BETT 2010 Review - by Shaun Green

BETT (British Education and Training Technology) rang in the New Year with its annual exhibition held in London. It’s not only Britain’s biggest educational technology show it’s the largest in the world. With a 25-year pedigree, 700 exhibiting stands and nearly 29,000 attendees, it’s not hard to see why it’s such a landmark event. 

For us, it provides a fantastic opportunity to meet with clients old and new to discuss forthcoming titles, developments in the industry, future technologies, changes to the educational market, and otherwise just chew the fat about educational IT, software development and testing. It’s safe to say our testing and service desk departments help ensure quality for approximately 70% of exhibitors working in the digital educational publishing field, so it’s easy to spend most of one’s time networking.

Ian Callow, Head of Offline Delivery & Support at Pearson Education, agrees that there are “immense opportunities in the networking aspect of BETT.” It’s the perfect setting brimming with creativity and possibility.

Ewen Rubython, Epicentre Manager, noted that BETT 2010 was “buzzing with atmosphere” – a bigger and more exciting affair than 2009.

Of course, networking is not all that the show offers. This year’s keynote speeches and seminars covered a huge range of topics, from methods of utilising ICT solutions in support of dyslexic students to the growing role of games-based learning which was well represented amongst exhibitors as well.

Epic’s Deputy Service Desk & Hosting Manager Steve Avey was particularly struck by the range of robotics on display, including eye-catching offerings from LEGO for building STEM skills (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).

The centrepiece of BETT is the Awards ceremony for around a dozen categories, including Special Educational Needs Solutions, Early Years Solutions, Digital Devices, ICT Service and Support and so on. For publishers and developers these awards are a fantastic win, offering them not only publicity before BETT attendees but also a widely-recognised brand to help market their software or services.

We are happy to say that this year’s winners and finalists included a number of our Epicentre clients and associates, such as Smart Learning, Whizz Education, Q&D Multimedia, Espresso Education and Rising Stars.

If you weren’t there this year then all we can say is: see you in 2011!

Shaun Green, Lead Tester, Epicentre