E-learning community celebrates reunion at LEARNTEC 2022
As a meeting place for business and personal encounters, LEARNTEC - Europe's largest event for digital education in schools, universities and the workplace - celebrates its summer edition.
From 31 May to 2 June 2022, around 11,000 education experts came together at the Messe Karlsruhe to gather information and exchange ideas on future-oriented products and services for everyday learning from more than 370 exhibitors from 19 countries. The visitors gave top marks for the diverse range of products and services at LEARNTEC. This underlines the position of LEARNTEC as the most important event for the digital education industry.
"Digitalisation is the motor for a modern learning and working world. The digital education industry meets at LEARNTEC to take a joint look at the future of education and to network with each other. As the organiser of LEARNTEC, Messe Karlsruhe is making a sustainable contribution to Karlsruhe as a digital location. It thus creates a basis for promoting the UN sustainability strategy for high-quality education," says Britta Wirtz, Managing Director of Messe Karlsruhe.
LEARNTEC enables trade visitors to network for a long time to come
The desire for personal professional exchange and networking after two years of pandemic was very great. Two thirds of the trade visitors travelled more than 300 kilometres from all over Germany and Europe to be at LEARNTEC. The focus for them was in particular the desire for inspiration for their everyday digital learning and working life, to get to know the innovations and industry trends as well as to cultivate contacts.
The need for live encounters and exchange is also confirmed by the exhibitors. "It's a wonderful feeling to finally experience LEARNTEC on site again," says Leo Marose, Managing Director at Stackfuel. "We have heard in the numerous conversations that more and more companies are thinking about promoting data skills. Many have realised in the last two years that more employees need digital technology skills." Andreas Kambach, Managing Director Area9 Lyceum added: "Our expectations were very reserved as to how LEARNTEC would turn out after the pandemic. The expectations have not only been met, but exceeded. We experience qualified visitors here and a strong interest in the topic of digital continuing education."
Oliver Plick, Head of the Competence Center Digital Learning Solutions at Haufe Akademie, also appreciates the high proportion of trade visitors: "The proportion of trade visitors was high and we also had a lot of visitors from our customers. It was very pleasing to see each other in person again. It was a real come together that was a lot of fun.
LEARNTEC in three exhibition halls for the first time
During LEARNTEC, the dm-arena advanced to become the largest digital classroom in Germany. Here alone 140 exhibitors presented their products and services for digital learning in schools. The three-day specialist forum school@LEARNTEC also found its place there and offered the opportunity for knowledge exchange, dialogue and best practice examples from everyday teaching. The participants were very satisfied with the quality of the school@LEARNTEC forum, 96 percent gave it top marks.
Exhibitors also benefit from the bundling of offerings. Regina Meyer-Arlt, Head of Corporate Communications at the Westermann Group says: "The new additional hall has provided us with an exciting presentation forum. Together with our partner publishers, we were able to present our new joint project in this attractive setting and are pleased that it met with broad acceptance among visitors. It was nice to finally experience again what a trade fair is all about: personal conversations, surprising encounters, inspiring events." And Christoph Pienkoß, Managing Director of Verband Bildungsmedien e. V., adds: "LEARNTEC 2022 has brought the digital education industry together and thus promoted the all-important dialogue about the future of education in Germany. We are highly satisfied with the three days of the fair. LEARNTEC was a great success for us."
With the bundling of the offers for digital schools, more space was also created for the Corporate Learning area in the two previous exhibition halls. The conclusion there was also positive. Jonathan Schröttle, Sales Manager at GoodHabitz: "In my opinion, LEARNTEC 2022 was even better than the years before. This has mainly to do with the new concept, as this year the focus on schools has been moved to the third hall. The target groups can thus be better divided up. Here in Hall 1, on all three days we met the visitors who are interested in the online trainings of GoodHabitz and who correspond to our target group. This definitely had a positive impact on the quality of the conversations as well as the quality of new contacts."
International top-class experts show digital learning trends
The accompanying specialist convention, which took place this year under the motto "New Work - New Learning", was very well received. "We are pleased that the programme was so well received by the congress visitors and that the quality of the speakers was particularly appreciated," summed up Sünne Eichler, Jane Hart and Prof. Dr. Peter A. Henning from the LEARNTEC convention committee. The congress participants particularly praised the linking of the topics in the congress with the offerings at the trade fair. The satisfaction of the participants is also reflected in the increased recommendation rate: more than 92 percent of the participants would like to come back next year and recommend the LEARNTEC Convention to their colleagues.
Focus on innovative ideas, new work and the future of learning
The numerous forums and special shows at the trade fair, which depicted the various aspects of a modern learning and working world, were particularly popular with visitors to LEARNTEC again this year. The Future Lab, which took place at LEARNTEC for the second time this year, was particularly well attended: Using livecloning, visitors could, for example, have an avatar created here, which could be projected onto a holodeck using augmented reality, shared on social media or sent to friends and colleagues. There was also a lot on offer at the new special New Work area. Among other things, visitors were able to use Lego bricks to create their own idea of "New Work - New Learning". Jan Foelsing, New Learning expert, sums up: "I found it very nice to physically meet old acquaintances and new faces here again. Despite the pandemic, a positive signal: people want to go to trade fairs, they want to inform themselves and exchange ideas."
The topic of New Work will be further explored at the 30th LEARNTEC. René Naumann, Project Manager of LEARNTEC sums up at the conclusion of the 2022 trade fair: "Already today, more than 80 percent of the available space for the anniversary edition in 2023 has been booked bindingly. Welcome to LEARNTEC 2023 - from 23 to 25 May 2023."
