BESIG Conference 2010

The 2010 Annual Conference will be held in Bielefeld, Germany over the weekend 19 - 21 November.

The VHS Bielefeld takes great pleasure in inviting you back to Bielefeld to the very building where the first IATEFL BESIG Conference was held in 1988. Bielefeld is the cultural and economic centre of Ostwestfalen-Lippe (OWL) in the North-Eastern part of the German Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia.

The building housing the conference is an early linen spinning and weaving mill dating back to 1854, which was saved from demolition in the twentieth century and transformed into an Adult Education Centre for the city of Bielefeld. The building marked the beginning of industrialisation in this part of Germany and in the course of only a few years turned Bielefeld from a small rural village into a major industrial city in Northern Germany.

It is the focal point of a unique conglomeration of 19th century industrial architecture; besides the main building of the Volkshochschule there are the Museum of the History of Bielefeld in the former north-light factory halls, one of Germany’s most significant collections of Arts & Crafts – the “Hülsmann Stiftung”, an art cinema and beer garden housed in a former storage building for flax. The Volkshochschule looks onto the Rochdale Park, named after Bielefeld’s twin town in the UK, and is surrounded by the Ravensberg Park. Other nearby sights of interest are the Museum of Shirt-Making – the “Wäschefabrik Windel” – which even today still looks as if the workers had just left for their lunch break, the Old Market Square with its late Gothic and Renaissance buildings and St. Nicholas, the “Old Cathedral”, which houses a beautiful 15th century hand carved high altar.

The Volkshochschule Bielefeld is the largest institution of its kind in Eastern Westpalia-Lippe and the largest department by far is the language department, which caters for over 700 classes per year. English accounts for forty percent of the classes and prepares over 1000 candidates for a variety of English examinations annually. The Volkshochschule is a licensed Cambridge and TELC examinations centre.

For further information please, click here

For a copy of the conference flyer, please click here

We would like to welcome you warmly to Bielefeld in November 2010!

J. Wolfgang H. Ridder, Head of the Language Department of the VHS Bielefeld

John Warner, local organiser and freelance teacher of Business English

Conference updates

Dates to remember

• early-bird registration ends on 10 September
• speaker registration ends on 10 September
• on-line registration ends on 31 October

Conference Fees

• IATEFL members
  Early Bird (from early July to 10 September): £ 80.00; after 10 September: £ 105.00
• Non-IATEFL members
  Early Bird (from early July to 10 September): £ 130.00; after 10 September: £ 155.00
• IATEFL-member speakers: £ 80.00
• Non-IATEFL member speakers: £ 130.00
• Pre-conference seminar on Friday afternoon additional £ 15

Conference times

• Friday 19 November 14.45 to 18.00 pre-conference seminars
  
• Friday 19 November 19.00 to 22.15 opening of conference and reception
• Saturday 20 November 09.00 to 18.15 conference sessions
• Saturday 20 November 18.30 to 19.30 BESIG annual general meeting
• Sunday 21 November 09.45 to 13.35 conference sessions

For details of the conference structure click here: Conference structure document (.pdf)

Registration

To register please click here: Conference registration

To contact the Events Coordinators please click here: besig2010@besig.org

Travel information

For information about air travel to the conference, please click here: Air travel information document (.pdf)

Information concerning rail travel to Bielefeld can be accessed here: DB Bahn (When the page opens use the menu at the top to select your language.)

Information concerning German rail group tickets can be accessed here: DB Bahn Group discounts

Information concerning limousine services from PAD-airport can be downloaded here: Transfer Central Agency (.pdf)

Further general information about travelling to Bieleld is available here: Bielefeld Travel & Transport.

Information about public transport services in Bielefeld can be downloaded here: Public transport (.pdf)

Accommodation in Bielefeld

For the convenience of conference participants, IATEFL BESIG has arranged with Bielefeld Marketing a centralised booking service for the various Bielefeld hotels . Details of this service can be downloaded by clicking here.

Here is a map of Bielefeld showing hotels near the conference venue, the Volkshochschule situated in Ravensberger Park (you can use your mouse to move the map around or zoom in):

Use this link to view a larger version of this map

A comprehensive list of hotels can be downloaded here: Hotels in Bielefeld (.pdf)

Sponsorship and Exhibitor Options

We are offering a range of sponsorship opportunities. There are four levels of sponsorship: platinum, gold, silver and bronze. Each sponsorship level offers its own unique opportunities to support the Business English community and to share your message with them.

This year we are offering for the first time a commercial poster space for smaller exhibitors. This is aimed at smaller providers who want to be present but have limited personnel or cannot be there all the time.

In addition we are offering our customary deals on exhibition stands and advertising opportunities for you.

Click here: Sponsors and exhibitors form

Click here: Exhibitors' guidelines

The deadline for IATEFL BESIG to receive your submission is Thursday 30 September 2010.

Plenary Speaker: Mark Powell

We are very pleased to announce that the plenary speaker, sponsored by Cambridge University Press, for this year's Annual Conference will be Mark Powell:

Bielefeld Keynote Speaker

The poster can be downloaded here

All materials © BESIG. Site design by Matthew Taylor & Eric Baber. Last updated 03/2009