Childcare Expo goes down a storm in Manchester

25th June 2018

Returning to EventCity for the third consecutive year, Childcare Expo Manchester was another big hit with visitors who attended the show, which ran from Friday 15th to Saturday 16^th June.

Early years consultant, author and fan-favourite, Alistair Bryce-Clegg kicked off the event on the first day – cutting the ribbon at the show doors, before letting the crowds in to enjoy a day of early years inspiration and fun. Headlining the programme of speakers on the Friday, Alistair’s sold-out seminar was jam-packed with anecdotes from his years in the education industry that had the audience in stitches, accompanied by practical advice for building learning environments around children’s interests. Following his talk, Alistair spent the day posing for selfies with visitors and even enjoyed a glass of Prosecco on the Bloomsbury stand!

Along with the wide range of exhibitors (both national and international) who were there to present their latest products and innovations for the early years sector, the show also introduced two brand new feature areas for 2018.

The Health & Wellbeing Zone provided three dedicated areas focusing on the different issues surrounding nutrition, mental health and physical wellbeing in the early years, with a programme of sessions teaching visitors practical calming techniques, as well as giving tips and ideas to help children develop into healthy and happy individuals.

Also entertaining the crowds with some ukulele performances in the Health and Wellbeing Zone was Ben Faulks (also known as Mr Bloom from CBeebies), who taught visitors ‘The Healthy Eating Song’ as part of the Early Years Nutrition Partnership’s interactive group session – which aimed to show early years practitioners how music can be a helpful tool for teaching children about the importance of eating healthily.

The second new area introduced at the Manchester event was Your Business Café, hosted by headline sponsors and childcare insurance specialists, Morton Michel. This area gave visitors the chance to sit down with a free coffee or cake and chat to industry experts, who were on-hand to give out free professional advice and support on everyday business issues.

Event Director, Emma Barrett said: “We received brilliant feedback from visitors at the Manchester show, who seemed to really enjoy the new feature areas and getting involved in all the interactive workshops. We would just like to say a huge thank you to all of our visitors, exhibitors, speakers and event staff for coming together to make this one of our best events to date – and we can’t wait to do it all again in September.”

Following hundreds of votes from visitors across the two days, the winners of Childcare Expo’s Star Product  Award was announced as Millwood Education. Their “Culture Cube” captured the interests of the show’s attendees, with each side of the cubes showing different aspects of cultures from around the world and offered six different cultures to choose from.

Childcare Expo will be back on the 28^th – 29^th September at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry to offer more seminars and workshops from industry leaders, present new products from the best suppliers in the sector, and provide even more inspiration to early years practitioners. To register for your free tickets to the next event, visit www.childcareexpo.co.uk or call 01425 838393.