And so the BETT 2024 conference looms next week and I will once again be visiting and once again my reasons are the same. I am not so much going for the tradeshow element of the event, although I will take a wander round and speak to vendors to find that something new and interesting which will be impactful in school, my main focus will be on people and sharing. One reason for attending BETT will be to listen to some of the brilliant people sharing their thoughts, ideas and wisdom including Georgina Dean, SJ White, Donald Clark, Dan Fitzpatrick, Laura Knight, Dr Neelam Parmar, Al Kingsley and Stuart Walker, to name but a few on my plan. I will also be there to have planned meetings with individuals such as Emma Darcy, Gemma Gwilliam, Abid Patel, Ian Stockbridge, Jonny Wathen and James Garnett. I will try to get involved including recording a little podcast content on the NetSupport stand plus will hope to have some less planned but equally valuable meet ups with the likes of Mark Anderson. Additionally, I will be trying to spend a little time with the ANME ambassadors offering support where possible to the IT staff working in and across schools.
Although my aim is not really to attend the tradeshow, all of these meet ups, the discussions and the resulting thinking and actions which come from these meet ups are only possible by the tradeshow and by BETT as a whole pulling so many education professionals into the one venue for up to three days. As a result this year, although I have already planned most of my itinerary I am going to try and make a little bit of an extra effort to give the tradeshow more of my time, compared to previous years, as I suspect if the tradeshow was to collapse we might also see the BETT event, that annual technology and education pilgrimage disappear and with it the potential for so many educational professionals to benefit from coming together, meeting, socialising, sharing, discussing and debating, something which I can personally attest to having benefited from ever since returning back to the UK back in 2015.
So with that am going to share some advice (and hope that I myself will actually take it this year!):
- Come with a plan; Decide which presentations you want to see, who you want to meet, etc.
- But leave time for yourself to stop, consolidate your thinking and plan future actions; The benefit isnt in attending sessions and meetings, but in what you do as a result of them. Give yourself time to consider your next steps.
- Wear comfy shoes and clothes; Not sure I will be able to convince myself to go casual rather than wearing a suit but I need to seriously consider it.
- Bring liquids; I carefully say liquids as for some that will be coffee, water, or other drink. For me it will be……….well I shouldn’t need to say, so will leave that for you to work out!
- Get some selfies; Another one I am not good at but is great to get some selfies as a record of the event and the conversations. Is very useful from a reflection point of view although am yet to work out when is the best time in a conversation to ask the selfie question.
For those attending BETT I hope you all have a great event and if you see a tall Scotsman wandering around holding and drinking from a can of Irn-Bru, that’s me, so do feel free to stop me for a chat. The more me all share and discuss things, the better collectively we all become.
BETT 2024, here I come!
Technology and Learning