S8E4: Organising Online Learning Events

Founder of English with Abigail, Abigail Fulbrook, shares insights into the online events she organises for learners and teachers of languages. Abigail talks about what inspired her to start hosting events, the benefits they offer, and tips on how to get involved.

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Key talking points

Inspiring Learning Events

Abigail shares her motivation for organising online events to create space for people to meet and connect. She explains how the online events expanded to include work-along summits for teachers interested in starting their businesses.

About the Events

Abigail explains the structure of the events, including prerecorded sessions led by different guests and interactive workshops aimed at encouraging participation. She highlights the benefits, including exposure to different teaching styles and networking opportunities.

Keeping Events Free

Abigail emphasises her decision to keep events free to reach a wider audience and foster connections between learners and teachers worldwide. She highlights how this approach helps to market her business.

Taking Action

Abigail offers tips for those interested in participating as speakers, attendees, or organisers, emphasising the importance of being specific and proactive.

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About Abigail

Abbie founded Mums’ English Circle, a conversation club for mothers, and online events like Learn English Together and Momentum, the work-along summit for English language teachers. She’s absolutely lit up by connecting people, helping learners find their perfect teachers, and helping teachers make the money they deserve with learners they love teaching. 

She’s been teaching for over 15 years and now lives in Japan with her husband, two daughters and way too much craft material.

Visit English with Abigail to learn more about Abigail's work.

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Watch the video with closed captions or refer to the transcript below.

Transcript

00:00:00:03 - 00:00:25:18

Laura

TESOL Pop. Season eight Episode four. Hello and welcome to TESOL Pop: the mini podcast for busy teachers. My name is Laura and joining me today to talk about organising learning events is Abigail Fulbrook. Abigail has lots of experience in this field. She is the founder of online events such as Learn English Together and Momentum, a work-along Summit for English Language Teachers.

00:00:25:20 - 00:00:47:04

Laura

In this episode, we'll talk about what inspired Abigail to start organising such events as part of a business model, what they involve and tips on how we can take part. Now, if you're interested in the Work Along Summit, it's coming up this March [2024] and I'll be one of the guest speakers talking about podcasting to get your ticket and to see the full range of sessions that are available.

00:00:47:08 - 00:01:11:05

Laura

Check out the show notes for full details. On the topic of podcasting as well. If you're ready to start podcasting to grow your community then my Podcast Pathfinder programme, is now open for enrolment this February. On this programme, I will guide you in planning and recording your first podcast mini series. Again, all those details are in the show notes so you can find out more.

00:01:11:07 - 00:01:17:02

Laura

Now let's join Abigail where I asked her what type of events she organises and what they involve.

00:01:17:04 - 00:01:51:21

Abigail

Organising different events online for learners and for teachers. Over the past year and a half, and the first one I started out was a online summit for English learners. And I wanted to do it because I don't think there was nothing else out there for learners. I can think of loads of conferences for teachers and events where teachers talk to other teachers, but there didn't seem to be anything for teachers to talk to learners.

00:01:53:17 - 00:02:22:04

Abigail

You know, what's the point of interestingly, do we know actually talking to the learners who want to hear from us? So I organised Learn English Together for teachers to speak to learners and answer that question. How do I get fluent in English? And that's how it all started. And I really enjoyed doing that. So I thought, maybe I can do this, try other things.

00:02:22:04 - 00:02:49:03

Abigail

And then I organised two more events for teachers. So that was more teachers who want to start their own businesses, who want to build something of their own online or offline, but do it themselves and to help people. You know, I think that it's not impossible to start your own teaching business, that it can be done.

00:02:49:05 - 00:02:51:19

Laura

And how long ago did you start this?

00:02:51:21 - 00:03:19:02

Abigail

So the first Learn English Together was June 2022. Yeah, we had about 800 people or so attend that. And yeah, it's been pretty consistent, about 800 people each time coming to the events. They're all online and they're all free to attend. So I want to open it as to as many people as possible.

00:03:19:02 - 00:03:36:04

Laura

And at these events Abbie, do you have different people facilitating different sessions? So it’s not just the pressure is on you to run all the sessions. You have a variety of workshops - I've seen work along mentioned as well obviously in the introduction - is that like a workshop? I realise I’ve asked two questions in one there.

00:03:36:06 - 00:04:05:08

Abigail

Yeah, the Learners Summit I did as prerecorded session. So the teachers recorded something that was very short and actionable and learners could listen to that. And then the Work Along Summit was a bit different. I wanted to do something a bit different and help teachers to actually do something while they're at the at the summit. So not, you know, it can be a bit passive when you're at these kind of events.

00:04:05:14 - 00:04:31:19

Abigail

You receive a lot of information and that's great. But I wanted to make it more like you get the information, but then you actually do something about it. So we had workshops and we had work along sessions as well, co-working sessions and so that was the idea. Yeah, actually do something as you're watching this event.

00:04:32:00 - 00:04:47:16

Laura

As you mentioned, your events continue to attract a growing number of attendees with 800 over 800 attendees at the most recent event. What would you say is some of the benefits for attendees of these online events, whether they're teachers or learners even?

