BETT or The BETT show (formerly known as the British Educational Training and Technology Show) is an annual trade show in the United Kingdom that showcases the use of information technology in education. Founded in 1985, it has expanded to fill both the National and Grand Halls at the Olympia exhibition centre in London, England. BETT celebrated its 25th anniversary at the 2009 show.

The show was first held in January 1985 as the “Hi Technology and Computers in Education Exhibition” at the Barbican Centre, central London, in association with the British Educational Equipment Association. As the use of technology in education increased, so did the show, and had outgrown the Barbican by 1993, when the move to Olympia was made.^[1]

The show has also expanded from being a purely technology show, and whilst there are stands for companies ranging from multinationals Microsoft and Apple Inc. to small single-product firms, others attending include the Department for Children, Schools and Families,^[2][3] and teaching unions such as the NASUWT and National Union of Teachers.^[4]

A large number of seminars from well-known providers are held at BETT, which offer training (Continuing Professional Development) opportunities for education professionals.^[5]

Criticised in the past for perhaps marginalising teachers due to the increasing business nature of the show,^[6] the producers (EMAP) have introduced a number of teacher friendly events such as TeachMeet to tackle this.^[7]

Links

• Official website

References

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.