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After the success of last year’s conference, ABS International brings to you this Second International Conference for English Coordinators and Directors of Studies.
Interview to LAURA LEWIN, president of the Organizing Committee…

E&F: Laura, why a conference for Coordinators?
If you think about it, English teachers in a management position are probably working with fewer resources and greater expectations than ever before. In these days of institutional restructuring, strategic decisions are based on management, finance, accounting, marketing and human resources issues- fields that may not be the areas of expertise of many coordinators. More than ever, directors and coordinators require new skills and knowledge, and this is exactly why we are organizing this mega event for coordinators and directors.

E&F: So basically being a coordinator is not that easy…
Well, to be successful, the coordinator must be able to plan, organize, direct staff, evaluate the work of others, communicate effectively and provide decisive leadership. No, not easy at all!

E&F: Tell us about this conference…
The Second International Conference for English Coordinators and Directors of Studies has been carefully designed to meet the challenging professional needs of today's coordinators.
This 3-day interdisciplinary conference will comprise a wide range of lectures and workshops to help experienced coordinators stay abreast of new developments in the ELT field, and create career opportunities for those teachers interested in being trained to become coordinators in the future.

E&F: Very interesting! When will it be held and where?
It will be held on August 28-29-30, 2003, in Buenos Aires, and we are enrolling people not only from all over Argentina, but from Chile, Uruguay and Brazil as well.

E&F: Tell us about the speakers in this II Conference.
Featured speakers include Roger Burgraff from the University of California, Juan Molina Farfán from Universidad de Concepción, Chile, Fernando Fleurquín from Montevideo, and many, many others, such as Susan Hillyard, María Marta Suárez, Jamie Duncan, Laura Szmuch, Juan Manuel Manes…

E&F: And you yourself!
Yes, I will be talking on Teacher Performance Review…

E&F: Teacher Performance Review?
Yes, as you know, most teachers go to seminars, listen to the speaker, get excited about new activities or ideas, try them briefly for the next few days, and forget about them in a week. But is this professional development?
This session has been designed to help coordinators implement an ongoing staff development program as a process for professional growth. The seminar will deal with in-service training, supervision and evaluation in a practical, useful and enjoyable way. Basically, how we, as coordinators, can help our teachers perform better on an ongoing basis…

E&F: I am sure it will be extremely interesting. How about other session?
Let me see, we have sessions on Running Successful Meetings, How to deal with Difficult People, How to Achieve Total Quality in our Institutions, we also have sessions on Marketing, on Change, others on Dealing with Parents, well, over 40 sessions for everyone to choose!

E&F: Where can our readers find further information on the conference?
To view all the sessions and all of our speakers, your readers can visit our new web site at www.abs-international.com.ar .
Or they may contact us at info@abs-international.com.ar or at (011) 4829-0374.

Thank you, Laura, for taking the time to talk to us.