00:04:47:18 - 00:05:34:10

Abigail

Yeah. So what I want to do is offer the participants a little taster of different teachers or teacher trainers so they can expand their horizons, really. For the learners conference, I find is people who love learning English but have maybe got into us a bit of a rut, got so bored with their learning they don't know what to do next so they can come along, see some different teachers, get some different ideas about what to do next with their English, and then hopefully they're going to follow those teachers on social media and hopefully sign up for their classes later.

00:05:34:12 - 00:06:02:18

Abigail

So it's kind of like a a dating service, but yeah, just little samples. And then and then for the teachers conferences is either as a as an online teacher myself, it can be a very lonely business and you don't have the staff room. So I wanted to bring teachers together and help them to take action, you know, and say, you're not alone in this.

00:06:02:20 - 00:06:17:05

Abigail

And everyone's got these same kind of problems and ideas and places where they get stuck and, you know, these these teacher trainers, these coaches can help you and take action.

00:06:17:07 - 00:06:34:23

Laura

You mentioned with these events, which involve a huge amount of work for yourself and those who deliver workshops, they remain free. And I wondered if you could just elaborate on what your decision was to keep these free for both learners and the teachers for for these different events?

00:06:34:24 - 00:07:04:18

Abigail

Yeah, definitely it's I want to keep doing free events because I want to reach as many people as I can. And actually you get a limited, limited time to access these things for free, that that helps people take action and actually watch the things. We have this disparate say in the English teaching world of the the the teachers come from countries that are more expensive to live in.

00:07:04:18 - 00:07:35:14

Abigail

The learners are in countries where cost of living is not so high and in general, generally speaking. So I want to be able to have this access free access for people and for teachers as well. You know, it's helping me to position me as a authority, as an organiser in the TESOL world, which is good for me and long term goals.

00:07:35:16 - 00:08:00:01

Abigail

But yet the aim for me is to connect. That's that's my whole reason for everything is to connect the learners and the teachers, to get the teachers into positions where they're actually making money so they can afford to do more training with me or with other teachers and trainers and coaches.

00:08:00:03 - 00:08:20:08

Laura

It's the same as podcasting almost, because people ask me about this podcast, like, Why is this free? Are you making any money from it? But instead of doing paid marketing and ads, this is my marketing, this is my portfolio basically that people are able to see what I can do, my media experience, which otherwise was locked away when I used to work in a corporate career.

00:08:20:10 - 00:08:30:03

Laura

It is kind of important that you have these opportunities to connect, meet people and that you do online means that you expand your reach and access for those who want to attend too

00:08:30:09 - 00:08:54:12

Abigail

Yeah, exactly. And that's why I think the speakers want to attend as well, because they can reach a whole new audience with not, not that much effort. It's it's often they're speaking about things that they're passionate about already and they get the chance to speak to an audience for 20 minutes and give away their freebies and get social media contacts.

00:08:54:14 - 00:09:03:23

Abigail

So it's great for the speakers to raise their profile as well. And then they can say, I've spoken at this event et cetera as well.

00:09:04:00 - 00:09:17:18

Laura

As a parting gift. Do you have any tips that you'd like to give listeners today, whether they're thinking of, you know, getting involved as a participant, a speaker, or even an organiser just to kind of get them taking action after today's episode?

00:09:17:20 - 00:09:41:16

Abigail

Yeah. So if you're interested in speaking, I would say go for it. If you see people organising conferences, summits, events, you know, message them and say, I'd love to be involved, but give them something very specific that you want to talk about. I have a lot of messages saying, I'd like to talk at your conference. And I say, about what?

00:09:41:16 - 00:10:11:12

Abigail

And they go, I don't know. So have an idea of what you can say, you know, something that you are passionate about and what you can say to people. But even if you're not into being a speaker at the moment, it's great to be a cheerleader and support events by telling your people, telling your audience, you know, just telling your students this, this event is happening at the moment, it's free.

00:10:11:14 - 00:10:21:07

Abigail

Why don't you go along and makes you look like you're a connected person in the TESOL world? And it's great for me as an organiser as well.

00:10:21:09 - 00:10:22:16

Laura

It's a win win, isn't it?

00:10:22:16 - 00:10:24:10

Abigail

Absolutely. Yeah.

00:10:24:12 - 00:10:34:15

Laura

Thank you so much, Abbie, for sharing your experience and tips today about online events. Where can listeners find out more if they're wanting to attend an event? I know you have one coming up soon.

00:10:34:17 - 00:10:50:15

Abigail

Yes. So in March 2024, we'll have the next edition of Momentum, the Work Along Summit for Language Teachers and all the information and everything I do is on my website, which is English with Abigail dot com.

00:10:50:17 - 00:11:08:08

Laura

Super and the link to that is going to be in the show notes as usual, so you can find that easily. Thank you so much for your time today. I've been lovely talking to you and thank you. If you have a question that you'd like us to answer or an idea that you'd like to pitch for an episode of TESOL Pop, then you can contact us via Instagram, Facebook or the website TESOLPop.com.

00:11:08:10 - 00:11:20:23

Laura

Finally, you can support the work we do at TESOL Pop by leaving a rating and review wherever you listen to the podcast, by sharing today's episode with your community, or by even buying us a coffee at ko-fi.com/tesolpop.

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