Another January, another BETT

Not really an exhibitor as such any more, as the market for Guroo is now FE and Training Providers supporting Apprentices, Functional Skills remains stubbornly under-represented in schools (at least for now).  But I am here on the C484 AKHTER stand adding value as part of their overall solution for secondaries and academies.

But I did manage to walk the show, it's oh so very big.  Themes?  Multitouch large screens and lots of them, mainly from Chinese manufacturers, I must admit, I don't entirely see the point but they must be getting orders or they wouldn't be here.  Lots of mobile devices - Samsung were busy with BYOD and they were managing the systems as you arrived with your tablet/mobile.  Quite a few assessment software companies too - maybe this is part of the move towards assessment and progress at all levels rather than just the focus on C/D borderline?  And lots of curriculum software too - as you'd expect.

What has gone - 3D has gone - that was big two years ago, it isn't noticeable now.

The biggest theme is international, this is no longer a UK schools show, it's totally international.

So no one stand out theme as far as I could tell, but the market must be healthy to support the money being spent here.  At an all up cost of pushing £1000 per sq m of stand sapce (this counts in stand build, people costs, stand space and so on), even a smaller 6 x 4 stand costs the company £25K for the week and the bigger stands - well, I can't see how they can ever return the money spent, but then again, one order for Dubai and that makes the difference I guess.

Jonathan