Our first step towards creating a confluence of teachers of English was taken in February 2010, with the theme of ‘Innovations in Language Teaching in Technical Education’. Despite being a first-time venture, it was successful in eliciting a very good response. Dr. G. Rajagopal (Dept of ESL / EFL Studies, School of Language Education, EFL University, Hyderabad) was the Chief Guest and has been a mentor since. He has been instrumental in steering the event in a direction that was to make Confluence truly global in a very short span of time.

Prof. Joseph Williams of Texas A&M University at Qatar was the Keynote Speaker. He talked on ‘Communication is Key’ and asserted that it is important to adopt a proper style of communication. We all communicate, but it is not always effective. In order to be effective, one must look at things from the other person’s perspective and perhaps even copy their style or language a bit so as to put them in a positive frame of mind with respect to us.

With about 80 paper presentations and participation of about 150 delegates, Confluence I succeeded in creating an impact. Particularly as it is the only event of its kind held by technical institutes, it was able to create awareness in professional colleges and their participation has only gone up since.