Last week, EC English Language Centres held its annual business conference at the Palace Hotel in Sliema. With 65 international staff members in attendance for a variety of talks and workshops, this year’s focus was ‘The Student Experience’, and the conference featured distinguished keynote speakers Geoff Ramm and Tina Catling.

Kicking off with opening addresses from CEO Mike Xuereb and Executive Chairman Andrew Mangion, the two-day session included organisational updates from Sales, IT and Marketing, plus EC’s regional directors for North America, Europe and South Africa. Apart from the company’s department heads, each school’s centre director and director of studies flew in for the conference from 17 international destinations.

EC’s business conference is an important yearly event for the Maltese-owned language school chain, as it brings together the company’s entire management team for forward-thinking discussions on language learning, business strategy and brand development.

“One of our main organisational challenges is geographical spread”, said CEO Michael Xuereb. “We recruit our students from over 90 countries and have schools in three different continents and five countries.

The management conference is a great opportunity for us to have our most influential leaders and decision makers under one roof, to focus on learning and sharing, and also to tap into the skills and expertise of our team and work on shaping the company’s future.”

One of the many highlights of the 2014 conference was multi-award winning marketing speaker Geoff Ramm, whose captivating keynote on ‘celebrity service’ in the language travel industry both inspired and entertained. In an equally stimulating address on day two, London Business School lecturer Tina Catling spoke about the importance of innovation and creativity. Catling’s dynamic ideation workshop got attendees to think outside the box and discover ways of using their imagination to enhance the student experience.

“The theme of this year’s conference was around the learning experience for our students, which is ultimately at the heart of what we do,” continued Mike Xuereb.

Established in 1991 with its first school in Malta, EC now has 17 schools worldwide specialising in English language teaching, with French taught exclusively at EC Montreal. With its 18th school opening this May in Manchester, the company is looking towards further expansion in the industry, persistently developing its courses, modernising its schools’ facilities, and maintaining a solid team dedicated to the continual improvement of the EC student experience.