Innovate ELT Conference 2025
24th and 25th May 2025 | Barcelona, Spain
About InnovateELT
InnovateELT is an annual conference inaugurated in 2015. True to the name, our aim is to discuss the role of innovation in language education and celebrate some of the most exciting things happening around us. The event attracts ELT professionals from around the world, from fields including teaching, training, leadership, materials writing, publishing, EdTech and more!
What can I expect?
As an attendee of the InnovateELT conference, you can expect a dynamic event that will leave you bursting with ideas and ready for Monday! These are just some of the reasons why our attendees keep coming back, year on year:
👩🏻🎓 Attend innovative talks and workshops from ELT experts
🙋🏻♂️ Contribute towards important discussions which will shake up the ELT industry
🌐 Network with ELT professionals from around the world
🙌🏻 Participate in competitions to win some top prizes
🌴 Enjoy our sunny garden (an oasis in the city!)
Theme in 2025: Your ELT Toolkit!
The theme this year is “Your ELT Toolkit” and we will be providing an abundance of opportunities for you to share your ideas with others and fill your own toolkit at the same time.
This could be, for example, a new ELT product which is being developed, a teaching or training technique which has proven to work wonders, or innovative practices in leadership and mangement. There is no limit to what may be found in the ELT toolkit at the Innovate ELT conference this year.
Featured Talks & Speakers 2025
First and foremost, the InnovateELT conference would be nothing without it’s speakers. Our speakers will deliver a mix of dynamic plenaries, workshops and Q&As that will get you involved and leave you brimming with ideas.
The conference will have three pathways: teaching, teacher training and management/ teacherpreneurship. Delegates will be able to focus on one area or dip into a mixture of sessions. This will be a great opportunity to delve into many toolkits, whatever context you are working in!
About Duncan
Duncan Foord
Director of Teacher Training
Qualifications: MEd in TESOL, Trinity Licentiate Diploma in TESOL (DipTESOL).
Duncan Foord is the Director of OxfordTEFL, Barcelona. He has 30 years experience in language teaching, teacher training and school leadership and management. He is the author of “From English Teacher to Learner Coach” (with Dan Barber, The Round 2014) The Developing Teacher (Delta Publishing, 2009) and The Language Teachers Survival Handbook with Lindsay Clandfield (Its Magazines, 2008). He is lead trainer on the OxfordTEFL Leadership in ELT course (on line and face to face).He is a regular presenter at conferences on a range of areas, in particular teacher development and leadership and management in ELT.
About Ceri
Ceri Jones
ELT professional Freelancer
Ceri Jones is a teacher, teacher educator and materials writer. She has lived and worked in Spain for 25 years. She has contributed to a number of coursebook series for secondary and adults, both for print and digital platforms. She is an online tutor, writing, facilitating and training on a wide range of teacher education courses. She has worked as a teacher, trainer, and DOS in Italy, Hungary, Spain and the UK. She holds an MA in TEFL from Reading University and has run workshops and teacher development sessions at a number of national and international conferences.
Over the last ten years she has been increasingly involved in materials development and has contributed to a number of adult coursebook series (Inside Out, Framework, Straightforward, The Big Picture) as well as writing grammar practice books (Practical Grammar) and supplementary material for Macmillan Readers and onestopenglish. She writes a blog called Close Up.
About Nicola
Nicola Meldrum
Tutor Development Specialist
Nicola is a learning designer and freelance ELT specialist. Current projects are focused on developing eLearning experiences for English and Spanish language learners. Her experience also includes teacher training, instructional design and teaching.
About Chris
Chris Fry
EFL Teacher – retired
TEFL Blog: One way to Teach English as a Foreign Language
Chris Fry has always been interested in getting students to record themselves in class and has listened to hundreds of these recordings, giving feedback to students on pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary and assessing them. He was Head of the English Department at EOI Drassanes and then moved to the British Council, where he worked for nearly 40 years. Despite having retired eight years ago, he is still actively interested in EFL with a particular interest in Extensive Reading and Generative Artificial Intelligence and getting students to apply it to their spoken English rather than written English.
Event location
The InnovateELT Conference takes place at Oxford TEFL, an accredited teacher training school in a great central location in Barcelona – moments away from the Ramblas or Passieg de Gracia, a long avenue with two of most famous Gaudí landmarks, “Casa Batlló”and “La Pedrera”.
Oxford TEFL, Carrer Diputació, 279
08007 Barcelona. Spain
Get involved, get connected, get inspired!
Be a part of InnovateELT 2025!
Testimonials
It’s well worth going every year
“There is a family feel about it that is enhanced by the frequent generous breaks in the lovely garden. It’s well worth going every year, as then there are more and more familiar faces among the speakers and the attendees.”
It was great to meet some new people with fresh ideas
“I thoroughly enjoyed this year’s Innovate ELT conference. It was great to be back and see old acquaintances and meet some new people with fresh ideas.”
Inspires you to go home and be better at your job
“Innovate is extremely unique. It’s inclusive, diverse, daring. It makes you feel like you’re part of a family and inspires you to go home and be better at your job.”