Inspired in part by a combination of the success of F-ALT, my experiences at Bathcamp and general dissatisfaction with how few education based start-ups get any love at the tech events both here in the UK and the interest from Paul at School of Everything, Al at Luzia Research and Laura from the OU (with the name inspired by Bristol Open Coffees John) we have decided to push forward with the idea for some kind of unconference around the BETT show with a focus on education start-ups and people doing interesting stuff around the social web and education.
Josie Fraser and James Clay had a similar idea and had set up an EduBETT wiki to build a F-ALT like fringe around BETT and we are going to work together to make the most of both ideas and get as many cool folk as possible involved.
The plan at the moment is a unconference style event at an undisclosed location in London focusing on education focused start-ups on (probably) the 14th January with (hopefully) a Social Innovation Camp meet-up with an education theme on the evening.
Any startups who are interested in attending (and anyone else) should drop me a line (mjukes AT gmail.com) though anyone who has been in touch with me before is already on the list one way or another! We’ll also try and get someone from an investors point of view along as well journalists who might be interested.