Providers were asked if the recession had affected this year’s event in terms of visitor numbers and potential business. They were also asked whether there was a negative or positive vibe at the show and if they had done anything differently this year to reduce costs due to the downturn. 

Clive Shepherd, chairman of the eLearning Network, a non-profit organisation for the e-learning community, said: “This year’s event is bigger and better and the downturn seems to have increased the amount of people coming. That might seem odd but there are two reasons for this, firstly there has been a shift in the amount of people that are saying that they need to save money from classroom learning, travel is expensive and takes too much time, so there has been a shift to e-learning.

“But that is not the reason we want people to use e-learning as we want them to use it because it is the right tool for the right job, but the issue of saving money driving it. This would have happened anyway but we are seeing a big step change because of the downturn. It is not evolutionary, it has stepped up a pace.

“In the typical learning and development department they are relatively conservative and slow to change. But the economic circumstances are accelerating the process. The sensible learning and development professional is going to have to be proactive in suggesting change, otherwise someone who knows nothing about learning will make your mind up for you, such as a CEO or finance director.

“The conference directors were expecting the numbers to go down but they seem to have gone up this year. Every learning and development professional needs to engage in technology, which is not a message that has been put across in the past. This year the vendors are doing well and people are spending on the stands.

“The attitude is positive this year, not morose or depressed about the recession. Also, there is an agenda to do things as oppose to explore. There is no evidence to suggest whatsoever that people have cut back for this year’s event. The conference organisers were holding their breath but they were pleasantly surprised by how many people attended. There are more people trying to find out about e-learning.”

Phil Horton, business development manager, Epic, an e-learning provider, said: “It feels pretty busy and you can’t tell from the event that the recession is biting. You don’t get direct leads but potential for the future. Business is buying less and government is buying more, for example we have had interest from the Open University, public money and education.

“I think it is busier, but our stand is in a better location this year. There is a positive feel at this year’s show and nobody has moaned about the recession yet. If anything we have increased our presence this year and are giving away more assets that are associated with the conference, for example for our work with the MOD and Nintendo.”

Joanne Lancaster, customer development manager, Learn Direct Business, a government funded e-learning provider, said: “This year’s event has not been affected the recession. I honestly thought it would because of the media coverage about the downturn. But people have come with the attitude of improving employee skills through the recession; a lot of it is to build on staff motivation as well. I didn’t come last year but my colleagues have said it is a lot busier than last year.

“There have been a lot of positive leads from the event. Also, people forget how many good transferable skills they have got, that they can use what they are doing now and move that into a different line of work. With the transferable skills companies affected by the recession are finding that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I have been reassured that training with the new technologies gives more flexibility to staff to enable them to do their jobs and move up the career ladder.”

Lesley Valentine, marketing director, RWD Technologies, a consulting and training business, said: “Not one person has mentioned the recession. I attended last year and the traffic seems very similar, so I was pleasantly surprised. There is certainly a lot of interest in the technologies available but whether this is backed up by funding remains to be seen.

“People are looking for ways to distribute their training other than in a classroom due to cost and distributed workforces. This is also partly due to the different ways people are beginning to learn, such as social networking blogs. I am not sure the show is quite there yet with this type of technology, because of the business aspect, making money out of blogs directly. Within our company we have looked at how we are talking to our clients and adjusted our messaging. As oppose to asking clients, how you would like your company to grow we are now being more specific.”

Natasha Jackson, marketing executive, TurningPoint Technologies, an e-learning provider, said: “In terms of numbers we are just as busy as last year and we haven’t had anyone talking about the credit crunch. The lead generations are probably about the same, it is hard to tell until afterwards. This year we have had more of a presence on the floor with two stands.”

Malcolm Stewart, business development manager for Steljes, sole distributor for SMART Interactive Technologies, said: “There is budget out there for training professional development as part of most major industries. What has changed is that people have reduced their appetite for travel. If they reduce the amount of travel they can achieve much more as they have more time to focus on training delivery.

“The numbers are slightly up on last year, and so are the quality of leads and the amount of interest. We have had more conversations this year than in previous years. In terms of how much has will be spent by visitors this year is anecdotal at the moment.

“But we have a piece of technology that offers to transform their training environment for a relatively small amount of investment. I would say that this year is as positive as last year as nobody has mentioned a reduction in their training budget, the economic pressure is not coming through the market as of yet. We have spent exactly the same as last year.”

Rob Caul, managing director, E2Train, learning and software provider, said: “The event has not been affected at all by the recession. The numbers strike me as being more than last year’s. People’s spending also seems no different to previous years.

“They are not talking all doom and gloom and saying they have no budget. It has been positive. There has been a buzz and that is probably to do with the maturing of the market. I have noticed that this year there a lot more people with e-learning titles on their badges.”

“We haven’t been affected by the downturn and we are continuing to grow. The show has really come on since a couple of years ago in terms of attendance and the number of vendors has increased. Having more technology providers present gives the show more credibility.”

Lyndsay Jones, business development manager, CIA Training, course material provider for ICT qualifications, said: “I think it has been very successful for us. The quality of leads has been very high and we are pleased. I don’t think it has been as busy as previous years but the quality of leads have been better and the conversations have been more promising and focused than in previous years.

“My gut feeling is that we have new leads to convert to new clients. This is definitely positive because of the quality of leads. We have reduced the amount of exhibitions we go to, which was ten per year, but kept this one, which says a lot about the show.”

Chris Slocombe, senior account manager at the British Computer Society, a membership organisation for IT professionals, said: “I have attended for the last ten years and I feel that the quality of delegates has been up in terms of people with serious enquiries, looking to do business, rather than filling in time.

“The event has been very positive and we were surprised because the recession has been all over the newspapers.

“I am very heartened to see the amount of people that are looking positively at their business and looking at the opportunity to upskill their current workforce. I don’t think many organisations are planning to massively increase staff levels, but instead work smarter with existing staff.

“If anything this year we have increased our presence because of the nature of the business, qualifications and training, where people see the opportunity to offer additional skills to employers’ existing staff.” 

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