Content shoot:
EF Paris Training Tour
EF’s international training tours are designed to have teachers experience an EF tour before leading one with their students. They take place in dreamy destinations, and first-time Group Leaders learn the ins and outs of how to lead their students abroad.
In April 2022, I traveled to Paris with a small production team to capture a training tour. My role included assisting in pre-production storyboarding, conducting all interviews, facilitating conversations between teachers on film, capturing social content and B-roll, and fostering relationships with teachers to inform future blog content.
Then when we returned, I was instrumental in creating deliverables out of everything we captured, from video profiles and long-form blogs to an organic TikTok series, as shown below.
Producer: Chris Gilmore
Videographer: David Blumer
Photographer & Art Director: Christian Gilbert
Video
J'habite à Paris: The City Through Mirka’s Eyes
Videographer & Editor: David Blumer
Copywriter: Cassie Title
As a Czech native who’s lived in Paris for 11 years, Mirka makes for the perfect Tour Director. Her favorite part of working with EF is helping students fall in love with the city—just like she did over a decade ago.
The power of training tours: A conversation between teachers
Videographer & Editor: David Blumer
Designer: Will Crawford
Copywriter: Jake Minton
EF One on One is a conversation series between Group Leaders. A first-time Group Leader sits down with a teacher who’s led many tours to talk about their experiences and thoughts on educational travel with EF.
Blogs
5 questions with Brian, an expert local guide
Designer: Michelle Peck
Why travel with EF? Because you’ll meet amazing people like Brian, an American who decided to move to Paris and become an expert local guide.
When you go on one of EF’s 250+ international or North American tours, you’re bound to meet some pretty incredible people along the way. While your Tour Director is with you from the second you arrive in your first city through getting you on your plane home and will facilitate lots of walking tours, you’ll also have the unique opportunity to spend time with a local expert during guided sightseeing. Think of your local guide as a personal dictionary—they know everything there is to know about the city, neighborhood, or museum you’re in (and are happy to answer any of your questions!).
Take Brian, for example. If you’re on a guided tour of Paris, France on an EF trip (like Paris, Strasbourg & Lyon), you might meet him—or at the very least, another local guide who knows as much as he does.
We caught up with Brian to chat about the process of becoming a local guide and what his normal day-to-day routine is like. He also gave us some amazing, lesser-known neighborhoods worth exploring with your students on your next tour to Paris.
Pre-tour parent communication tips from experienced Group Leaders
Designer: Kristi Oster
While generating excitement in students as you’re planning an EF tour is so important (and so fun!), it’s equally as crucial to keep parents and guardians in the know from the moment you choose an itinerary.
While strategizing, organizing, and keeping up with communication before tour can feel daunting, we’re sharing easy-to-follow advice from three experienced Group Leaders. We sourced the following parent communication tips during an informational panel on one of our training tours, which allow new Group Leaders to experience a tour and learn the ropes of student travel before they lead their own students out into the world.
Diary of a first-time Group Leader in Paris
Designer: Amanda Bentley
What’s the best way for new Group Leaders to learn what to expect on an EF tour? By visiting incredible cities with other teachers who are new to educational travel on a training tour.
Social media
Organic behind-the-scenes TikTok series
Click to play
Series results:
17,128+ views
361 likes
39 saves
18 shares