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Naace Strategic Conference 2009

March

I attended my first Naace Strategic Conference on Tuesday in Blackpool. Unfortunately, I could only attend the first day but I enjoyed the event nevertheless.

It was great to finally meet Tony Sheppard (who, as always, furnished me with some good advice) and I’m sure that I spotted a few other Twitter followers in the crowd; I just wish I’d had more time to say hello.

I sat next to Dan Buckley, Research and Development Director for Cambridge Education, during the keynote sessions. Thank you Dan for the engaging conversation and for providing an insight into how things should be done.

I thought the live Twitter stream was a great idea that seemed to work really well.

Please find below a Flickr stream of some of the photographs I took on day 1.

To view everyone’s Flickr photos tagged with nacce2009, please click here.

Category: Meetings and Events Tags: My Photos, naace, naace2009, Twitter Leave a Comment

BETT 2009

January

John Howarth

I visited BETT for first time this year and, despite advance warnings from colleagues, underestimated the sheer size of the event.

I would’ve loved to have sat down and listened to some of the presentations by Microsoft, SIMS etc. but I just didn’t have the time. I spent the entire morning in Olympia 2, a whole floor of which seemed to be hired out by RM! With half the afternoon spent in pre-booked seminars, I found myself running around trying to get to see all the stands on my hit-list!

Bett 2009 Grand Hall Panorama

Please don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed the event and took a lot of information back to Bolton with me. My only regret is that I didn’t get the opportunity to talk more to colleagues on the NAACE stand, from EduGeek or people I associate with via Twitter.

If I’m lucky enough to attend next year, I’ll try and travel back on Saturday so I get an extra day. This will also allow me to get involved with the 2010 version of TeachMeet09Bett which, even though I’m not a teacher, sounded inspiratonal.

A special thank you goes to colleagues on the SIMS stand who interrupted their busy event schedule to speak with me. This reinforces my view that the interests of schools are best served by maintaining positive professional relationships with strategic partners.