Back in the room. A few thoughts on BETT.

BETT is a giant show. It's a celebration of technology in education. It has scale, big names, lots of tech and a sense of pizzazz that no other equivalent show has any in the UK, or judging by the international favour every year, in Western Europe.

 

I have been going to BETT for many years now as a visitor and an exhibitor. I was last at BETT in 2019, back in the early days of the NCCE, and working for the Raspberry Pi Foundation.

 

The world has changed quite a bit since then but the demand for world-leading computing education is as important as it has ever been. Therefore, Computing At School needs to be at BETT and be influential. Where BETT comes alive is when you get into the conversations and meet people.

 

Break it all down and BETT isn't just about the big visual stuff and the brands, even though without it, BETT wouldn't happen. 

 

BETT, like most big industry events, is about people and conversation. It was heartening to see so many people in the shape of teachers, educators and industry representatives present at the CAS events engaging our events from the new Primary Leaders Toolkit to shared perspectives on Ofsted Deep Dive to the Computing Quality Frameworks.

 

It's so lovely to have the ability to catch up with people and chat, meet new people and explore opportunities for working. This is especially the case for the dozens of our community members who I have spent so much time getting to know online but never met in person until I met them at BETT.

 

I felt so fortunate to spend time with folks who were so passionate about ensuring young people have the access to the best resources and ideas to inspire their futures. This included many international exhibitors, such as Belgian-based Code Cosmos whose amazing Scratch resources add a new level of error detection to block-based coding, and Josh Plank from the Resume Foundation who are running a LEP funded Coding BootCamp programme in Coventry and Warwickshire to train young adults with routes to employment.

 

There were a lot of conversations around key issues facing education right now, such as diversity. For example, the work of the Global Equality Collective was very present at BETT, and it was great to hear shared stories of success in action. The challenge is how all the amazing opportunities translate in real terms to ensuring access for ALL and the role that CAS can play in this.

 

Finally, as has been commented on by my colleagues in previous blog posts, Crumbles, Micro:bits and other physical devices were in full force across several stands and it was great to see teachers and kids responding to that. A number of years ago, the idea of a "BETT fringe" event had been mooted, to give the small devices their own platform for community-led digital making and creativity. I'd love to see more making events within BETT, give space to people of all ages to get inspired and give physical computing its true moment. 

 

One thing is clear, we're "back in the room". Let's build on it now and be even more influential next year.