Trade shows still part of Blended Learning @Bett_show @Ipex_World

(Posterous seems not to be working today. so this is reposted here. Maybe more cross posting later.Running 10 years late makes the point that this year could be as good a a couple of years into the future as an occasion to think about print in context)


Learning can be analysed by academics but is also part of normal life. The word has a simple meaning for most people. So a lot of things can relate in the same blog post.

BETT is a tech show. Now moving to ExCel, it was the last big computer show at Olympia. It continues even though teachers are using Twitter and soforth. I will know more about blended learning when the MOOC course is happening. The topic may come up at BETT. There is still some benefit in "real time and space". Feel free to discuss online of course. The people at BETT will have already decided to be there.

IPEX has also decided to move to ExCel from Birmingham. (ExCel is in East London not far from the Olympic Park) But the exhibitors are cancelling. Jeff Jacobson wrote in a Xerox blog -

In times of change and transformation, one is given the unique opportunity to look at things differently – to step out of the comfort zone and take a different look at how things get done.

http://digitalprinting.blogs.xerox.com/2012/12/4725/#.UO09QeR1GSo

which means that the stand is cancelled. In reply to a comment he added

 there are international trade shows, such as Hunkeler, which we will attend due to its continuous feed focus – an important offering to our customers and the industry. It is also our intent, at the current time, to participate in Drupa.

So drupa is looking strong as a special occasion once every four years. Heidelberg and HP have already cancelled for IPEX in 2014.

However there could be a gap around drupa for Cross Media Live, a show launched last year in Islington. This is intended to happen every year, more suited to the pace of digital developments. I hope this year that the Furures Conference organised by the London College of Communications will be at the same time and with nearby locations. But online this year is much like last year. The move from print to print as part of communication has taken decades. Print changes over centuries. So we can blog about LCC Futures 2012 as if it was 2013.

BETT though is to be considered day by day. I still don't know what Michael Gove has to say about it. Adobe will not be there, they   left most trade shows a while ago. The Serif stand looks interesting, volume licences for a suite of software once known as dtp.