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2026 Awayday session information
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We are grateful to Newgen KnowledgeWorks, who are the main sponsor of the 2026 Freelancers' Awayday.
Friday 2 October
9.45 am (Presentation)
The Lifecycle of Learning
Every publishing professional learns lessons throughout their career, but how often do we stop to recognise them, reflect on them and turn them into lasting improvements? Sam will use the butterfly lifecycle as a simple illustration of how continuous improvement can become a lifelong mindset, helping us grow through every stage of our careers. Drawing on real examples from her own broad experience within the publishing industry, she will inspire you to think of practical approaches to capturing lessons, refining your own processes and building better ways of working. Attendees will go into the rest of the Awayday with a fresh perspective on professional growth and ready to look for ways they can grow in their work, relationships and future career development.
Head of Operations, Newgen KnowledgeWorks
Sam Richter
Since beginning her career as an ELT teacher in 2010, Sam Richter has worked across editorial, production, project management, account management and operations, including roles at OUP, CUP and Macmillan, as well as seven years as a freelance publishing professional. Throughout her career, she has been driven by a passion for continuous improvement – learning from experience, refining processes and developing practical tools that help individuals and teams work more effectively. She believes that a series of small changes, applied intentionally, can have a lasting impact on projects, professional relationships and can contribute to fulfilling and resilient careers.
Friday 2 October
10.10 am (Workshop)
Better by Design
Design decisions shape educational materials from their earliest concepts to finished product – and they aren’t made solely by designers.
This workshop explores how everyone involved in the content development and production process can better understand, discuss and inform visual and conceptual choices. We’ll start by looking at what helps and what hinders the creation process of educational materials and why well considered design really does matter. Then together, we’ll demystify some of the core design principles that are fundamental to successful learning resources.
You’ll learn how to:
· Brief designers clearly while leaving space for true creative collaboration.
· Discuss layout and visual choices using shared language.
· Evaluate design confidently and ask for revisions clearly and constructively.
Georgia Styring
Design Manager, Richmond Publishing
Georgia has worked in educational publishing design for nearly 30 years. As Design Manager in the Oxford office of Richmond Publishing, she currently leads the design of materials for the Young Adult sector, and has also worked across Secondary, Primary and Preschool publishing. Her previous roles at Oxford University Press and Pearson, together with her experience in magazine design, give her a broad understanding of how design is used to inform and inspire different audiences. Georgia believes that good educational design is above all clear, purposeful and engaging. Done well, it is central to creating effective, meaningful learning materials that inspire learners, teachers and readers alike.
Topsy Fletcher
Freelance Design and Art Director
With over 25 years’ experience in publishing, Topsy combines English language-teaching expertise from all sectors and across all markets, with a broad design background which spans children’s books to newsstand and trade magazines. She has lectured in design at the University of Reading and worked as a Senior Design Manager and Senior Media Manager at Oxford University Press. Guided by a core belief in clarity, simplicity and empathy in design, Topsy specialises in bringing words and images together to enhance both learning and storytelling, with a particular passion for the very youngest learners.
Friday 2 October
11.00 am (Presentation)
How to Bump into the Right People
Networking consistently ranks as one of the top reasons for attending the Awayday. In this short, targeted session, Helen will give a rapid tour of effective networking tips and will provide you, as always, with one or two fun excuses to network with purpose as we go into the first break.
While we warmly encourage and enable mingling and connecting throughout the day, we understand that networking can be demanding. Participation in sessions and activities during the day is entirely optional and everyone should feel free to participate to the degree they feel comfortable.
Helen Holwill
Director, Freelance Publishing Professionals
Helen has worked in educational publishing in a variety of roles for more than 25 years. Having worked in-house for Macmillan Education and Oxford University Press and for many years as a freelancer, she has a deep understanding of the industry and the relationships between publishing organisations and freelancers. As Director and co-founder of Freelance Publishing Professionals, Helen is passionate about connecting and supporting freelancers in the ELT and Educational publishing sectors.
