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IEFT Hybrid/Blended Fairs: A New & Improved System
The pandemic caused by the virus COVID-19 has been changing the ways we live and function our day to day lives since the first case was caught in late 2019. Lockdowns and travel restrictions employed by most countries worldwide has ever since led the decision makers of industries to change their ways of continuing business. The same applies to the international education industry that has been most affected from the COVID-19 crisis.
At IEFT, we believe that every crisis can be turned into an opportunity to improve and move forward in life. We are well aware that all industries have gone through significant changes due to the pandemic, and so has the international educational fairs industry. To ensure the health of all the participants of our fairs, we have been working day and night to come up with an innovative system which we named as IEFT Hybrid/Blended Fairs.
During the pandemic, as the IEFT team, we wanted to keep supporting all our collaborators through online seminars, emailing, sms, and social media campaigns. Therefore, we created a project called ‘IEFT Talks Webinars‘, and other marketing tools that offer a spot for all our international partners to present themselves in the Turkish market and meet their potential students.
In the scope of the IEFT Talks Webinars, we have organized 900 webinars with the participation of our partner schools and organizations from all over the world. Our webinars have been quite the success and brought together around 10.000 interested students and serious parents.
IEFT Talks Webinar was born out of necessity during the early phases of the pandemic. It served its purpose better than expected, connecting the best international educational institutions with the most qualified Turkish students. Due to this immense interest and great positive feedback that we received over the past year, we decided to make IEFT Talks Webinars a trademark and a continuous service that we offer to our partners even after the pandemic. To get more information on IEFT Talks Webinars, click here to visit the official website.
- The potential student or parent fills a form to attend the school’s webinars as well as its face to face meetings.
- The potential student examines the school profile and requests a one-on-one meeting.
- The school examines the potential student’s profile to decide if they would like to meet with the student and their parents.
- The school presents a webinar to potential students before attending to face to face meetings and afterwards schedules a meeting for a face to face meeting at the IEFT Hybrid Fall fairs in March.
- The school meets the potential student at the fairs and recruits the student right away if they are deemed worthy of admission. If the school will not be present at the fair, they can work with their agent and recruit the students through agents or online platforms instead.
- Our on-site events are mainly similar to the regular IEFT fairs, taking place in Istanbul, Ankara, and Izmir twice a year. The only difference is that the meetings are conducted through a reservation system, and therefore the fairs won’t be as crowded and packed as it used to be in the previous fairs.
- This measure is taken to ensure the safety of all the participant school representatives, students, parents, and organizers.
- The reservation system does not reduce the number of potential students, and instead, it gives you a chance to have focused meetings with only the serious candidates.
- During our on-site events, we take all the necessary hygiene precautions; masks, and hand sanitizers are widely distributed, as well as cleaning stations are implemented. Social distancing rules are reminded through regular intervals as well as upon entry to ensure the safety of all participants.
- Each institution has a table in 10 sqm space and separators. Students and parents visit by appointment in every 20 minutes. So, you will be able to have around 30 one-to-one meetings each day from 10 AM to 7 PM, as 3 days in Istanbul, 1 day in Ankara, and 1 day in Izmir. Thus, each participant representative will be able to meet around 150 potential pre-screened students and parents.
- After the fairs, you are still able to meet students online to discuss more in detail and follow up through Zoom meetings. The complete data of those who are interested in your institution is given to you afterwards the fairs.
- We carry on assisting you in promoting your institution through our IEFT Talks Webinars, e-mailing, SMS, and social media marketing campaigns.
