BWMATFest25
BWMATFest25
And so... the big day arrived.
The sun was shining, the Bath & West Showground looked stunning, the ice cream was beyond amazing, our star studded lineup of speakers was ready and our BWMATFest25 steering group was ready for the day they had been working so hard to put together.
People began arriving, BWMAT staff were all suitably attired for a festival - so many fabulous hats(!) and the smiles were on every person's face.
After the initial rush for coffee and the introductions, including a fun set from rock band Rocktopus, the event got under way.
In seven different areas - representing the characteristics of our education strategy - talks, workshops and discussions took place all day.
This really was CPD on a different scale.
With our festival partners Independent Thinking providing so many top level speakers and authors free of charge, the programme really had #SomethingForEveryone.
We'd like to take this chance to thank Dave Harris, Ian Gilbert and the Independent Thinking team. We could not have done this without them and I know from speaking to so many colleagues how they left the showground buzzing with ideas for their particular school.
We also need to mention the many companies which supported our marketplace and our event partners, In Any Event This went such a long way to giving such a big event crucial financial support and I know what many of our schools were very interested in the various services on offer.
Colleagues from across BWMAT, around 1,000 of them, moved from location to location, enjoying the sessions with breaks for ice cream and lunch along the way.
People sat in the picnic area, entertained by our DJ and brass band musicians from Somerset Music, played games and had conversations.
This event was about bringing our entire Trust family together, the kind of event which Covid had made so difficult.
On Day 2, we welcomed friends from schools across the country as well as more from BWMAT. Among the speakers, we were also pleased to welcome Bishop Michael who spoke about Spiritual Leadership. The vibe was equally positive, the discussions stimulating and the smiles were just the same as Day 1.
We even had a festival song written, using words and phrases representing BWMATFest25, as part of Mark Anderson's Teaching & Learning session: Beyond engagement: Cultivating deep learning through AI and technology.
The scale of this event was.... off the scale! The ambition, the creativity, the hard work, the resilience to overcome obstacles was always apparent, and always done with a smile.
Someone mentioned how many 'moving parts' there were. In many cases, each part was small but upon them all, the whole thing depended.
BWMAT is not an event management company yet, along with the team from In Any Event, we have achieved something which many others would not attempt.
As JFK said about the space programme, we don't do things because they are easy but because they are hard.
Today, with the dust settled, we can look back on perhaps one of the finest few days in our Trust history.
We hope everyone left feeling uplifted and happy to be part of our Trust family. It was certainly unlike anything most of us have seen in all our years in education and we could not be more proud.
The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Some of our schools have already taken to social media to share their experiences, and you can see one here.
It really has been a remarkable couple of days and we thank you all for being part of it and making it work so well.