For UK educators, the BETT 2009 educational technology conference is just round the corner, Jan 14th -17th at the London Olympia conference centre. There will be 30,000 teachers (yes - a full thirty kiloteachers) and educational professionals in attendance.

BETT on XO laptops everywhere!

Once again, The Open Learning Centre will have a stand at the show, but this year Open Forum Europe and The Open Learning Centre have joined forces to get a stand twice as big.

Last year the crowds at our stand were blocking the aisles and causing problems so we felt we needed a bit more space. Our stand is SW104, the "Open Source Precinct" a showcase for Free and Open Source Software in the educational sector, we will have a collection of 4P computing devices and lots of great software to play with.

We will have at least one OLPC on the stand but they are much more fun to use together, so this is an invitation to anyone who has an OLPC to come along and mesh up. Entrance is free, but do try to pre-register. If you can come and help on the stand spreading the word about Free software for a day or more then get in touch and we will sort you out an exhibitor pass.

Alan Bell can be reached through The Open Learning Centre