It is a great privilege to attend events like this and important too that useful bits are shared around the system.

There were two sides to Excel this year and I covered a lot of ground walking between meetings and sessions . I stayed away from the main arena, staying in FE/HE and Professional Development sessions - which I think show, they have improved in their focus. The main arena had too much over hyped sensationality for me. Though I was caught at least once by a 'sponsored session' which was all sales pitch.

Microsoft in the South Hall and Google in the North. It should not be North and South - learners need both.

It was good to see an Education Scotland presence, if a bit muted, on a UK Government Education Stand. The Northern Irish do it right with an education village representing the agencies and institutions that support education in the North. A lot of international business is done in and around BETT and there is too much conflation of the English education system and UK system in the rhetoric around BETT - it is the opportunity to market Scottish education in the round that has been missed over the years.

It is worth analysing the opening ministerial speech - yes it is for English system, but I've rarely heard a Scottish minister talk like this about the role of educational technology in the education system. I hope someone takes note.

This summary is pretty much in the order I discovered things and pulled together at high speed - dear pedants ;-)

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