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Return to Bulletin Home - November 2006
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ICEF Expands in Asia ICEF is shifting its China workshop site from Shanghai to Beijing in 2007 with the creation of a new ICEF China Workshop next October. The ICEF Asia Workshop, held in Shanghai for the past three years, will move back to its traditional home in Southeast Asia in 2008. Both events will continue to evolve to reflect the changing landscape in the dynamic Asian marketplace, and to offer expanded, regionally focused business opportunities to agents and education providers alike. A recent ICEF client survey clearly indicated important new trends in inbound/outbound student travel for China as well as a strong interest in Beijing as a workshop site.
The 2006 ICEF Asia Workshop in Shanghai. "We are always working to stay ahead of market trends, and this expansion in Asia is a response both to changing market conditions and the feedback we have gathered in our client surveys," says ICEF Director Markus Badde. While China's importance in the international education market has been widely observed (see "Asia Fuels Market Growth" from Issue #2), there is increasing evidence that China has become not only a major source of students, but also an important educational destination as well. The Institute for International Education recently reported that China received 141,000 foreign students in 2005—a notable figure in itself but even more so given that it marks a 27% increase over 2004. The new ICEF China Workshop will be held at Beijing's Kerry Centre Hotel October 17-19, 2007, immediately before the 2007 China Education Expo in Beijing. A Shangri-La Hotel, the Kerry Centre is situated close to the Education Expo venue in the Chaoyang District, the city's diplomatic, commercial, and financial core.
Shangri-La's Kerry Centre Hotel in Beijing, the site of the expanded ICEF China Workshop in 2007. Reflecting the unique conditions of the rapidly evolving Chinese market, the China Workshop will have a dual inbound/outbound focus. The workshop will feature Chinese agents recruiting students for studies abroad, foreign agents sending students to China, foreign education providers receiving Chinese students, and Chinese institutions receiving students from outside the country. In addition to one-to-one appointments for agents and providers, the programme will also promote linkages between Chinese and foreign institutions in recognition of the many opportunities in China for exchange and accreditation partnerships. The ICEF China Workshop provides an ideal stage for agent-provider networking that can then be extended through direct promotions to prospective students at the 2007 China Education Expo (October 20-21, Beijing). Now in its sixth year, the China Education Expo attracts tens of thousands of students to exhibition sites in selected Chinese cities. The Expo is officially approved by the Ministry of Education and sponsored by China Education Association for International Exchange. The announcement of ICEF's expanded programme in Asia follows October's successful ICEF Asia Workshop in Shanghai. This year, 289 participants came to Shanghai, representing 199 organisations and 39 countries. "A number of very good quality agents," said Sarah Devir of Windermere St. Anne's School (UK). "Well organised and the eSchedulePRO appointment system is brilliant for busy people to organise their appointments and maximise the effectiveness of the workshops." "We have received 100-plus students in one year through contacts we created during an ICEF Workshop," added Cagri Bagicoglu of the University of Northern Alabama (US). After the launch of the new ICEF China Workshop in October 2007, the ICEF Asia Workshop will return to its traditional home in Southeast Asia in 2008. The new location will ideally position the Asia Workshop to receive increasing numbers of quality agents from throughout the region.
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