Martyn Clarke's an expert in implementing change in education projects: he's been doing it since 1998 for organisations including the British Council and the World Bank.

He's also spent time as Head of Learning and Development for the Department for International Development, before moving back to his first love of EFL as Director of Schools at the Language In group.

He's going to be telling delegates at the the Annual Conference that the self-help books approach to managing change doesn't work in the real world, where the situation is much more complex because of the number of people and opinions involved.

"Given this complexity, managing change is not so much about applying a pre-determined set of procedures, but rather about managing the expectations of all stakeholders involved – including ourselves as the instigators of change. How we manage these expectations will be decided by our priorities at any given time," he says.

So what you'll get won't be a self-help manual, but strategies for identifying priorities during any period of change, using those to choose the most useful management activities and tools.

Martyn is already known to members who attended this year's management conference, when he not only unpicked the rationale for appraisals, suggested practical ways of carrying them out but made an entertaining presentation out of it. So we're expecting an engaging session with lots of really useful insights and tips on one of management's most important -- and daunting -- tasks.

Martyn's presentation is just one of a varied package in our two-day conference in Central London, which also includes a thought-provoking look at global trends with Peter Firth of the Future Laboratory, panel sessions on English and safeguarding young learners, and reflections on the past and future of English UK with our retiring and incoming Chief Executives Tony Millns and Eddie Byers.

How to register

This year's Annual Conference will be taking place on 14 and 15 May at the Hotel Russell in central London.

We offer different packages for those who wish to attend all or part of the two-day conference, anniversary dinner and Parliamentary Reception. For details of costs and to register click here (please note prices stated exclude VAT).