On 18-19 September 2020 Lodz University of Technology Language Centre hosted the annual international conference for English language teachers, IATEFL Poland. This year's event, which has already had its 29th edition, adopted a different formula than before due to the pandemic. For the first time plenary lectures, presentations, demonstration lessons and workshops for teachers, methodologists and language specialists were held in a virtual space.
Honorary patronage over the IATEFL PL On-line Meet-up 2020 conference was assumed by the Rector of Lodz University of Technology, Prof. Krzysztof Jóźwik, PhD. For the Language Centre, the co-organisation of the IATEFL PL On-Line Meet-up 2020 was particularly important. In agreement with the Board of IATEFL PL, we included our native conference Lektor High-Tech 2020 in the event programme, which would have its third edition this year.
We started the 29th Professional Development Event IATEFL PL On-line Meet-up 2020 at TUL Language Centre with a welcome speech delivered by Andrzej Obstawski, President of IATEFL Polska and Magdalena Gałaj, Deputy Director of the Language Centre.
A studio was set up at the TUL Language Centre, from where IATEFL Poland presenters - Andrzej Obstawski, Marcin Stanowski and Dorota Chromińska - broadcast, supervised and reported live on over 50 sessions and 22 workshops for over 600 online participants.
Presenters at this year's virtual conference included presenters and attendees from all over the world; we had the pleasure of watching representatives from countries such as the United Kingdom, Spain, Mongolia, Uruguay, Argentina, Germany, Ukraine and, of course, Poland. The program featured such presenters as Geoff Tranter, Hugh Dellar, Lindsay Warwick, Mark Andrews, David Fisher, Andy Cowle, Christopher Walker, Russell Stannard , Rob Howard, Gabriel Díaz Maggioli, Rachel Marie Paling or Grzegorz Śpiewak, Magdalena Kania and Radek Krzyżanowski, whose presentations gathered a wide audience on the other side of the screens. The PŁ Language Centre was also represented at the Lektor High-Tech 2020 conference; the IATEFL PL On-Line Meet-Up 2020 presenters included John Speller, Katarzyna Budzińska, Marzena Stawicka and Magdalena Gałaj.
The motto of the IATEFL PL On-line Meet-up 2020 was HighTech - A Teachers' Promised Land. It referred not only to the place where the conference was held, but above all to the promise made by the promoters of the use of new technologies in language teaching, the application of modern educational methods and the implementation of a new approach to teaching and learning in the era of accelerated technological progress and the expansion of IT tools into the traditional classroom.
During the event, participants had the opportunity to take a virtual walk around Lodz and Lodz University of Technology Campus. During the Happy Hours session representatives of publishers and conference partners such as Pearson, Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Egis Express Publishing, Nowa Era National Geographic Learning, Macmillan Education, Educarium, Cambridge Assessment English, Preston Publishing, British Council acquainted participants with their educational offer.
The event ended with a ceremonial farewell, during which we summed up the course of the online meeting and raised a symbolic toast to the success and future of the next IATEFL Poland events, to the future of English language education and teaching as well as personal and professional development of teachers, lecturers and language methodologists.
Thank you for being with us during these two days!