Friday 2 October
11.45–12.00 pm
(Lightning Talk)
Running on Empty? Recognising Burnout and Recharging
If you’ve felt overwhelmed, overworked, anxious about deadlines or unable to switch off, you may have experienced ‘burnout’. Perhaps you've felt it more than once or feel like your stuck in a cycle of falling back into unhealthy working habits. This can often feel an unavoidable part of the job, but consider asking yourself : why me, why now, why like this? Sometimes, burnout can be about more than just working too hard. This talk will shed light on how personal beliefs and behaviours can make us more vulnerable to burnout and affect how easily we get stuck in it, using different psychotherapeutic models to understand the why of burnout rather than just the symptoms it causes. It will suggest practical ideas for how to protect your wellbeing at work. I invite you to come with an open mind and a willingness to reflect on your relationship to yourself, others and your work.
The session will end with a brief mindfulness exercise.
Rhiannon Santos
Director, Silva Education & Wellbeing
Rhiannon Santos is an experienced consultant, content editor and author specialising in LatAm and Pan Arab markets, having written and edited thousands of pages for Pre-Primary, Primary and Secondary ELT and vocational publications. She is also a third-year Master's student and trainee integrative psychotherapist, working with clients at a national mental health charity.
Friday 2 October
12.15–12.30 pm
(Lightning Talk)
Marketing Mindset: 5 Ways to Improve Collaboration with Marketing
Whether you're working with an in-house marketing team or a freelance marketer, understanding how marketers think can make your projects run more smoothly. This session explores five simple ways to build stronger working relationships, communicate more effectively, and get better results together.
Drawing on more than a decade of experience in education and educational publishing, Laura will share practical tips, common misperceptions, and small changes that can make a real difference. You’ll leave thinking like a marketer and ready to have better conversations with your colleagues.
Laura Hewitt
Marketing Consultant, Laura Hewitt Marketing
Laura Hewitt is a marketing consultant specialising in educational publishing. She works with organisations that need experienced marketing support, whether that's strategic advice, practical delivery or a partner to help move projects forward. She has over a decade of commercial marketing experience and has worked with clients including First News, Pearson and BookTrust. She has a CIM Professional Diploma in Marketing and a Mini MBA in Brand Management. An Oxfordshire local who never quite left after university, Laura enjoys helping people join the dots, solve problems and get the best from working together.
Friday 2 October
12.35–12.50 pm
(Lightning Talk)
Why connecting personally matters professionally.
In a world where deadlines, deliverables and efficiencies matter more and more and the ways we communicate have become more digital and less human, it’s easy for freelancer–organisation relationships to become purely transactional. Yet the work is faster, smoother, and far more enjoyable when we connect as people, not just roles.
This session explores why personal connection matters and how it can reduce friction, strengthen trust, and improve the quality of every project. We’ll look at how small relational shifts can positively impact the way freelancers and publishers work together.
Naomi Moir
Consultancy | Projects | Events
Naomi Moir is a leadership and learning specialist with more than 30 years’ experience across schools, education systems and global organisations. After 17 years at Oxford University Press, she now works independently, supporting individuals, teams and organisations to strengthen trust, simplify complexity and create the conditions for meaningful connection and effective collaboration. She helps people learn, lead and deliver with clarity and confidence, making it easier and more enjoyable to get good work done.
Friday 2 October
2.00–2.15 pm
(Lightning Talk)
Is the Employability Crisis Going to Eat ELT?
In the teen and adult segment, ELT funding and focus are swinging away from language skills, towards work and career access. This talk reveals what the leading ELT operators are demanding around workplace skills for their upcoming publications, and suggests the dos and don'ts, pitfalls and quick wins for authors, editors or picture researchers. Emerging requirements in ELT content include alignment to work skills frameworks such as the World Economic Forum (WEF) skills framework, the European Skills, Competences, Qualifications and Occupations (ESCO) framework and the US Occupational Information Network (O*NET). They also place greater emphasis on topics such as negotiation, problem-solving and digital fluency. Is this a variation on Business English, or a reset of the purpose of learning English as a gateway to employment?
