Team member Helen Bound tells us about her Friday exhibiting with Webanywhere
So my first time at BETT as an Exhibitor. Spent many a year trawling around the stands trying to fine that elusive ‘thing’ that would make Teaching/Learning better! So to be on the ‘other side’, enthusing and glad-handing complete strangers, was a little alien at first. However it didn’t take long to share that enthusiasm with our visitors and share all our great products and new features with them.
Friday had a different feel to it compared to the first two days and there were many more visitors at our stand wanting to know about School Jotter and what it and we could do for them.
We got a lot of interest from schools too – organisations using an open-source LMS who had hit a ‘wall’ in terms of its functionality, new features and ability to be used by colleagues in a meaningful and relevant way. In other words they needed some consultancy. They knew how to use it, but wanted to use it better, and they wanted to encourage fellow educators to use it too – a great opportunity here to extend our offering to customers and offer them ongoing consultancy after the initial training.
I remember finding at my previous employer, as well as at many schools, that after the initial flurry of activity of getting an open-source LMS installed and training the staff, there comes a point when you want to start progressing and using in a meaningful way. You’re just not sure how to move it forwards and start engaging students and staff!
Our other customers on the day were keen to see all the features of School Jotter, and to be honest I also took that opportunity to observe the presentations by a group of well-informed and professional staff who were able to read a customers request and tailor the presentation accordingly. I certainly learnt a lot and will be signing up for more training on School Jotter in the coming weeks – as a new starter I’m still very much finding my feet!
I had many former colleagues visit me on the Friday to see how I’d made the transition from the education side over to the corporate world! I think they were impressed with what I’m doing with Webanywhere. There were many positive remarks about the stand, the presenters, the knowledge about e-learning and the passion that was very evident from a group of very engaging colleagues.
Thank you all for a great BETT. I’ve learnt a lot and it’s helped me get a very good understanding of what we do as a company and how there is the potential for new business through clever use of training and consultancy.
Helen Bound
