Friday was the final day of the Assistive Technology Forum and I was looking forward to another cracking day showcasing Livescribe to the assembled delegates.

Given this was the home town for the organiser I was expecting a great day – and they didn’t disappoint. You kind of forget that Newcastle’s like a big country town – so when you meet locals like Tony Wilks or Veronica McLoughlin – you realise how much you miss the country…

As we experienced earlier in the week, visitors to our booth left amazed at the capabilities of Livescribe and yet again, I was able to rely on existing customers to do demo’s for us.Yet again, the unanswered question is how we can integrate Livescribe into other products and deeper and better into your Learning Management Systems – we’ll keep sending your suggestions and thoughts up to the team in the US.

Thanks also to those who stopped by the booth. Clearly some of you have a very funny sense of humour given the written notes in the pads – the funniest? Yes I have a shiny head. And for those Kiwi’s who stopped by and worked out that I’m a Rugby fan – not funny.

If you attended and have any follow up questions, feel free to contact us.  Hopefully we’ll see many of you at the next event.

thanks

Given we’re doing quite a bit of work with this segment I figured this was going to be a pretty cool day talking to a lot of great people who are doing wonderful things with students who don’t have the opportunity to learn like some of us – and I was right.

The event was very well run and even though I’m not directly involved in Education I thought the speaker line up was first class – the opening address by Professor Ron McCallum was first class and one of the most entertaining speeches I’ve heard in many years of attending conferences.

I was surprised (and a little disappointed) that there wasn’t a greater use of tools like Twitter and Facebook at the event, particularly given the technology focus. I would have thought speakers on technology like Gerry Kennedy, or the reps from Microsoft and Apple would have been encouraging use of these tools.

We had a really busy day with literally hundreds of attendees wanting information about Livescribe. The attendees kept us on our toes by throwing many different types of ‘Can it help if…’ scenarios at us. A common theme was how Livescribe can help students participate and remain relatively independent in the classroom.

I was pleased to meet a number of our existing customers – and we owe them big thanks as they often hung around our stand talking to prospective customers – there is no power greater than an existing customer talking enthusiastically about your product.

Newcastle is the next stop tomorrow. We’ll be Twittering again, sharing photos, and talking to as many people as we can. If you’re coming to the Newcastle event, please stop by.

Our customer originally bought a Livescribe pen for himself as a business tool. As most of us do with new toys he was showing his family and was impressed with how quickly one of his sons took to the technology. Given his son has a learning disability he sent him off to school with his pen.

The impact was immediate and enough for his teachers to show considerable interest in his magic pen. This was enough for dad who purchased a pen for his son and has been a great advocate for Livescribe and Smartpen at his school.
Dad spoke to me late last week – he’s very happy as his son is learning dozens of new words every day and best of all – learning is fun. Learning has gone from a frustrating chore to a fun experience.

This is an important point that we hear a lot from parents and educators. One of the hidden powers of Livescribe is its ability to help young people keep up with their peers in the classroom – making their day more enjoyable and less stressfull.

At Smartpen, we really enjoy hearing stories like this – if you have a similar experience please let me know – we’d love to hear from you.

The event is over 2 days as follows:

• Wednesday the 19th – Bankstown
• Friday the 21st in Newcastle

I’m really excited about this two day event as we’ve done a lot of work this year helping institutions, teachers, and students understand how Livescribe can help them with their studies.

We’ve got a really nice offer for anyone who wants to purchase on the day (a big discount), and we’ll also be giving away a pen each day for anyone who stops by and drops a business card into our prize bowl.

If you’re in Sydney or Newcastle and involved in education or you’re supporting students who have learning disabilities then I’d love to meet you at one of the two events.

• We’ll have both PC and Mac computers set up to demonstrate Livescribe
• Both computers will have MyScript for Livescribe installed so you’ll also have a chance to see how the MyScript transcription software works
• You’ll be able to purchase the Livescribe 2GB Pulse Smartpen at a nice discount to RRP

Over the two days we’ll be blogging live from the events, we’ll keep the Twitterverse up to date (search under #assisttechforum) and we’ll also post photos from the venues onto Facebook.