It’s exhibition season at Learning Resources UK and our team have just returned from a busy two months of trade shows! In January, we kick start the year by launching over 80 new hands-on educational toys spanning across learning areas such as Literacy, Numeracy, Science and STEM. To showcase these new additions we exhibit both in the UK and internationally, giving customers the chance to get hands-on with our new ranges and understand the product development process and educational benefits behind each one.
Dennis Blackmore, Managing Director
BETT Show
Location: Excel, London
Date: 25-28th January
Audience: UK Education
BETT is the world’s leading education technology event celebrated in the UK, attended by over 34,000 educators and decision makers from 138 countries. The Learning Resources stand at the show featured our best-selling STEM line and our STEM in Action range, a comprehensive scheme for teaching STEM throughout primary schools. Two new Key Stage 2 projects were launched at the show; Shadow Box Theatre Exploration and Wildlife Corridors Challenge.
Highlights from the Show
Competition Winners
Thank you to all who took part in our competition and congratulations to all of the winners!
Special Thanks to…
• Toftwood Infant School
• Howard Junior School
• Eastgate Academy School
• Holmwood House School
• Milton Road Primary School
• The Beeches Primary school
These schools are innovative and forward thinking in planning STEM lessons for their pupils and kindly invited us into their classrooms to see firsthand how they have used our STEM in Action Range. We took the opportunity to take photographs and record footage for our BETT video that was played on our stand throughout the show. Take a look at some of the highlights below!
-David Williams, Headteacher, Parkfield Community School
Stars of the Show
London Toy Fair
Location: Olympia, London
Date: 24-26th January
Audience: UK Retail
London Toy Fair, organised by the British Toy and Hobby Association, is the UK’s only dedicated toy, game and hobby trade show**. **The toy industry’s showcase welcomes more than 270 companies exhibiting thousands of products to visitors including retailers, buyers, media and the wider industry. Learning Resources UK exhibited over 70 new additions to best-selling retail lines such as STEM, Primary Science, GeoSafari® Jr, Family Games and much more.
Best New Toy Awards
Our new Playground Engineering & Design Building Set was named as a ‘Best New Toy’ in the STEM category at the show! Selected by an independent panel of retailers, these are the toys they believe will be the hottest products over the coming year.
Natasha Crookes, British Toy and Hobby Association, said
“Each year it gives us great pleasure to announce Toy Fair’s Best New Toys, celebrating the success and creativity of the UK toy industry. From major brands to start-up companies, the list represents a cross section of success stories that have kept the UK toy industry growing over the last few years. As the market evolves, it is fantastic to see the judging panel introduce new categories such as the S.T.E.M category which recognises how important toys and the value of play are to a child’s development. Congratulations to all the winners.”
Demo Zone
Carmen Gimenez, our International Retail Sales Manager, took to the Demo Zone to present Mental Blox Junior, a new addition to our Mental Blox range. The game received thumbs up from all of the Demo Zone testers – watch the clip here!
Toy Fair TV
Carmen was also interviewed by Toy Fair TV’s Gavin Inskip to discuss our highlights of the show. Carmen talked about our award-winning Playground Engineering and Design STEM set – watch the full clip here!
Stars of the Show
Spielwarenmesse
Location: Messezentrum, Nürnberg, Germany
Date: 1st -6th February
Audience: International Retail and Education
Spielwarenmesse attracts more than 2,800 exhibitors from over 60 countries. It marks the coming together of international toy markets and welcomes more than 70,000 visitors from 120 countries. Learning Resources UK exhibit at the show together with our US colleagues, Learning Resources US and Educational Insights, to showcase over 90 new products to the international toy market.
Trend Gallery
Spielwarenmesse highlighted ‘Girl Power’ as a trend for 2017 with a particular focus on girls pursuing engineering. Our Playground Engineering and Design Building Set and Gears! Gears! Gears! Pink Set were featured in the Trend Gallery and Trend Guide as they encourage girls to try out less traditional areas of play such as science, technology and construction.
Tech 2 Play
The Tech 2 Play area at the show is designed to shine a spotlight on technological toys. Our award-winning Code & Go™ Robot Mouse Activity Set took centre stage in the Robot Toys area, and was described as making programming ‘child’s play’.
Stars of the Show
Thank you to everyone who came to see us at these exhibitions. If you missed us you can request a catalogue or visit our website to discover all of our new releases!