Upon recommendations by our Marketing Consultant, Scott and I took a visit to the BETT Exhibition in London on Thursday 25th Jan with a view to exhibiting there in the future. We really weren’t sure of what to expect although Bett’s strapline of, “Creating a better future by transforming education” did make us envisage a pretty intense array of suppliers aiming to promote and enhance education in every way possible.
Bett is marketed as, “the first industry show of the year in the education technology landscape, bringing together 850 leading companies, 103 exciting new edtech start ups and over 34,700 attendees (131 countries represented) from the global education community, that come together to celebrate, find inspiration and discuss the future of education, as well as the role technology and innovation plays in enabling all educators and learners to thrive”. Well…. they certainly did that!
The vastness of the venue (41,000 feet!) is, indeed, a footfall groan but there is just so much to see. From very small independent sellers to the giants in the field of education, the focus was very much on what technology can do for you to make your life more manageable, organised and innovative…. although it was heartening to see one supplier promoting the virtues of simply wooden toys….they were very much in the minority.
There were lots of different seminars to attend over the four days (Wed – Sat). We went to one concerning the gender gap of women in education – there are lots more women in the education sector but very few at senior leadership level so it was finding ways to promote confidence to progress.
We picked up a few freebies on our way around too; one of the most popular being laminated bags. We found ourselves putting a bag in a bag, along with an array of pens and a pencil supplied by Intel with a plastic top filled with tomato seeds…
There seemed to be something for everyone, from school children to the top decision makers but whether their budgets could afford some of the tech on offer (Robots!) remains to be seen.
Scott and I decided that it might be good to give it a try next year (we haven’t found out the prices yet!) but it was truly an eye-opening day. Think we’ll start with the Business Exhibition in Stowmarket, Suffolk on March 21st … no point being too extravagant…now, where’s my bag?….