With little over a month until the first IATEFL MaWSIG event takes place, two-thirds of the tickets have already been sold! So get your tickets before they all disappear. The conference is looking to be a really great day, with many excellent speakers and key industry experts participating in panel discussions.

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Here is an overview of the day’s schedule:

  • Opening Plenary from Simon Greenall, “The Decline and Fall of Coursebooks” – a look at what has changed since IATEFL 2013.
  • The first panel discussion will be on “Working with external content providers”, chaired by Karen Spiller with speakers John Hughes, Antonia Clare and Lewis Lansford. They will be debating the advantages and disadvantages to authors of working with external content providers and how this will affect the process of writing.
  • The second panel, chaired by Nick Robinson, will look into “New ways of working”. Panel speakers include Simon LeMaistre, Laurie Harrison and Nicola Prentis. They will discuss a variety of topics, including how publishers can manage larger teams working on new series; the implications of ensuring that materials are still fresh and original and who should make the decisions about the content of the book?
  • Panel three will discuss “Publishing without publishers” – looking at the scope for self-publishing within ELT. Is it possible to make money from it? What needs to be considered in order to produce high quality materials and at what cost? and What are the benefits of self-publishing not for profit? Panel speakers include Johanna Stirling, Steve Elsworth, Berni Wall and Marcos Benevides (who will hopefully be attending by Skype….hopefully). The panel will be chaired by Karen White.
  • The final panel will be on “New resources for materials writers”, chaired by Sue Kay. Speakers Sarah Cunningham, Sue Kay, Victoria Boobyer and Paul Dummett will discuss where authors get their inspiration from, which websites would authors recommend and what kind of things should writers be looking for, amongst other questions.
  • The day will end with the closing plenary from Laura Austin, “What could ELT learn from the wider world of publishing?”, followed by a showcase from BookMachine.me

After the conference there will be an after drinks reception sponsored by ELT Jam.

MaWSIG would like to give a big thank you to the event’s sponsors Cengage Learning, Richmond and ELT Jam.

The event is taking place at The King’s Centre, Oxford on Saturday January 25th, 2014.