This year’s Bett Asia Leadership Summit & Expo was held at the Mandarin Oriental in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from the 15th– 16th November 2016. This was the 3rd BETT Asia show and the first to be held in Malaysia. 22 UK educational suppliers exhibited in the UK Pavilion.

Over 1,500 influential policy-makers, education leaders and educators from across the region attended BETT Asia to discuss and discover the latest trends, challenges and advancements in education technology and innovation across the world, with a distinct focus on Asia.

The two-day event featured seminars and panel discussions on a range of issues facing the educational supplier industry including technology and trends in Asia.

The event was supported by the UK Embassy in Malaysia and the Malaysian Ministry of Education and for the first time in an education exhibition, UK companies had the opportunity to showcase their classroom products in the Great British Classroom .

The Great British Classroom, the brainchild of Caroline Wright, Director-General of BESA, consisted of a mock classroom within the UK Pavilion, with live lessons from teachers to pupils from early years and primary through to secondary level. This allowed delegates to see the “Best of British” classroom resources live in action.

BESA created a 16-seater feature classroom, with furniture kindly donated by British Thornton, who also designed the classroom on behalf of BESA. The classroom was filled with resources kindly supplied by BESA members including Gratnells, TTS, Findel, YPO, Microsoft and iBoardTouch. A number of BESA members also kindly donated furniture, ICT products and didactic materials, this included Gopak, Churchfield Education, Data Harvest, Smart Kids, The Sticker Factory, Rising Stars, Sam Learning, 2Simple Software and Yellow Door.

The lessons involved pupils drawn from local International schools, organised by National Association of Early Childhood Care & Education Malaysia (NAECCEM) and the British High Commission in Kuala Lumpur.  The Malaysian Minister for Education and the British High Commissioner for Malaysia visited the classroom and UK Pavilion on Day 1 of the show.

During lesson breaks a number of UK companies demonstrated their products to show delegates, this included IBoardTouch, Pitman Training Group, Impero Software, Data Harvest, Blippar, Computeam and Mangahigh.

During the expo the BETT Asia awards also took place with BESA member Twig World winning the Innovation award in the K12 category.

In summary there was a real buzz throughout the expo, with a range of activities, demonstrations and networking opportunities for delegates. Based on the fact that delegates were still networking with exhibitors following the closure of the show, it can be deemed a great success.

Below is feedback from UK companies in the UK Pavillion:

“I was very impressed with the pod, graphics and the Pavilion. The pavilion was the busiest and best part of the event.” Standards Tracker

“I was very impressed with the event, and in particular the classroom. It worked very well and added value and dionysium” Gratnells

“I really like the layout of the pavilion and the pods. I would rather exhibit from a pod in the future.” iSAMS

“The British Pavilion was awesome.” Partake AR

“Overall I was really, really impressed. I loved the British Pavilion, Pods and Classroom.” Data Harvest