Another fantastic day at Harrogate, I started my day (after a fab cooked breakfast at my guesthouse!) with:

How to write an effective IATEFL conference proposal by Madeleine du Vivier

Madeleine is conference programmer so if she doesn’t know what she’s looking for, then nobody does, and indeed she had very clear ideas about what was required.

As I was giving a workshop this afternoon I’d obviously managed to produce an effective proposal once before, but to be quite honest, I wasn’t sure why, and I’d like to do it again, without the complete fluke element this time.

Madeleine explained that some elements were outside our control; IATEFL looks for a balance in the following areas:

First timers-established speakers

EFL topics & concerns (ie mobile learning, writing, etc.)

Speakers from various geographical regions

Speakers from various teaching contexts – YL, business, etc.

Firstly you must decide on what format you would like to present:

a talk – 30 mins

a workshop – 45 mins ( maybe the easiest to start with as hopefully the participants will be doing at least some of the work!)

The Interactive language fair

a forum

a synposium

a panel discussion

There are certain criteria that must be respected, as Madeleine pointed out, if you can’t count to ten, you’d probably not be best suited for the job!

The title is maximum 10 words long, and must describe what is in the box so to speak.

The abstract is 50-60 words long, you must think VERY carefully about this as that is what the participants base their choice on.

The summary is 200-250 words, this is where you describe in as much detail as possible the hows and whys and try to persuade the powers that be to let you in. Do not repeat the abstract in the summary and DO NOT GO OUTSIDE THE WORD LIMITS for any of these.

IATEFL are looking for:

– Clarity – We will look at, participants will do/see/learn… explain context, aim and outcome.

-Don’t be too broad in your subject.

-Don’t aim to low, these are professional teachers, it’s not CELTA bootcamp.

-Say something new.

-Don’t present incomplete research, we’ll wait until you’ve finished, thanks.

-Don’t be too personal, nobody wants to hear about all your experiences UNLESS they can take away something concrete to use in their classes.

– Aim to take theory and show it in a practical application.

– you must not have given the same/similar session at a previous IATEFL event.

Timing details– You should read the proposal information that is given out in June, and submit your proposal by mid September, find out more details about this on the website.

You should here back from IATEFL by mid November, unless they ask you to resubmit, in which case you’ll know in January.

Finally, don’t forget you must be a member of IATEFL to submit a proposal, but that’s no hardship, is it?!