I was incredibly fortunate to be invited to Seoul last weekend to act as publicity for Korea TESOL their International Conference in Seoul. If you are unaware, KOTESOL organises an International Conference every year around Spring, usually April or May, and they have many speakers and guests from around world. However, it was the first time that I had been to an international conference for many years, and also it being my first in South Korea.
In this post, I will be sharing some key takeaways from the weekend and reflecting upon the KOTESOL International Conference, while also acting as their official photographer from the event. If you were fortunate to have attended the annual conference, let me know in the comments.
The First Day
I arrived the previous evening after catching a train up to Seoul from Daejeon. Upon arriving to Seoul Station, I caught a bus and then checked into the hotel that I was staying. I woke up super early on Saturday morning, skipped breakfast, and got all my photography gear to the venue. There was a shuttle bus from the hotel to the conference and I met fellow conference organisers at Sookmyung Women’s University (숙명여대학교).
I had plenty of time before the opening remarks and the first sessions to get my bearings, and to see what I could do as the official photographer for the event. My fellow Publicity Director was working with me, and we had managed to secure a banner to place across the main entrance and had some props available for people so that they could take photographs there. It was actually a very good idea from the Publicity Director and proved very popular amongst attendees.
There was also a market place which accommodated a range of businesses that were selling their respective wares. It was so nice to see so many individual businesses supporting the event in their own way.
It was also a great surprise to see Claudia Tumba promoting her own publication or selling material or resources that you could use in the classroom, such as her very own K-Dish ABCs or Rory Story Cubes.
After the registration and arrivals of most attendees and speakers, people were guided towards the Opening Ceremony at the main hall at the venue. It was slowly getting busy with more and more people turning up. The opening remarks were shared by various individuals such as the President of KOTESOL (Dr. Lindsay Herron) , Co-Chairs of Korea TESOL International Conference (Dr. Meerbek Kudaibergenov and Gabriela Villafradez), including the Director of Sookmyung TESOL (Dr. Namjoon Kang).
After the opening remarks were shared, everyone was greeted to a Taekwondo Performance which had been organised by the International Conference Committee.
After this wonderful performance, we had our opening plenary for to kick of the conference, which was delivered by Thomas Farrell and titled ’10 Principles of Effective Teaching for Teacher Well-Being’. Thomas Farrell needs no introduction from those that are reflective practitioners themselves, as he published a wide range of material on reflective practice.
It was an enjoyable plenary and it was refreshing to have such an energetic speaker encouraging attendees to teach effectively for their very own well-being by sharing ten areas to develop and grow as an educator, such as recognising your career path, understanding your learners, students, and goals, as well as developing a future action plan.
As I am now in my twentieth year involved in English language teaching, it was an invaluable reminder to focus on my personal goals for well-being, and hopefully put into practice some of what I rediscovered from the plenary, especially getting more involved in action research and academic publications.
The remainder of the day involved going round to various rooms and taking more photographs from the day in the hope that they would be used by KOTESOL for future publications. I literally walked round each of the rooms that were being used by speakers and took a variety of pictures. Unfortunately, I didn’t spend much time in the talks as I felt the responsibility of wandering round and taking as many pictures as possible. By the end of the day, I took around 600 photos in total and I decided that the second day, I would try to at least spend a bit of time in one session of interest.
The Second Day
The next day was also an early start. I woke up early, skipped breakfast once again, and made my way back to the venue for the final day of the conference after checking out from the hotel. I arrived at the venue quite early compared to most visitors and placed all my gear in the cloakroom which was a dedicated spot for the publicity team.
The marketplace was still rather going strong, and poster presentations were located right next to the entrance. As people arrived, they were mingling around the poster presentations, chatting with presenters and then afterwards heading over to the marketplace or going to a quiet corner for a coffee and a chat.
This second day, I wanted to spend more time in presentations but I also wanted to take some more pictures and dedicate the day recording some videos. I ended up taking far less pictures – around 140 in total. Unfortunately, I lost all the video content that I had a recorded through shere incompentence and deleted these by accident thinking that I had transferred them to my PC earlier – I only transferred all pictures and not the video content. I feel rather silly to be honest as I had some video interviews and was planning to share these here. My apologies.
Nonetheless, one memorable talk that I stayed listening to was regarding the varieties of British English and Korean learner expectations of British English. It was a wonderful talk by Kieran Rimmer and I chatted with him afterwards as it was incredibly engaging, and shared thoughts, reflections, and ideas regarding his MA research.
By the end of the day, I had all KOTESOL International Conference Committee Members join on the steps for a photo. It was a little problematic as I had to use my camera through my smartphone and time everyone looking at the camera – it was akin to herding cats I suppose. Anyhow, we finished towards the end of Sunday and much had been accomplished over the weekend.
Final Thoughts
This has been the first English teaching conference that I have been to for many years. Since the pandemic, I really felt disengaged with the industry and I suppose it is natural for some that have been involved in teaching for over two decades to feel a little critical – I even let my KOTESOL membership lapse last year but was guided back by some very supportive members. However, I was really pleased to have made the effort to get involved with this Conference and renew my passion with teaching as well as connect with others located elsewhere, not just in South Korea.
I have now decided to pursue some action research related to my own context after attending this conference. It would be wonderful to refind my place in English teaching as I have been busily involved within the teaching at university-aged students for around seven years now. I do hope to also attend future educational conferences in the future and connect with likeminded individuals.
Finally, I would be greatly honoured to return to next year’s KOTESOL International Conference as their official photographer as well as videographer, and I have learnt to use separate SD Cards rather than using one for either personal or semi-professional use. I will not be deleting anything from SD Cards until I double check that I have transferred everything over to my PC. Hopefully, by next year, I will have some different lens that I can use for my camera for conference use. It would also be great to have more people on the publicity team so photos, video, etc. can be shared immediately on the day of the conference to social media rather than having content uploaded for members to use later.
Overall, a great weekend and I hope to see you at the KOTESOL International Conference in 2027.
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