Stephen Haggard
Co-Founder, Digital Learning Associates
Stephen co-founded Digital Learning Associates (DLA) in 2016 to provide publishers and educational organisations with ready-made, curriculum-aligned video resources for English language teaching. Previously, he led the UK's leading adult distance learning organisation through digital transformation as head of the BBC–Open University partnership. His commitment to innovation in language learning has led DLA to develop new ELT video formats, including the use of vertical TikTok-style media and video-led assessment. DLA has also developed language teaching resources that cover wider educational priorities, such as environmental sustainability, social and emotional learning (SEL) and employability.
Stephen enjoys exchanging ideas with the educational publishing community and is a regular attendee at the Freelancers’ Awayday. He speaks three languages fluently and is based between the UK and Poland.
Friday 2 October
2.15–2.30 pm
(Lightning Talk)
The Future of Freelancing: Jill of All Trades, Master of None?
What does it actually mean to freelance in educational publishing today, and where are we heading?
Many freelancers already wear multiple hats, bringing a much broader skill set than any single job requires. But what if publishers could benefit from those transferable skills within a single project? Drawing on her own experience across authoring, editing, and beyond, this session shares five lessons Michelle has learned from doing exactly that.
The audience will be invited to reflect on their own experience, whether as authors, editors, publishers, or service providers, and to think about whether a more flexible approach to roles and systems could work better for everyone.
Michelle Worgan
Materials writer
Michelle Worgan is a freelance author and primary specialist based in Spain. With a career spanning more than 25 years, she is passionate about young learner teaching and strives to help and support teachers to empower their students. She has worked on a range of courses for both Spain and global markets, most recently for Macmillan Education, OUP, DELTA Publishing and ELi. Michelle is particularly interested in bridging the gap between ELT and mainstream educational methodologies, with a special interest in learner-centred approaches. She designs teacher resources for inquiry-based learning in ELT and runs her own teacher development programme. Michelle is currently joint events coordinator for the IATEFL Young Learners & Teenagers SIG.
Friday 2 October
2.30–3.20 pm (Workshop)
Finding and Fixing What's Holding You Back: Three Ways to Improve Your Workflows
Do you want to save time or help the processes you use most often flow more smoothly?
This session shows you how to identify where effort is leaking inside your workflows and how to prevent those problems from recurring. Using simple pen-and-paper techniques, participants will learn models that classify the process waste slowing work down and reveal underlying causes. The session also introduces customer value, helping attendees distinguish what genuinely matters most.
The format is interactive: participants can apply the techniques live to their own processes and generate personalised actions they can implement straight away. By the end, attendees will know how to spot hidden inefficiencies, reduce rework and improve flow with a lightweight toolkit they can reuse long after the session.
Vicki Donald
Founder and Director, Vanitas Consulting
With over 20 years’ experience, Vicki has worked for corporate publishers and university presses across Operations, Editorial and Pre-press. Her career has centred on continuous improvement and creating environments where people can do their best work.
Known for her operational grip, she balances strategic goals with the people side of change to achieve successful implementation and adoption. She has led major enterprise-wide initiatives that strengthened operating capabilities, delivered substantial business benefits and created more customer-aligned processes.
Vicki's expertise is grounded in the realities of day-to-day publishing operations and underpinned by accreditations as a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, APM PMQ and Prosci Change Practitioner.
Friday 2 October
4.00pm (Panel session)
Changing Learner Needs: What Does It Mean for ELT and Educational Publishing?
During the day, we’ll have explored many key elements involved in creating educational materials – from learning and design to workflows, changing freelance roles, collaboration, and marketing the final product. To end the day, we’ll turn to the people at the end of that process: learners, and the organisations and professionals who choose and use materials with them. How are their needs and expectations changing, and what does that mean for ELT and Educational publishing?
Ahead of the event, we’ll gather a range of questions from the ELT and Educational publishing community and there’ll be an opportunity to ask further questions during the panel session.
Panel speakers to be confirmed