WYSTC 2009 was held in Manchester, England from September 22 - 25. This was the 18th annual World Youth Student and Travel Conference but the first time it has been hosted in the United Kingdom. With over 100,000 university students and one of the largest populations of international students in Europe, Manchester was a very fitting venue for what many consider one of the key trade events for organizations involved with youth, student and educational travel.

At this year's event there were 739 attendees from 444 organizations spanning 66 countries. Included in those numbers were 13 delegates representing Federation EIL and its many programs: I was joined at WYSTC by CEI/Club des 4 Vents - France (Jose Luis Ponti, Joelle Lamouroux, Angelina Lacouturier); Experiment e.V-Germany (Bettina Wiedmann and Sabine Stedtfeld); IYEP Ghana (Kwame Agyapong); EIL Intercultural Learning-Ireland (Kevin Hickey); PEI Mexico (Cecilia Gamez); SYTO Nigeria (Omoyemi Sarayi); SASTS - South Africa (Alex Bleach); and our VIP partners - Shanghai Xu Bo Art & Culture Exchange (Jiong Duanmu) and Ninukot EHF - Iceland (Kristrun Sveinsdottir). Collectively we met with a large number of organizations to present our programs, cement existing relationships and seek out new partnerships. Of course there is much follow up to be done as we work to turn these contacts into productive new relationships but WYSTC provided a terrific venue for getting the process started.

The entire group met for dinner one evening and were delighted to be joined by colleagues from EIL UK Rosie Sessarego and Lorraine Lockyer along with Allan Hodgson who lives in London and serves double duty as a board member for EIL UK and for World Learning/the US Experiment. The entire group is pictured above.

INNOVATION FOR TOMORROW'S OPPORTUNITIES was the theme for WYSTC 2009 and the importance of creativity, adaptability, excellence, service and communication permeated all of the sessions. Even if you were not able to attend the conference you can view videos of most presentations on the WYSTC site. Highly recommended is the Keynote Speech by Lee Crockett an award winning designer, marketing consultant, instructor, entrepreneur, artists, musician and writer. You will enjoy it while also learning to think about innovation in some new and interesting ways.

Thank you to all my colleagues for helping to raise the profile of Federation EIL and for being such a visible and positive presence at WYSTC 2009.

Ilene Todd, Director, Federation EIL