary number of appointments were pre-booked, with 84 per cent of available slots taken before meetings began on Tuesday morning.

Venue

StudyWorld London 2011 was held in the Hilton London Metropole, which is located in the heart of London. The Hilton London Metropole won the award for 'Best Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Events Hotel' for executive travellers in the UK for 2010 at the Business Destinations Travel Awards. Hilton London Metropole was also voted the 'Best Business Hotel Chain in Europe' and 'Best Business Hotel Chain in the UK' by readers of the Business Travel Magazine in 2009.