Meeting at Bett
This is us, a group photo taken at Bett in Jan 2020
Written by Nina Iles, BESA
The 2020 edition of the Bett Show, held at the ExCel centre, London, UK, provided many members of the European Edtech Alliance (EEA) with the perfect opportunity to meet in person. Little did we know how soon the world was to change and how the plans we were making then, for a Spring brainstorming offsite in France or maybe Spain, were about to evaporate. At that point, few of us had paid much attention to the news of an unusually virulent coronavirus as it jumped from person to person, headline to headline. A mere eight weeks later, we would be doing little else, as our respective cities began to lock-down and our lives moved online.
However, none of that had happened yet. It was January 2020, and we were at Bett, where we love to be; soaking in the sights and sounds of the world’s largest education technology and education suppliers’ exhibition and we were there to explore, discover, listen, learn, connect, celebrate, challenge, and share all that learning with each other. That’s what unites members of the EEA, we exist to share what we have learned, and to continue to learn, with and from each other and those we aim to support.
Most seasoned visitors to Bett will know it’s no easy feat to find a space on the show floor that’s big enough to house a meeting of 20+ people, so we were extremely grateful to the British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA) for enabling us to use their stand’s closed meeting space for an hour. Being able to sit together in the glassed-walled room, enabled us to continue to soak in the atmosphere of the show, while at the same time providing us with much needed room to focus on the agenda at hand in relative peace and quiet.
Some of those present had met in person three months earlier, in France. The group meeting at Bett 2020, were keen to progress and promote the fruit of that earlier meeting: the EEA’s strategic aims for the coming year. We discussed ways in which we might raise brand awareness of the European Edtech Alliance; we needed a website through which to share the EEA’s story, achievements to date and aspirations for the months ahead. Then there was the question of a logo and who among us would lead the group as it scaled. And in parallel, we needed to agree on our core purpose; choose our areas of focus, and who would lead the workstreams once they were decided. How were we to fund the EEA? Could we hold a launch event? When should we officially launch? We left the meeting equipped with many questions requiring answers, but also a much clearer vision of what we wanted to achieve as the EEA, and what would be needed to realise this vision. Indeed, there was much work to be done, but we hoped to be in a position to unveil our new website and our mission by September 2020 at the very latest. We left Bett with promises to see each other soon, at that second offsite we’d been so excited to discuss. Of course, the meeting was not to be, but the EEA has continued to meet monthly via video conference, and we are stronger than ever.
We look forward to the day when we will be able to re-group – joined by new members - to discuss next steps face-to-face; but for now, we’re focused on working together while apart, to best support and champion ourselves, our friends, and families; our industry and the teachers, students, and parents it supports, through the pandemic and its devastating impact on humankind across the world.