BETT is a lively event for us and covers educational technology. It takes place in London’s Excel Centre and as the UK is a pioneering market in educational science and technology, it’s a good place to hold the event. There were lots of exhibitors with plenty of software and content developers as well as hardware and system vendors. The event is dominated by visitors from the UK, but 13.5% of visitors come from Scandinavia and 2.3% from the Netherlands (2015 figures). 5% of visitors come from outside Europe.
We contacted organisers to get this year’s visitor numbers, but they weren’t available at press time. Last year, there were 34,000 visitors and the number looked broadly the same this year – some exhibitors thought it busier and some quieter. It’s always interesting to note who isn’t at the show and a particular omission was Samsung, which had a big booth last year, but just a small presence in the technology section this time.
The mood was positive at the show, although some have forecast that the continuing difficult economic conditions in the UK and desire to reduce public spending might lead to a drop in educational spending by around 6% in 2016/17, which would have a big impact on the availability of cash for new capital spending on technology. Initiatives, such as the “Classroom as a Service” concept of Smart, which effectively moves costs from the capital budgets to operating, may help some vendors to “ride out the storm”.
Next year’s BETT 2017 takes place from 25th to 28th January 2017.
