BETT 2021

[zendenTechy]

Or just put them on their website. The point of the stream would be similar to walking around, you see stuff without searching for it.

 

Pretty pointless TBH. A page full of thumbnails would be an incredibly poor substitute for walking around stands and seeing live demos before your eyes. A 5 minutes non customised video of a product? That is no substitute for asking specific questions, seeing products close up, discussing roadmaps and discussing reference sites and case studies of similar schools.

 

Then there is the question of who is going to just sit the there for hours clicking on generic videos? Not many people I imagine. BETT works for many people as it is a way of getting out of the office for a day and immersing yourself in ed-tech. You would lose that element entirely.

 

We'll see I guess, but whilst a wall of videos might appeal to you I strongly suspect you are in the minority

[paulkerton]

Well as it seems to be confirmed that the Nightingale Hosptials will be funded till March 2021 now, BETT is probably not going to be happening.

 

And even if it did, I am not entirely sure that people who are in there because they can't go to a regular hospital due a respiratory illness really want a bunch of geeks and nerds tempting fate and making a huge noise right next door.

You can't help but get "BETT Flu" when you go in a normal year as is.

 

See you in 2022 BETT.

[mavhc]

Pretty pointless TBH. A page full of thumbnails would be an incredibly poor substitute for walking around stands and seeing live demos before your eyes. A 5 minutes non customised video of a product? That is no substitute for asking specific questions, seeing products close up, discussing roadmaps and discussing reference sites and case studies of similar schools.

 

Then there is the question of who is going to just sit the there for hours clicking on generic videos? Not many people I imagine. BETT works for many people as it is a way of getting out of the office for a day and immersing yourself in ed-tech. You would lose that element entirely.

 

We'll see I guess, but whilst a wall of videos might appeal to you I strongly suspect you are in the minority

 

Make them 30 seconds if you want. If you're interested you then go to their site to get more info, watch a longer video, video call them, etc.

 

There's 3 reasons for conferences, 1: see a load of stuff at once, that's the live stream. 2: find out more about things you're interested in, that's when you click to see more info/call them, and 3: get a free trip to london and a day or 2 off work, already had 60 days off this year anyway

[Dos_Box]

*BUMP*

If you usually attend BETT and haven't responded yet please put your entry into the poll so we can get a good idea of what may potentially happen in January as regards to show attendance.

[hardtailstar]

I voted depends on employer policy.

 

I doubt I'd get to go anyway.

[Rob_D]

At the moment I'm leaning toward "no", but that could change as we get closer. (voted will decide later).

Isn't the Nightingale going to impact on the available space? (even if it's on "standby")

[ICTDirect_Dave]

Out of curiosity, how many of who voted no have done so because of the pandemic and how many of you wouldn't have gone regardless?

[paulkerton]

I would've gone, but I'm definitely not this year. Everytime I've been I end up with a horrid cold at the best of times!

 

It's going to have to be physically smaller due to NHS Nightingale London, with less time to go as they've dropped the Saturday, in an already notoriously difficult location for anyone west of Kensington or North of Stoke Newington to get to. Everyone going will be crammed into the Tube and DLR for the best part of an hour to get to the site, let alone the multi-hour train journey to get to Kings Cross, Euston, Waterloo, Paddington etc. I live in Birmingham, and to get to BETT for 10am opening, I have to be on a train by 6am at the absolute latest, then deal with the tube rush hour. If I leave at 6, I'll be home by 10pm. A one day visit is a 16 hour day for me. That's just from Birmingham! I'll do that on a normal year, but there is no way I'm planning to do that during a pandemic at the height of winter.

 

Everyone there to exhibit in hotels and bars together with recycled air passing whatever they've got to each other, and then onto the visitors.... on top of that you'll have to have socially distant queues to scan in, and a one way system to get around making it difficult to see what you want without having to go on a long single file route around the site. That route is bound to be full of people who stop at stands that are too packed to get into, so have to stand and wait to get to them anyway.

 

Companies. Save the money. It's notoriously expensive, which is why the larger stands are always packed with people, as the stands themselves are too small for the interest levels, but they're too expensive to get a larger stand in place.

 

And also, when was the last time you went, and came away with tons of new and fresh ideas that you hadn't already encountered online in videos, or social media groups, or on here?

 

Nah, not for me thanks. It's good for networking but this year I'll stick to the random people adding me to LinkedIn rather than insisting on scanning my badge so I get an influx of emails I didn't ask for.

Edited August 12, 2020 by paulkerton

[AJWhite1970]

I doubt I’ll be going this year, but I’ll remain a maybe for now. The OH will definitely be missing it this year, she’s low immunity at the best of times....

[Norphy]

Out of curiosity, how many of who voted no have done so because of the pandemic and how many of you wouldn't have gone regardless?

 

For me, it’s hard to say. I don’t like going to BETT but I recognise its usefulness if you have something you need to look for. My own attendance last time was pretty last minute; I wasn’t originally planning to go but then decided to because I wanted to talk to firewall/filtering vendors. I expect that under normal circumstances I probably would have gone, albeit reluctantly but I may not have.

