Global Gathering of Education Industry Professionals

From 30 October to 1 November 2022, Wittenborg President Peter Birdsall and Wittenborg Corporate Relations Manager Iryna Bernatska attended ICEF Berlin 2022, the flagship event of the International Consultants for Education and Fairs, which took place in hybrid format, both virtually and physically at the Intercontinental Hotel, Berlin, Germany.  

ICEF Berlin is the largest and most comprehensive global B2B networking event in the international education industry. This year marked its 27th edition with 2,427 industry professionals representing 1,665 organisations from 114 countries participating.

Thousands of professionals from educational institutions, businesses providing industry-relevant services, cultural exchange and work & travel companies and high-quality student recruitment agencies visit Berlin every year to build and maintain professional partnerships and expand their networks. As in previous years, Wittenborg had the opportunity to re-connect with current partners whilst establishing new business relationships through one-to-one meetings and during numerous informal networking opportunities.

Bernatska stated that she and Birdsall conducted more than 65 face-to-face meetings with agents from Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Romania, India, Pakistan, Ghana, Morocco, South Africa, Turkey, Georgia, UAE, the UK and Ukraine. In total, 23,479 meetings were held both in-person as well as virtually during this event. ''We met our current agents and also built new connections. The interest in studying in the Netherlands is across all nationalities'', Bernatska commented.

Peter Birdsall added, "Alongside the usual presentations and updates we made with new and also current agents, there were also often discussions about the current global situation, with a lack of representatives from China and other South Asian countries showing us that the pandemic is over for some and not for others. Also, the war in Ukraine was a sensitive personal topic, not only for our friends from Ukraine, but also the few Russian agents who made it to the workshop. All in all, ICEF once again showed that it represented the enormous diversity and internationalisation in education around the world that is essential for society in these times."

WUP 10/11/2022
By Selina White
©WUAS Press