A recent note on a listserv suggested that fewer people are attending TESOL and other related conferences. While it is true that the current tough global and U.S. economies make conferences more of a luxury, there are still some very good reasons why ESL professionals thrive in a conference dynamic.

One of the ways ESL MiniConference Online attempts to help our 5,000+ monthly readers from around the world is by providing news about and reports from meetings not everyone can attend. Here are two upcoming conferences we are going to be watching, in the New York, New Jersey region.

First, on Saturday, February 22, 2003, at LaGuardia Community College, CUNY, Long Island City, Queens, New York, is the 25th Annual Applied Linguistics Winter Conference, sponsored by the NYSTESOL Applied Linguistics SIG, RISLUS (CUNY Research Institute for the Study of Language in Urban Society)and the LaGuardia Community CUNY Academic ESL Program.

See a schedule of this year's presentations at: http://www.ESLminiconf.net/feb2003/sched2003.html!

The theme of the Winter Conference is "The Bilingual ESL Learner," and the plenary speaker is Ofelia Garcia, Professor of Bilingual Education at Teachers Collenge, Columbia University, speaking on "The Other Languages in TESOL."

The NYSTESOL Applied Linguistics SIG's annual winter conference is always a great event. Last year, there were nearly 500 participants, and about 20 different publishers' displays. This is always a good warm-up for the national Applied Linguistics conference, and LaGuardia provides a congenial atmosphere for academic exchanges.

You can read the ESL MiniConference coverage from last year's winter conference at http://www.eslminiconf.net/february/story5.html. Why not go to the conference yourself this year, and send a report to ESL MiniConference Online for publication?

Another good reason to head east this winter is the NJTESOL-NJBE sponsored "Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Exceptional Children" conference, at New Jersey City University, on Friday, March 7, 2003.

This conference will consider the following questions regarding English Language Learners and Special Education: