"Ich bin ein Berliner”
I am just back from ICEF Berlin - still the biggest and best meeting place for Agents and Schools. I have attended about 20 times – so I guess I am a “veteran” as Steve called me in a recent Linkedin post - but this was the first time for me since my ‘retirement’ [sic]. As always it was both an exhausting and exhilarating experience. I had 34, 25-minute face to face meetings and many other informal ones. My voice nearly went again. I bumped into so many old friends and industry colleagues I hadn’t seen for a while, and I know there were others there I didn’t even see as the event was so big.
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A New Vision for Summer Schools in a Rapidly Changing World
I have known the Managing Director of British Summer School, Steve Wood for a long time. We both had very similar jobs running summer programmes for big Independent Schools. For many years we were in a Best Practice Group with other like-minded industry colleagues. Through our meetings I found Steve to be a true professional who was always open and honest and who was delivering quality programmes year on year.
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Only Fools and Horses
I am back in Spain, and it is hot here. You have to stay dehydrated in this weather! It is bittersweet though as I am feeling a bit of a lightweight because the rest of the team is still working hard, and age is just a number. I am under a bit of time pressure though to put this story to bed, as I haven’t had time to get around to starting it until now.
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Special Agents
It was early this week, when, having exhausted my best of Billy Joel CD, I was singing along to the Human League classic “You were working as a waitress in a cocktail bar, when I met you. Don’t, don’t you want me. Don’t you want me baby”, with an Agent friend, that the idea for this week’s story came to me – I do all my best thinking in the car! I was also feeling a little guilty about the completely rosy picture I had painted in my last story as we did have to deal with a couple of Agent complaints early this week.
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The Happy Camper
I was in a Parent/Student fair in Germany a few years ago. To set the scene these fairs are a bit like ‘speed dating’, you usually sit at a table, although this one was standing room only as it was a small venue. You then have a time slot to try and entice the people in front of you whether, Parents/Students directly, as in this case, or to Agents (who will then go on to promote the schools they have chosen). They then rotate, and you do your pitch all over again to the next people to arrive. If you have seen the film ‘Groundhog Day’ you will have an idea of what that might be like!
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