Merlin John Online

Digital creativity: when Apple supported BETT
Apple computers are going into UK schools as never before. City Learning Centres and schools have cottoned on to the fact that iMacs can be used for both Mac OSX programs as well as for Windows. The new Leigh Technology Academy in Kent, for example, has 700 of these "dual-boot" iMacs which have cut the furniture bill by £80,000 at a stroke as they don't have to be secured in cabinets like PC processor units.

So you would think that Apple would be at the heart of Bett 2009, the UK's, and probably the world's, biggest educational ICT event. Not so. Apple doesn't "support" conferences any more. It's a corporate decision that applies to all trade shows - Apple wasn't even officially present at Apple Expo Paris for example. The company feels there are better ways to communicate with its customers.

An Apple spokesperson said that Apple would be represented at Bett 2009 by Apple sellers and its Apple Distinguished Educators who would be speaking at seminars. It's just as well for Bett visitors that exhibitors like RM, Becta, 2Simple, Viglen, Capita, Pearson and Microsoft, as well as all those emerging, innovative outfits who struggle to pay for their presence at Olympia, don't feel the same way.
Bett 2009