DIDAC India 2019 Show Review by the ONVU Learning Team

It was ONVU Learning’s second time attending DIDAC India after last year’s 2018 event in Delhi. Once again, we were impressed not just by the size and scale of the show, but by the scale of education in India and the energy that is being devoted to improving it. Whether talking to entrepreneurs who run chains of 600 plus schools, learning about the India Government’s plans to train over 4 million teachers through online learning, or presenting to a packed conference room, we met engaged, open and enthusiastic educators who are keen to use technology to solve educational problems. 

Hear directly from two of the ONVU Learning’s team members who experienced DIDAC India 2019 first hand.  

Andy Goff (ONVU Learning Director) @AndyGoff :

I had been asked to deliver a workshop on professional remote video coaching as part of the British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA) programme. I started it in the right way, by showing a picture of Sachin Tendulkar. Cricket is a shared passion of the UK and India – and is also a sport that has embraced video technology, from coaching to umpiring. The audience liked our combination of coaching methodology and technology and became very engaged when I shared personal outcomes from teachers in the UK and India who had been able to become more dynamic and engaging teachers as a result of coaching. I have to give a lot of thanks to the team at BESA for all their help before, during and after the event! 

Abhishek Kumar (ONVU Learning Regional Director – South Asia): 

There were probably fewer visitors to DIDAC this year than last – but this was more than made up by the quality and seniority of those who were there. And while there were a lot of exhibitors, they covered a huge area of expertise – from IT and AV equipment to publications and artificial intelligence. That meant that we were unique in what we offered. As a result, at the stand we had a lot of visitors who were interested in the use of digital technology for CPD – and how we were using it. Our case studies of work we’ve done at The Doon School were also of great interest.   

Andy Goff:  

Back at the ONVU Learning stall, I spoke to many private and government school providers. Many of the private schools are engaged in a war for quality teaching – families choosing private education are looking beyond smaller class sizes and are asking for better teaching and more challenging learning. Many of my conversations focused on ways to help teachers take up opportunities for development.  Government schools were also very keen to explore opportunities for improving teacher quality, and it seemed to me that this was being driven at both the federal and state level.  On a lighter note, we’d brought a range of ‘give-aways’ to the event. I wasn’t surprised by how popular our Traditional British Sweets were with delegates – sugar is sugar anywhere in the world – but our Union Jacks (British Flags) were also highly prized – a good sign for all UK exporters! 

Abhishek Kumar: 

I had several conversations about vocational training – again something that has a strong link to our work in that teachers can review student work as well as their own teaching in order to improve their performance.  

Andy Goff:  

Walking around the exhibition there was clear evidence of deep and engaged conversations. Some countries and large exhibitors had brought some truly impressive stands and were seeing correspondingly large numbers of visitors, especially those who were offering innovative digital content. It also reinforced for me the sheer scale of change in Indian education – rather than refurbishing individual schools as in the UK, I heard stories of people looking to make changes in thousands at the same time.

And finally, the evening Awards ceremony was certainly one of my personal highlights of the event. This was truly well organised and impressive, from the graphics to the drone that shocked me by swooping low and filming the event. Of course, winning an award was the icing on the cake!  

If you have attended DIDAC India 2019, we would love to hear about your experience of the show. Did you find what you were looking for? And did you have a chance to visit our stand and speak to the team? Share your comments on our LinkedIn or Twitter pages.