The Whatizit Show - BETT London 2012 Show Report

Although our education reseller Technology Supplies Ltd (TSL) are old hands at the BETT show, this year was the first time Bits from Bytes had a stand for ourselves. But we were not quite on our own as the TSL guys came to help over the four day stint. The visitor numbers were sporadic at times, one minute was quiet, the next, a crowd had gathered with more behind to try and see what the fuss was about.

During one of the lulls on the first day, a TSL colleague told us that it was often nicknamed The Whatizit Show. This was because over the last couple of years the visitors had watched the jerky movements of the machines, ducked down to see the part being printed, but without really making the connection, they looked up at the stand personnel and asked “Whatizit?”. This stuck and over the duration of the show I counted how many times the question was asked. What became apparent to our delight was that there were very few. The visitors had not only heard of the technology, or seen it on YouTube, or read about it in the press, they were asking more detailed questions: “What about the software/ the z height/ the finish/ the materials..?”.

This showed us that not only is 3D printing on teachers’ radars, they can see how it can be directly applied to learning and are using the BETT show as a fact-finding mission. So it’s developed into the “What About.?” show, which is a great place to start a conversation about getting more machines into more of our schools. 

Thank you to all the visitors who stopped by our stand and made it a great show for our debut.

If you would like to find out more about buying a machine for your school, college or university, please contact Technology Supplies Ltd.