Bett2018 and other ed tech conferences: Preparing for a full-on week
Introduction
The Bett Show is the largest education technology show in the UK. Part trade show, part conference, it attracts in excess of 30,000 visitors each year. The Excel Centre in east London can just about cope....
I'll be suggesting seminars and other places to visit soon in my newsletter, Digital Education, but I thought for now I'd just outline what's going on during that week because there are four events happening then.
Getting the week started...
The first one is the Education World Forum. It's a closed event, for education ministers from around the world. Even the programme is not publicly available, so I mention it here for completeness. A few education reports are going to be announced there, and I'll be reporting on those announcements and the reports in due course.
Next on the schedule...
The first day of the EWF is 21st January. Then the 23rd sees another conference, this one being the Education Innovation conference. Here's an extract from the conference description:
If the robots are coming to change the nature of the world of work, how can the education sector respond? How can the sector today help create a workforce that can do tomorrow’s jobs? To what extent can education technology help? Are universities adequately equipped to be as agile as they now need to be? Where the opportunities for foreign collaboration?
Sounds interesting, doesn't it? It's a subject I wrote about recently:
The agenda looks interesting, and features a talk by Andreas Schleicher, Director for the Directorate of Education and Skills, OECD, other talks, discussions and workshops. The conference is on the 23rd January, with an extra (optional) day on the 22nd about developing strategies for universities in India. The price of an individual ticket is £99, but the organisers have very kindly offered me two tickets at £49 each. I'll be offering them to my newsletter subscribers in the first instance.
Then, for the rest of the week...
Finally, there's Bett itself, which runs from the 23rd through to the 27th January. Have a look at the website for details of seminars and to see which companies will have a stand there. It will, I'm sure, be at least as exciting, enjoyable and exhausting as always!
Preparing for conferences in order to get as much as you can out of the professional development and networking opportunities is very important. I'm in the process of preparing a checklist for this purpose, which I have done for some years. But if you can't wait for that, and you'd like the full works anyway (around 350 tips covering how to get permission from your headteacher to attend, how to follow up from a conference or show afterwards, and everything in between), then your best bet is to buy my book:
Education Conferences (and shows and other events)
Amazingly, this is still only 99p, 99c or equivalent in other countries (though not for long). More details are on the Education Conferences page on my website.
Look out for more Bett-related articles soon.