Show and Tell (Launch22, BETT)

As is normal, educ8all venture out into the world now and then to tell other people about what we’re working on as well as to see what other people are doing! January proved to be a month where we got to do both of these things in a meaningful way. On January 21, we pitched our business to the lovely folks at Launch22. Launch22 have communal workspaces in King’s Cross and Poplar that are accessible through a membership. They run monthly pitch nights where you get to present your business and get feedback from the judges on the night. The winners get a month’s membership at one of their locations.

While we didn’t win, our pitch was well-received with the judges commenting on the clarity of the business idea and the pitch!

The following week, we attended the extravaganza that is BETT to understand what others are working on.

The sheer size of BETT and the variety of companies and organisations present means that it is difficult to summarise it concisely. The website claims that it brings together “over 800 leading companies, 103 exciting new EdTech startups and over 34,000 attendees”. The exhibitors are grouped into a few categories such as Learning Tech, Teaching Tech, Management Solutions, Education Show (which used to be a separate event), Equipment & Hardware and Global Showcase.

Due to business-related commitments we were only able to attend on the last day which meant that many of the exhibitors we spoke to were quite tired after being at it for several days! Nonetheless we were fortunate to be able to speak to a number of interesting people developing curriculum-aligned products that we may yet collaborate with. We also got to check out a number of interesting looking products particularly in the STEM/coding/robotics space!