The start of the autumn term heralds the start of the ‘events season’ for us. (And we love to get out to events and conferences because it’s a great opportunity to meet some of our hardworking clients!) October saw us jumping in with both feet and attending two such events in the same week: #CanvasCon Europe at the Barbican, London on Tuesday 9th October quickly followed by the AoC Data, Performance and Accountability Conference on Thursday 11th, also in London.
Our partners, @CanvasLMS, have been running similar regional education events for a number of years now and this CanvasCon seemed bigger than ever; this year also marks their tenth year in business. Our Managing Director, Mark, and Sales Executive, Nicky, spent the day chatting to colleges and universities from across Europe who were attending the event; one college was so pleased to see us that Mark thought they were actually going to ask him for his autograph! We got some really great feedback on our eTrackr-ILP and eNotify products – and were very well looked after by Canvas (great buffet!).
Towards the end of September, we had a late opportunity to sponsor the AoC Data Conference and decided that was too good to miss! Mark and our Director, Sarah, again had an enjoyable day meeting the delegates at the event. At several points during the conference breaks, we are pleased to report that there were queues at our stand to talk to them both. As always, the Association of Colleges @AoC_Create ran another well-organised and useful event and we were pleased to support them as headline sponsors of this one.
The message that came across at both events, and via messages through other channels like LinkedIn, is that many Further Education Colleges seem ready – if not eager! – to move away from their existing systems. We have heard feedback that the market leader no longer seems to provide the customer service and support that they used to; a great shame for the colleges using their products but an area where we are more than happy to fill the gap!
Perhaps as a consequence of this mood, we have registered a record number of demonstration requests for this time of year, so Sarah, Nicky and the team will be busy following those up in the coming weeks. Oh, as well as getting ready for our next big event, of course: the AoC Annual Conference #AoCConf on 20th November. Will we see you there?
(410 words)
Photo: Our MD Mark with two very happy eTrackr-ILP and eNotify customers at CanvasCon: Grace and Fiona from Lakes College.