Vision+Media exists to help grow the digital and creative industry in England's Northwest

With digital technologies improving at such a fast pace coupled with an ever increasing need for creativity within more ‘traditional’ sectors, Vision+Media thought it was important to address this need. Fortunately 88% of people agreed with us. That is 88% of attendees at the recent Visionary Session on opportunities within the education market rated the event as ‘important’ (48%) and ‘very important’ (48%) in relation to the need for finding new markets.*

The visionary session, held at FACT Liverpool on 27th May and hosted by Vision+Media was developed to inspire the digital and creative sector into finding the opportunities within education. It included speakers from within education, suppliers to education and examples of digital and creative products already utilising the market. We asked attendees whether or not they felt the content was relevant in their individual growth needs; the response was very positive with 36% indicating that some of the content was relevant and 60% believing that all the content was relevant and their needs were fully met.

* Taken from 64% sample of 39 attendees

Ensuring an increase in knowledge

Generating enthusiasm about new market opportunities is one thing, but Vision+Media wanted to go a couple of steps further than that and ensure attendees actually learnt something. The collection of speakers addressed some key learning themes which attendees would need to understand if they intended to seek out and act on these opportunities. These were:

• An understanding of the shifts and trends within education
• An understanding of the support needs within Primary and Secondary Education
• Knowledge of the technological and creative developments within the Education Market
• Knowledge of how to break into the Education Market

We asked attendees to comparatively rate their knowledge and understanding (K/U) of these themes prior to and post the event. The results of which are detailed below.

The results of this are very encouraging. There is a clear shift from the majority of attendees having little or no knowledge of the theme prior to the session, to a majority indicating some or complete knowledge following the session. This is also backed up by an average of 62% of attendees indicating an increase in their levels of knowledge and understanding in all of the learning themes.

Making a commitment

But what use is all this learning if it doesn’t go anywhere? As with all our programmes Vision+Media seek to encourage companies/participants to continually develop themselves through applying these skills and working towards delivering in new markets. Of the 49% of attendees who committed to make changes, the following areas were identified.

Findings

64% of attendees demonstrated an increase in their knowledge and understanding of this theme.
This resulted in a shift from 44% of attendees having some or complete knowledge of the matter prior to the event, to 92% after the session.
8% did not rate their K/U

60% of attendees demonstrated an increase in their knowledge and understanding of this theme.
This resulted in a shift from 32% of attendees having some or complete knowledge of the matter prior to the event, to 80% after the session.
8% did not rate their K/U

64% of attendees demonstrated an increase in their knowledge and understanding of this theme.
This resulted in a shift from 40% of attendees having some or complete knowledge of the matter prior to the event, to 92% after the session.
8% did not rate their K/U

60% of attendees demonstrated an increase in their knowledge and understanding of this theme.
This resulted in a shift from 24% of attendees having some or complete knowledge of the matter prior to the event, to  72% after the session.
12% did not rate their K/U

So, what next?

It would appear that the Visionary Session was successful in achieving its goals. The content was relevant, a large proportion of attendees increased their knowledge and understanding of key themes and importantly, a good proportion of attendees have committed to continuing their skills, changing their business models and searching out new markets.

Along with these encouraging statistics, further comments were received from attendees that include:

• It exceeded my expectations
• Really useful.... gave me lots of ideas
• Very good range of speakers
• Met 3 key players to our progress
• More info regarding costs, budgets etc... market research data woul be useful

Edu-Pitch Programme

This is all very encouraging for the launch of the Edu-Pitch Programme. This programme builds on the bases of the visionary session and aims to support a selection of Digital and Creative companies into collaborative working with education and ultimately producing content to meet educational needs. The programme is due to launch after the summer so keep an eye on Vision+Media’s website for further details. Alternatively if you wish to register your interest in the Edu-Pitch Programme to be kept updated as the launch of the programme approaches please email [email protected].  

Naturally the Edu-Pitch programme will also be evaluated although Vision+Media will go a step further with this. Not only will we be looking at participant learning from the visionary session but we will also be measuring additional learning from the programme, evidencing the application of those skills through to participants pitching their ideas to education.

For those who do not partake in the programme we are still very keen to observe any changes you have introduced into your organisations and whether or not this can be attributed to the visionary session. We will be contacted you again in several months for a follow up.

Richard McMorn – Monitoring and Evaluation Manager
Vision+Media 

Copies of both the Return on Investment Impact Study and the Needs & Objectives Planning document for the Edu-Pitch Programme are available to download from the sidebar