An update from HKCPD Hub
Events
The Hong Kong Continuing Professional Development (HKCPD) Hub International Conference 2021 for English teaching professionals worldwide was held from 8-10 January 2021 online with virtual pre-conference workshops from 6-7 January 2021. It addressed the theme of “Innovative Teaching and Research in English Language Education”.
Keynote speakers included Prof. David Boud, Prof. Averil Coxhead, Prof. Alister Cumming, Prof. Robert Godwin-Jones and Prof. Lourdes Ortega. They presented on a range of topics, from assessment, to vocabulary, and technology in language learning. They also facilitated workshops before the conference, and took part in a forum on innovative teaching and research in English language teaching.
Other highlights during the conference included a forum on the importance of leadership in university language centres which included the language centre heads of PolyU, HKU and HKUST, and future directions for teaching and learning with heads from respective educational development centres from universities worldwide.
The conference, which attracted over 700 participants and around 150 presenters, attracted positive comments. One attendee noted that the diverse presentations and audience made it a more interesting than usual conference, while the personalised snacks during the breaks, shorter restroom lines and the BYOB receptions were an added bonus.
While two face-to-face symposia have been organised in previous years, this was the first time for the HKCPD to organise a fully online conference. Zoom was used as the video conferencing tool, and the conference was hosted on a platform called sched which enabled participants to easily organise their own schedule. While the conference took a great deal of organising, one of the organisers mentioned that the lessons learned from making it virtual could be transferred to future face-to-face conferences which are likely to have a more hybrid feel.
More details of the conference can be found here: https://hkcpdhub.hku.hk/conference2021/
