I was invited to attend the 2020 AIRC Annual Conference which was held virtually due to COVID-19. This was my first AIRC conference and I was not disappointed! Following is a brief summary of my thoughts on the 2020 AIRC Annual Conference.
Like many things in the field of international education, I watched with much interest the establishment of the American International Recruitment Council (AIRC) and have paid attention to each of their annual conferences via Twitter ever since. I have always wanted to attend the AIRC annual conference but it was never in the cards for me to do so. AIRC reported that they welcomed a record of over 580 participants to the conference this past year. I think the challenge for AIRC (and all international education organizations hosting conferences) will be how to work in virtual components to their in person conferences. AIRC's 2021 annual conference is scheduled to be held in Miami!
While the conference was held virtually I found it to be an incredibly informative and a very well run conference. The conference was held over a two week period from November 30th to December 11th which I found to be a very strategic plan as it allowed me to maintain my work schedule and work the few sessions per day into the mix. I didn't have to block out 2-5 solid days to attend session after session. While there were a few sessions I was unable to attend due to work conflicts I could not reschedule I was able to work almost all sessions into my work schedule. I also found the quality of the sessions to be top notch and incredibly informative. I thank all of the presenters for their time and knowledge as I learned much! What I found to be incredibly helpful and a great add on to the conference were the daily Roundup emails from Jennifer Wright that were incredibly detailed summaries of the day and sessions! You can read a summary of the major conference themes here.
AIRC was also going through a transition during the conference with the retirement of AIRC Executive Director Mike Finnell and the start of Brian Whalen's term as the new AIRC Executive Director during the conference! I've known Brian for many years and before his time as President and CEO of the Forum on Education Abroad. Brian did an excellent job leading the conference with his AIRC colleagues and AIRC is in good hands under Brian's leadership!
In sum, I thought the 2020 AIRC annual conference was fantastic and I was not disappointed! I fully recommend to everyone in the field and especially those whose work focuses on international admissions and recruitment. If your work focuses on education abroad but you want to expand your knowledge in the field I recommend registering for the 2021 annual conference as well as the other AIRC events!
