A conference programme

A conference programme

Read the programme for a management conference to practise and improve your reading skills.

Do the preparation task first. Then read the text and do the exercises.

Preparation

Reading text

Morning programme

9.00–9.30

Conference opening
Dr Jon Martinez

9.30–10.45

Management styles
with Helena Clark

Consider the different management styles and how you can adapt yours to suit your team.

Giving feedback
with Amelia Novak

Explore the different ways to give feedback to maximise development.

Managing change
with Akira Yoshida

Help your employees deal with change and to see the positives change can bring.

10.45–11.15 Coffee break
11.15–12.30

Using storytelling in leadership communication
with Antoine Martin

Sometimes, the best way to communicate with your team is by telling stories. Find out how to do this in this workshop.

Leading small businesses
with Cheng Wei

How is leading small businesses different and how can leaders of small businesses bring success to their team?

Leading in uncertain times
with Omar Abboud

Uncertainty can affect the success of your team. Learn to bring confidence to your team in a time of uncertainty.

Afternoon programme

12.30–2.00 Lunch
2.00–3.15

Managing international projects
with Alisa Petrov

Consider how to ensure successful intercultural communication in your international teams.

 

Developing creative thinking in your team
with Mariana Silva

How can you get your team to think more creatively? Explore the different ideas that can help your team see things in a new way.

Conflict management
with Tracy Edwards

Conflict can create problems in your team, but managing conflict well can bring about development. Learn how to manage conflict in this workshop.

3.15–4.15 Group discussions
4.15–5.00 Conference closing
Dr Grace Moloney

 

Discussion

Download
Worksheet116.45 KB

Language level

Average: 4.4 (417 votes)

Submitted by Lukaszek on Mon, 26/01/2026 - 21:27

Permalink

Akira Yoshida’s conference session  about managing change sounds interesting to me. A few years ago I changed my job. I used to be an office worker, and I’ve became a plumber. It was a great deccision, but I remember that I had lots of worries. Maybe conference session about managing change would be a great guide to me.

 

Profile picture for user abukhater

Submitted by abukhater on Sun, 25/01/2026 - 12:03

Permalink

I would like to attend a conference about management teams. As a manager and team leader, one of the most important challenges I face is making sure everyone is in the right role and has enough work to do. This should match the company’s plan and goals. When this is clear, the leader can stay motivated, keep the team motivated, and deliver work on time with good results.

Profile picture for user Hay_Mar_Lwin

Submitted by Hay_Mar_Lwin on Thu, 22/01/2026 - 08:22

Permalink

If I have a chance to attend one conference from which of these, I would prefer the conference of " developing creative thinking in your team". If a team leader lets us to explore our creative ideas, this leads us to provide not only our confidence level but also our thinkings. Therefore, these are many alternative ways of improving the team members' dealing with challenges in the daily activities, as this has the positive impact on the company.

Profile picture for user s.caron

Submitted by s.caron on Thu, 15/01/2026 - 15:41

Permalink

I would attend the session that speaks about how give the feedback in a proper way: indeed i would be sure that all feedbacks taht i give, can be useful for the team

Submitted by rainer_hs on Mon, 12/01/2026 - 11:17

Permalink

 

I would attend leading small businesses because I want to lead my business and making a job vacancy. It helps people to get a new job and support their life. I also wondering how to manage my business, my team, giving them the best with good salary. 

Profile picture for user Htoopyae

Submitted by Htoopyae on Sat, 27/12/2025 - 14:32

Permalink

Honestly in this section,I feel little confuse about conflict in a team.Conflict can makes useless problems for a team,right.So noone should let it happen in team.I accept it,Task(1) No.(6), but I was wrong.Why? I'll glad if someone explain that.May be my misunderstanding.

Hello Htoopyae,

The key words here are 'can' and 'manage'. Tracy's summary says this:

Conflict can create problems in your team, but managing conflict well can bring about development. Learn how to manage conflict in this workshop.

'Can' means something is possible but not certain, so not all conflict creates problems. If it is managed (not avoided) it can be positive. Therefore Tracy does not think there should never be conflict, but rather that it needs to be appropriately managed so that it is a positive thing leading to development.

 

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Submitted by Simplicius on Sat, 27/12/2025 - 07:33

Permalink

Hello everyone, it my first time to discuss.

the conference session I, will attends is Conflict management with Tracy Edwards. 

conflicts will always exist and affect the business devellopment and pollute relationship  for example: missing give feedback can be generate conflict. I am in biomedical field when a costumer need assistance to repair medical device  and when your colleague go and make intervention, I should give the feedback of what he has done to solve failure in the clinical laboratory to technical teams .That will ensure if the same failures appear to anothers clients, it will be easy to technical teams to solve probleme efficiently. in this case if the feedback miss, conflit can appears between technicians and my rule will manage this conflict.

the second reason to attend in this conference section is the hour it is convidence for me.

Profile picture for user Asala Mohammed

Submitted by Asala Mohammed on Fri, 26/12/2025 - 21:24

Permalink

I just wonder, if all companies train their teams in such trainings, what would the companies look like after two years at least?