CONFERENCE JUNKIE!

At last my “big” presentation has come and gone, and with it, a whole new world of experience. This year, Oman’s ELT conference graduated to being “International”, and featured 88 sessions and near a thousand participants. It was so popular that on-site registrations could not be allowed, causing considerable disappointment for some. This is a pity, but as it was, the facilities were stretched to capacity.

What really impressed me was the atmosphere, which was friendly and collegial, even with such staggering numbers. This distinguishes Oman’s ELT conference from others in the region, and I hope it will remain this way.

Of course nothing makes you as aware of how nice people are, as actually presenting. Although I have taught every working day of my life for almost a decade and have presented before, it was my first time at such a big conference. (not to mention “international”…), and I was a little uneasy. Even so, the participants in the audience were so wonderfully welcoming that I soon forgot about this. I was caught somewhat unawares by the local tradition of poster presentations. At other conferences I have attended, poster presentations are more like an exhibition where you can have a discussion with the presenter. The poster remains on display throughout the event, but the presenter is only available for a limited time. Here, I was a little stunned to find that an actual presentation was the plan. I have lived and worked with the beginnings of this poster over several years, and have a great deal to say about it, but felt a little tongue-tied when suddenly confronted with it. I did have a structure PowerPoint presentation and handouts to use as a structure, but basically I wanted the poster to be the star of the show, not me. Having had far more attention than I had bargained for, I was relieved to hear that people did enjoy the presentation and really liked the poster. Which is nice, because in retrospective it is actually outrageously avant-garde for an esteemed conference.

The PowerPoint slides are (hopefully) attached here, with a picture of the poster in the background.