Today was quite a hectic day for me - getting to Aberdeen from the depths of Dorset. The plane from Heathrow Airport was full of conference goers and there was quite a buzz already.



Later the hotel I bumped into Barbara Sinclair. Great! At least one of our guest speakers had arrived safely.



That evening there was a dinner for staff, volunteers and associates of IATEFL. I had never been to one of those before. I shared a taxi with Sandie Mourao, who coordinates all the SIGs, Briony Beaven, the coordinator of the Teacher Trainers and Educators SIG, Zeynep Urkun the coordinator of the Testing and Evaluation and Assessment SIG, and our plenary speaker, Guy Cook. What did we talk about on the way there? Birdwatching!



At the diner, I finally got to meet our SIG coordinator, Carol Everhard. We have been working together over the past year to revamp the SIG and to get our pre-conference event organised, but we had never actually met before in person. Hugh Nicoll, also from the Learner Autonomy SIG had also arrived safely from Japan and was at the dinner. I was also thrilled to see Marion Williams. I know her from my Exeter days. She takes over as IATEFL president on Friday. Sandie and Sarah from IATEFL organised some after dinner games. I think Marion helped our table win the language error anecdote game.



Jo