Last month, I had the privilege to attend and keynote at the TESOL 2026 International Convention and Expo! It was such an amazing experience!

I have already blogged about getting an invite to do the keynote at the conference in this post: Looking forward to #TESOL26 and also shared the slides: TESOL 2026 Keynote (Shorter) and references that I used for the keynote: TESOL 2026 Keynote: Enilda Romero-Hall, Ph.D. But I have not have an opportunity to reflect on the experience in my blog, which I often like to do after attending a conference.

I would like to start by saying that from the moment I agreed to be a keynote for the conference, I worked with Sarah Sahr (who was the Head of Education and Events at TESOL). Sarah is based out of Tunisia, which immediately made us bond as I have a lot of love for Tunisia due to my visit back in 2019: Photo Blog: IFDS in Tunisia. NOTE TO SELF: Go back to Tunisia!

Sarah is one of the most organized professionals I have met in my life. There a handful of people who I have met in my professional life that “get things done.” Sarah is one of them. There were very specific deadlines for the keynote speakers that she outlined once the contract was signed and she was on top of it at all times. Even the day of the keynote, when decided to make one final change 2-hours before the session. She make sure to have a meeting to go over the content of the keynote, give feedback, request a video for promotion of the session, see the final draft of the slides, and secure all the logistics.

You should definitely connect with her! Sarah Sahr

I also worked closely with Micheal Ennis who is in Switzerland and is a TESOL member. Both Sarah and Mike were wonderful to work with!

Since it was my first time at TESOL I was encouraged, by my former student Adriana Vianna, to attend the first-timers session. It was a lot of fun! I met people from different walks of life that engage in English language teaching and/or support English language learners: teachers, social workers, administrators, researchers, entrepreneurs, faculty, graduate students, etc. Their passion for their field was palpable. As an English Language Learner, myself, I felt grateful that there are people who care about immigrants, refugees, and people around the world that have a passion for learning a different language. If you have never work on learning a different language, I am here to tell you that it is hard and it requires a lot of dedication from the learner but also a ton of support!

The other amazing part about the conference was that I was able to connect several colleagues who are part of the TESOL community that are also connected to the learning design and technology field.

One aspect of the conference that I was not expecting and I mentioned this in the LinkedIn post: “Last week while I was delivering a keynote at TESOL 2026 I was thinking about how I represented my work and how I represented my institution but the reality was that I was also representing people who have similar identities to me! I did not know it while I was presenting but in the audience there was a group of members from TESOL Panama who had come to present and participate in the conference. They cheered loudly as I mentioned to the audience that I was born and raised in Panama and that Panama is much more than a Canal. After the keynote, they came to the front of the room to congratulate me and in their words they felt so proud to see me as keynote speaker.” 

I did not mentioned in the post, there there were many attendees that came to the front of the room after the keynote who were not Panamanian but identified at Latinx or Black and who identified with the message of the keynote. It was such an overwhelming positive experience!

Since the keynote was at the 8am session (TESOLers really know how to show up early!), I had an opportunity to change outfits and return to the conference venue to explore the expo. I could not count the number of times I was stopped by someone who had attended the keynote and they shared their gratitude. It honestly felt good to know that the amount of time, energy, and work that I had put into this keynote was so deeply appreciated. I left Salt Lake City feeling like: (a) Wow! I need to return to Utah because it has such a beautiful landscape and (b) glad that I accepted the invitation and that the message was so well received.

Here are some photos capture by the photographer of the conference and shared by the former student, Adriana Vianna (who is now a doctoral student at University of South Florida):