A large SEND event can give you useful ideas, new contacts and a clearer sense of what other schools are trying. It can also give you a tote bag, twelve supplier conversations and no clear idea what to do on Monday morning.
The difference usually comes down to choosing the right event for the job you need it to do.
Tes SEND Show is the strongest fit for broad, SEND-specific discovery and practical supplier conversations. nasen LIVE is better suited to focused professional learning, expert sessions and peer discussion. Bett is the widest technology event of the three, with a dedicated SEND Village for schools that want to connect SEND practice with the wider education technology market.
Those are useful starting points. They are not a league table. The best event depends on the question you are trying to answer.
The short comparison
- Tes SEND Show: Best for SEND-specific ideas, resources, supplier conversations and networking. The main risk is collecting information without deciding what deserves follow-up.
- nasen LIVE: Best for focused CPD, sector insight and professional discussion. A paid conference is poor value if you arrive without a learning goal.
- Bett UK, SEND Village: Best for wider edtech, accessibility and school technology conversations. SEND is one part of a very large event, so the general noise is higher.
Event details change each year. Treat the dates, prices and attendance figures below as a guide to the current editions, not as permanent facts.
Start with the job, not the event
Before booking, write one sentence answering this question:
What do I need to understand, decide or bring back to school?
Useful answers might be:
- We need a better way to keep SEND records current when staff change.
- We want to improve parent and pupil involvement in support planning.
- We need to compare tools for managing SEND documents and evidence.
- We need practical ideas for supporting regulation, accessibility or inclusive literacy.
- We need to understand what current SEND reform means for our setting.
If you cannot write a specific answer, you are probably attending because the event exists rather than because it solves a problem. That is an expensive way to browse a hall.
Tes SEND Show: best for concentrated SEND discovery
The Tes SEND Show is built around the SEND community rather than being a small SEND section inside a wider education exhibition. The organiser describes it as a two-day event for practical SEND CPD, networking, resources and specialist suppliers. The 2026 programme includes 42 CPD-certified seminars, three free-to-attend theatres, the SEND Leadership Summit and a Parent, Carer and Teacher Forum. The organiser lists more than 150 exhibitors and says the audience includes SEND practitioners, SENCOs, local-authority services, commissioners, therapists and professionals from early years, schools, further education and related services.14
The 2026 London show is scheduled for 9 and 10 October at the Business Design Centre. Entry is free for the exhibition, the three theatres, the Parent, Carer and Teacher Forum and the opening keynote panel. Individual seminar places cost £19 plus VAT with the early bird discount, £23 before the show and £25 at the show itself.2
The organiser says the venue has disabled access throughout. It also lists a quiet space, hearing loops in conference rooms on request, a limited wheelchair-loan service and support for guide dogs. Contact the show before travelling if you need an adjustment or additional assistance.3
Choose Tes SEND Show if you need to:
- see a wide range of SEND resources in one place;
- compare how different suppliers describe the same school problem;
- find practical sessions for a team with mixed levels of experience;
- speak with organisations that work across mainstream, special, early years, FE or local authority settings;
- gather ideas before starting a more formal procurement process.
The risk is volume. More than 150 exhibitors can be useful, but only if you decide in advance which problems you are investigating. Pick a small number of sessions. Mark the stands or organisations you genuinely need to speak to. Leave space to think.
Do not confuse a friendly demonstration with evidence that a product will fit your school. Ask to see the part of the workflow that tends to go wrong: incomplete records, staff handover, review dates, permissions, exports and corrections.
nasen LIVE: best for focused CPD and shared learning
nasen LIVE has a different shape. The 2026 event took place on Friday 3 July at The Vox Conference Venue, Resorts World, Birmingham. Its programme covered SEND practice, reform, accessibility, alternative provision, parent partnership, inclusive literacy and staff wellbeing. nasen described the day as 20 sessions with more than 40 speakers and panellists, alongside an exhibition featuring more than 60 organisations.56
The standard member ticket listed for 2026 was £109, with lunch and refreshments included. The 2026 event page now marks tickets as expired. nasen's current events listing does not show a 2027 nasen LIVE date or ticket price, so check that listing before planning the next conference.57
Choose nasen LIVE if you need to:
- spend a day on professional learning rather than general product browsing;
- understand how policy and system changes may affect practice;
- hear from people working across different parts of the SEND system;
- bring a leadership question into a room where discussion matters as much as the slides;
- leave with a small number of ideas that can be tested with colleagues.
This is the event I would prioritise for a SENCO who already knows the operational problem and wants better thinking around it. It is less useful if your only objective is to collect supplier brochures.
Before booking a paid CPD event, agree what would make the day worthwhile. That might be one change to your annual review process, one improvement to parent communication or one decision about how your team handles evidence. Without that, the day can feel productive while changing very little.
