“This blog was written by Peter Lahiff, who attended the EAIE 2025 conference.”
What struck me as a first time attendee at the EAIE conference was the huge variety of formats in which ideas were being shared. It is a huge event with thousands of participants, but the organisers have really made an effort to make space for a huge range of inspiring interactions on all aspects in International Education.
The classic session at EAIE is a presentation by a panel of speakers from different countries and based in different institutions. They have to be based on an international collaboration from the outset or share experience from different countries on the same issue. About 75% of the proposals to speak get rejected and a key consideration is to hear from as wide a variety of speakers and institutions as possible. Participants were recommended to use the conference to find a partner they could present with next year.
The people attending EAIE have to be members of the organisation and are all welcome to use the members lounges. In addition to having tea and snacks available all day long these places are abuzz with meetings where people are hammering out all kinds of international collaborations between different institutions from all over the world. Despite being the European association, many people from other continents were there to see if they could arrange to work together with European institutions. Around all this activity there were opportunities for members to sign up for mindfulness, massage and coaching sessions too.
The conference also offers workshops which are training sessions led by a person with expertise in the area. The most popular ones get booked out early as the experienced attendees make the picks well in advance.
I have seen Poster presentations in other conferences that I have attended, but never realised it could be something that generated the kind of energetic interaction which I saw at EAIE. When the time slot opened and the new set of posters went up, people gathered in front of each poster to ask questions about the projects being presented and walking from one to the other taking in different topics. It was deliberately placed in a space near where the sessions were on so there was passing traffic as well as those with a specific interest.
One format that I had never seen before was the campfire. There were small circles of tiered seating erected in the concourses and there was a presenter leading discussions on a topic of concern and bringing in experiences from colleagues in different institutions around Europe. Also known as fish bowl sessions, the idea is to blur the distinction between the speaker and the audience, which they did very effectively.
I was also interested in the idea of ignite sessions where you are allowed only 20 slides and these advance automatically every 15 seconds. That means you can’t afford to linger on any point and have to be well-rehearsed to make the most of your 5 minutes. That is one way to cut out the waffle. Another format that I didn’t get to see in action myself was the world cafe where participants move between round tables each with a designated discussion question.
Of course it is not all work at the EAIE conference and each evening there was a reception at a different venue around the city. The opening reception was in the Liseberg amusement park which was just across the road from the venue. It was opened up to all the conference attendees with vegan snacks and three drinks included. We were also invited to try a selection of the hair-raising rides as many times as we wanted over the three hours that we were there. Your correspondent tried a very tame looking one with 1950s style cars and a juke box only to find that it lifted and twirled the occupants in an alarming way. On the second evening there was an event down by the Gothenburg port where participants were asked to wear coloured bandanas to indicate their area of interest and mingle, while being serenaded by a Swedish wedding band. The band was encouraging everyone to dance like frogs.
It all ended up with a plenary session in the Scandinavium stadium, which was also quite different to your typical conference. There was, of course, a speech from the EAIE president with a call for unity and solid bridges to bring us together and highlighting the importance of the conference as a space where the values of democracy and free expression in higher education have a platform based on trust and dialogue. She called on those present to turn connections into actions and said that EAIE is based on members are people that go the extra mile to engage and foster internationalisation in higher education that is more inclusive and responsive.
It was a short speech and that left time for a thought provoking talk on expertise versus AI, as well as a rhythmic clap-along and a choir made up of conference participants singing Mama Mia. We were in Sweden after all.