UAA CI Director and Associate Director traveled to Beijing for the Fourth Confucius Institute Directors Conference and Workshop which took place from December 12^th to the 15^th. They were joined by Prof. Huang Jiying from Northeast Normal University who joins the senior staff of the UAA CI in January. 

We also had the opportunity to meet with Vice President Dr. Zhang  and Coordinator of CI Affairs Li Yingge and several other professors from Northeast Normal University to talk over plans for the year ahead.

The annual Directors Conference gathers together CI Directors and senior staff as well as presidents, chancellors and provosts of the host universities of the now 282 Confucius Institutes in 80 countries worldwide (as well as similar delegations from the 272 Confucius Classrooms) along with people from the many Chinese partner institutions to meet with the senior officers of Hanban to discuss how the work of the Confucius Institutes has progressed over the past year and what can be done to improve our work in the year to come.

Hosting all these people is a considerable logistical challenge which also included a symphony concert and a grand banquet in the Great Hall of the People. The staff of Hanban were very busy but they did a wonderful job.

For the first time display booths could be set up to give people information on the various Confucius Institutes, their host institutions and their locations. The booth for the UAA CI proved one of the most popular in the show. We thought we brought lots of promotional materials but anything from Alaska quickly disappeared! Clearly there’s a lot of interest in Alaska, Anchorage, and UAA out there which the UAA CI hopes to capitalize on as host to numerous events.