Bett UK and the SEND Village: best for the wider technology picture
Bett is much larger than the other two events. Bett UK 2027 is scheduled for 20 to 22 January at ExCeL London. The organiser reports that the 2026 event welcomed more than 37,000 members of the global education community, including 14,000 education decision-makers, with more than 700 exhibiting companies across 130 countries. Its current site also lists more than 400 speakers. These are organiser-reported figures for the event context, not a guaranteed 2027 attendance forecast.8
The SEND Village returns in 2027 as a dedicated space for SEND providers and schools. Bett's SEND page lists more than 50 exhibiting companies with SEND products, more than 750 institutions looking for SEND products, 77% with influence over purchasing decisions and 14% with an annual budget above £100,000. These are organiser-reported figures, so treat them as a description of the event's intended audience rather than independent market research.9
Educators, government and charity attendees can register for free. The current page lists a £475 ticket for general attendees. Bett's 2027 programme includes content stages, TableTalks, Connect @ Bett and Tech User Labs.1012
Accessibility planning is covered separately by Bett. ExCeL has step-free entrances, accessible parking and toilets, a dedicated quiet space, captions in theatres, mobility equipment hire and support for assistance dogs. Contact the organiser about individual communication or access requirements before attending.11
Choose Bett if you need to:
- understand how SEND tools sit alongside the wider school technology stack;
- involve an IT, digital strategy or MAT colleague in the conversation;
- explore accessibility, assistive technology and inclusive design beyond one SEND workflow;
- compare the language used by larger technology suppliers with the needs of actual school staff;
- look at how systems connect, share data and support decisions across a school or trust.
Bett can be valuable for school leaders who are thinking beyond one product category. It can also be overwhelming. The SEND Village is the sensible starting point, but do not stop there if your question involves identity, data, devices, integrations or trust-wide governance.
If you are attending to assess software, make sure the conversation returns to the daily work of a SENCO. A system can look impressive in a theatre and still leave staff rebuilding records in Word documents and email threads.
Questions worth asking any supplier
Use the same questions at every event. That makes comparisons much fairer than relying on whoever gives the most polished demonstration.
Ask what happens to existing information
- Can you show how the product handles an incomplete PDF, Word file or scanned document?
- What happens to content that does not map neatly into the new structure?
- Can staff review warnings and unmapped content before anything becomes part of the live record?
- What does the school keep as the original source?
Ask what staff can trust
- Which information is taken from the source and which wording is generated or interpreted?
- Can the system preserve pupil, parent, staff and professional voice separately?
- What does the tool do when there is not enough evidence?
- Can staff correct an approved document without losing the history of what changed?
Ask about running the workflow
- Who owns the next review and how is it made visible?
- Can staff find the current version quickly?
- What permissions apply to teachers, support staff, leaders and external professionals?
- Can the school export a usable copy if it leaves the service?
- What support is included during setup, migration and the first term?
Ask for evidence, not adjectives
Replace questions such as “Is it easy to use?” with “Show me the first ten minutes for a new member of staff.”
Replace “Is it secure?” with “Where is the data processed, who can access it, how long is it retained and what happens on exit?”
Replace “Does it save time?” with “Which steps disappear, which steps remain, and how have you measured that?”
A supplier should be able to answer these without hiding behind general claims. If the answer depends on a feature that is still being developed, ask for the date, the current workaround and what you can test now.
How to turn one event day into useful work
Before the event
Write down one problem, three questions and the people who need to be involved in the decision. Check accessibility and travel arrangements early. If you are attending with colleagues, divide the programme rather than all sitting in the same sessions.
During the event
Take notes under four headings: problem, evidence, risk and next action. Keep supplier claims separate from what you personally observed. Photographing a slide is not the same as understanding whether the idea fits your setting.
Within a week
Hold a short debrief. Record:
- three ideas worth investigating;
- one thing that does not fit your setting;
- one supplier or approach that needs a proper test;
- the owner of the next action;
- the date when you will decide whether to continue.
If nobody owns the follow-up, the event was professional development, not school improvement.
Which event should you choose?
Choose Tes SEND Show when you want the broadest SEND-specific view and practical supplier access, especially when free exhibition entry matters.
Choose nasen LIVE when you want a focused day of CPD, discussion and sector insight, and you have a clear question worth paying to explore.
Choose Bett when your question sits at the intersection of SEND, accessibility, digital strategy and wider school technology. Bring the colleague who understands the rest of the technology estate.
MeritDocs is built around the same practical test that should be applied to any SEND documentation tool: can staff turn scattered information into a current, reviewable record, keep professional judgement in the process and export what the school needs later? The product is less important than the workflow. A good demo should make that workflow clearer, not distract from it.
This guide was last reviewed on 1 October 2026. Tes SEND Show 2026 is scheduled for 9 and 10 October. nasen LIVE 2026 has taken place, and nasen's current events listing does not yet show a 2027 date. Bett UK 2027 is scheduled for 20 to 22 January. Event dates, ticket prices, programmes and exhibitor lists change, so check the official event page before booking.
Sources
[1] Tes SEND Show [2] Tes SEND Show FAQs [3] Tes SEND Show accessibility [4] Tes SEND Show programme [5] nasen LIVE 2026 [6] nasen LIVE 2026 event update [7] nasen events listing [8] Bett UK [9] Bett SEND Village [10] Bett visitor registration [11] Bett accessibility [12] Bett programme