The seventh edition of the Image Conference, the annual conference of the Visual Arts Circle, was held on 6th and 7th October at New York College, in Athens, Greece. The Department of English Language and Language Teaching of New York College, Athens hosted  and co-organised this international conference, offering educators in Greece a unique opportunity for focused, high-quality professional development.

The two key aims of the conference were to put media and images at the centre of the language learning agenda, and to offer guidance on using media and images critically and creatively in language teaching in the age of the Internet. It is always an excellent opportunity for like-minded from all over the world to meet and exchange ideas.

On Friday night already, several of us had arrived for a warm and welcoming pre-conference event at the venue. Having a drink, seeing old friends and colleagues, chatting was an incredibly pleasant experience.

The next morning, Kieran Donaghy opened the Conference .

The Conference kicked off with Magdalena Brzezinska’s workshop ‘Can you feel what I feel?’ followed by Tyson Seburn’s ‘Video Oxymorons’.

Several other keynote speakers followed …..

like Jade Blue and Hania Krystyna Bociek and Ben Goldstein

Other colleagues presented, of course, too….

Like Magdalena Dygala, Magdalena Wasilewska, Teresa Carvalho, Efi Tzouri, Grace Alchini and many many more.

The day ended with Kieran’s and Chrysa Papalazarou’s plenary talks at the College’s yard!

However, that was not enough! A dinner party at a taverna was to follow shortly after!

Day 2 was shorter and started with speakers such as Elena Domínguez Romero and Jelena Bobkina but also Rob Howard, Nick Bilbrough, Maria Barberi, Vicky Papageorgiou, Vasiliki Lismani, Maria Theologidou, Judy Boyle, Chryssa Themelis , Emma Louise Pratt, etc.

It was two wonderful days full of interesting talks, a lot of bonding with colleagues, networking and a delightful opportunity to spend a few days in sunny Athens, of which everyone took advantage of even during the breaks.

The Conference closed with Anna Whitcher’s training session ‘Language learning through video creation ‘ and Daniel Xerri’s plenary on ‘Making the Most of the Multicultural Classroom through Multimodal Resources’.

On the last day, too Emma Louise Pratt interviewed people out in the yard and you can listen to their reflections here .

Also, you can watch Magdalena Dygala’s video

And the announcement that next year the Image Conference will be hosted in Brussels! Until then….. we will be in touch!