[Sephiroth]

This will be the first show that I've missed in 11 years, but as others have said, I don't think that cramming thousands of people into an area like that with such tight confines and close contact is a good idea in, or even shortly after, a global pandemic. It's only worsened if Nightingale is still in operation; What will that say about our field if we go ahead while an emergency hospital/morgue is still in effect in the same building?

 

In many respects, I think that this will herald the end of such colossal gatherings and will start to push things further toward a digital/virtual presence (I'm hoping for someone to make decent headway on holographics or VR conferencing )

[paulkerton]

In many respects, I think that this will herald the end of such colossal gatherings and will start to push things further toward a digital/virtual presence

 

I hope not in a way, because having companies present themselves against others is a positive thing. It keeps them honest, I feel. I mean look at Capita since they left. They had a big splashy launch of SIMS Primary in 2018, have failed to roll it out to anything more than a few test sites, and haven't been back since because they know what the reaction will be.

 

I think we probably don't need it every year though, and I just wish they'd move it somewhere that is more easily accessible for the most people in the UK. ExCeL is such a pain to get to.

It was way more accessible at Olympia, though I realise they outgrew it. When they moved the Education Show to London and alongside BETT, they should've either moved BETT to be alongside the Education Show at the NEC or moved both the Education Show and BETT to Manchester Central instead.

Edited August 13, 2020 by paulkerton

[keyboards]

I'll be disappointed as it's nice to get out the office for a day or two!

[Sephiroth]

To be honest, besides being able to get out of the office for a day, I saw very little value to going this year. I got practically no information that I couldn't have got from a couple of brief calls with suppliers that I already use. All the stands seemed to be geared up to entice either teachers or people looking for cloud solutions. there was very little "enterprise" on show, either hardware or software.

 

I know that doesn't apply to everyone, but as a secondary school NM, the best I got from almost every stand I went to was a promise of a call to answer my questions or a product demo later in the year. The inclusion of the Education Show hasn't helped with that.

 

The way I see it, shows like BETT are the best way to get any number of viruses from any number of countries over several days from thousands of people. A perfect place for a pandemic to start/spread. I think that more small shows dedicated to specific things would be better than creating a huge petri dish.

 

For what it's worth, I'm not in the at risk category and have been working throughout COVID-19, but every time I've been to a show like BETT, I've come away with some form of illness. This pandemic has shown just how stupidly irresponsible people are about illnesses and how they will happily flout the rules to stay home if they are showing symptoms and will wander around, not caring if the infect any number of other people. It would only take 1 or 2 at BETT to cause a massive spread.

[pete]

I went in 2020 and would have gone in 2021, partly due to a change in role (herding 4 schools now) but mostly because I spot things I wouldn't otherwise be aware of.

 

As others have said, BETT is a cramped sweaty plague zone at the best of time - there's no way I'm visiting in the middle of flu season during a global pandemic.

[Dos_Box]

I'm going to bump this one last time. If you haven't filled out the poll, please do so, so we can get a pretty good idea of what people are thinking.

[mikeprice]

On a similar - but different note - what is the current thinking about EDIT next year

 

Presumably 'wait and see' depending on what happens - but any thoughts??

[ZeroHour]

On a similar - but different note - what is the current thinking about EDIT next year

 

Presumably 'wait and see' depending on what happens - but any thoughts??

Yeah mostly a wait and see right now. We have a few backup options but it really depends on how winter/jan/feb go with corona as to which option we will go with sadly. I did miss us not having this year but when we started to plan for it we had a suspicion things could get worse (as it did) and we didnt want to risk anyone's safety.

[mikeprice]

we didnt want to risk anyone's safety.

 

I wish to point out 2 things

 

 

a) I am NOT saying anything about mods or green things in response to this

 

no no no - not at all

 

 

b) didnt should be didn;t

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

more seriously

 

Thanks

 

I may now disappear for a few days

 

 

[bald_pig]

b) didnt should be didn;t

 

You mean "didn't"?

Correcting the corrector!

[mikeprice]

You mean "didn't"?

Correcting the corrector!

 

just to be clear - that was deliberate

 

other times I use the; instead of the ' - not so much - which (see what I did there) some people have commented on

[Kitkatninja]

No, will not be attending. They are not going to be running it on Saturday, so that's a no go...

[AJWhite1970]

Can't be too long before its called off I would think, lots of big December events in London being cancelled by the day at the mo.

 

It's a shame as aparently Capita were all set to unveil SIMS v8... but at best if it goes ahead it's going to be half full both with footfall and exhibitors

[elsiegee40]

It's a shame as aparently Capita were all set to unveil SIMS v8...

 

[emoji23]🤣

[paulkerton]

It's a shame as aparently Capita were all set to unveil SIMS v8

 

That'll be SIMS 8 that they announced 3 years, 5 months and 18 days ago?

 

 

"We announced it, then failed to show it the next year, failed to show up for the next two after that... and now we we're going to show up and the show is cancelled. How conveni.... I mean unfortunate" - Capita Spokesperson

Edited September 17, 2020 by paulkerton