I went to the BESA reception at the House of Lords earlier this week. BESA is the British Educational Suppliers Association and serves as a pressure group as well as a trade association. The cream of the educational software industry was there with representatives from big companies such as Crick Software and smaller more specialist companies such as Immersive Technology which has produced the award winning Kartouche brand and Sunflower, experts in Science.

 Baroness Hooper, president of BESA, talked about the challenges ahead and Dominic Savage, Director General, pointed out that this was the last time colleagues from Becta would be attending as the organisation is due to close. However, he sounded a more optimistic note with the news of BETT Middle East, due to take place later this month in Abu Dhabi, and an increasingly open door to Indian markets for British educational software.

There was an enthusiastic response to the news that Andrea Carr, founder and Managing Director of educational publishing company Rising Stars, is to be the new chair of BESA.