42nd ETAS Annual Conference - Locarno
Date & Time 31 January 2026, 8:00 – 16:30
This year’s Annual Conference will be held on 31 January 2026 at the Centro sportivo nazionale della gioventù Tenero CST, Via Brere, CH-6598 Tenero. The facility is the branch of the Federal Sports Office UFSPO for the promotion of youth sport. The event will be held at the campus’s Palestra Brere building; please see the site map below, marked as Building 50.
The day-long conference will be action-packed, preceded by a meet-and-greet event at the on-site bar, “Palestra Gottardo Bar” (see site map location #52), on Friday evening, 30 January, from 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm. Participate in numerous interesting talks and workshops with a special business English track, and, of course, take the opportunity to network and mingle with new and old colleagues! Although we have not yet received and processed our presentations, we are opening registration for those who are sure they would like to attend.
There are several notable differences for this year’s event
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- We are having an IATEFL Business English Special Interest Group (BESIG) track of talks/workshops for those interested in business English.
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- Accommodation
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- As a campus facility, basic full-board accommodation is available on-site.
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- Additionally, two outstanding local hotels are offering special discounted rates for ETAS members and other conference attendees. The Hotel Lago Maggiore is located in the centre of Locarno, and the Dorint Resort & Spa Hotel is situated in Riazzino. Both hotels are within a 15-minute drive or 30 minutes by Public transportation.
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- Accommodation
Further accommodation details and booking information are located here.
Event Fee
Early bird registration for CHF 99 is available for ETAS members until 31 December 2025
Members: CHF 135 (after 31 December 2025)
Member student: CHF 68
Member senior: CHF 68
National Council: CHF 40
Member event volunteer: CHF 55
Speaker: CHF 50 CHF
Non-member event volunteer: CHF 125
Non-member: CHF 245
Non-member senior/student: CHF 123
Annual Conference Special
This year, there will be an IATEFL BESIG track of talks/workshops.
Presenters
The focus area for this year’s conference is:
“More than words: The role of culture in language learning.”
The Plenary talk, “Is language enough? Staying relevant in the age of AI”, will be presented by Mike Mayor, Senior Director, Global Scale of Learning at Pearson Education. Details about Mike and his topic can be found here.
We invite you to submit a presentation proposal concentrating on this topic. However, presentations concerning any relevant subject related to teaching, such as young learners, independent teachers, and other areas of broad interest, are welcome.
Centro sportivo nazionale della gioventù Tenero CST