G’day mate! I’m Anna from the Marketing Department. This week and last week, there have been many visitors in our campuses on the Gold Coast and in Brisbane. Why? Langports hosted the first IALC Workshop in Australia!
It was an incredible experience for Langports to welcome over 250 international partners (schools & agents) from all around the world to Brisbane and to our school.
What is IALC?
IALC (International Association of Language Centres) is a global community created in 1983 and which gathers 126 independent language schools from 21 countries, providing language courses in the country where the language is spoken. Students and agents looking for language schools in other countries should choose an IALC school as the members are a selection of the best independent schools around the world. Langports has been a member of IALC for many years and we are the only IALC school for the cities of Brisbane and Gold Coast.
The IALC Workshop 2014
Every year, IALC organises a workshop where agents and IALC schools can meet and get to know each other during 2 days of business meetings and 3 evening events. This year, Langports was the host and around 250 guests from many nationalities came to Brisbane to attend this event. This event was a fantastic opportunity for the IALC members to visit Australia and discover the Australian culture. During the event, Langports also arranged an art auction of original indigenous artworks to raise money for Yalari one of the organisations supported by The Langports Foundation.
The first night, our guests attended a cocktail reception where we had a wonderful show of traditional Aboriginal dancing in Brisbane’s amazing Cloudland.
On Friday night, we had the privilege of welcoming over 200 delegates to our Brisbane campus for a very unique night. We organised many different activities showcasing Australian culture. Our guests were welcomed by a giant koala and kangaroo! They could also have their photo taken with reptiles, crocodile or koalas from Lone Pine Sanctuary. They learnt about the didgeridoo and how to make several types of sounds. Agents and schools discovered aboriginal basket weaving and ochre painting as well.
The event was organised by our wonderful Langports family and Susie France & Robin Simpson carried out an amazing event. We also had 14 student volunteers who worked to make the event extra special for our guests. We would like to thank our hard-working students who helped make the Langports event such a success.
Finally, on Saturday evening, was the Gala Dinner in the Sofitel where we introduced our guests to the Australian outback! During the Gala Dinner’s final art auction, we raised over $10,000 for Yalari. It was an amazing to see the generosity of everyone attending the IALC workshop and we want to thank everyone again!
We took many photos and you can see these on Langports Instagram and Langports IALC Workshop Facebook Page.
Next year the IALC workshop will be held in Rouen, France by our partner school French in Normandy! We are looking forward to it very much!