Hear from our exhibitors – u-nu

27th January 2017

Visiting Childcare Expo is a fabulous way of experiencing what’s going on in the sector today, from learning more about changes to legislation – to discovering new ideas for projects in your setting. But without a doubt one of the main draws to the show is the array of resources available to view first hand.

As a brand new company, u-nu’s first experience of exhibiting at Childcare Expo was in Coventry in September 2015. They had recently put their early years construction toy into production.  They had been getting noticed up in Yorkshire where the owners of a family run daycare nursery had developed the toy.

Inventor David Veron explains,  ‘When we arrived on the first morning of the show, my wife and I really had no idea what to expect. We were both from a teaching background. We knew we had a great product to demonstrate, but we had little experience of how a trade show worked. The organisers were friendly and helpful, as were the other exhibitors, and we soon entered into the swing of things, chatting to practitioners about their experiences and receiving inspiring feedback about u-nu as a quality resource. We were delighted as the orders came flooding in both during and following the show.’

‘By the time the London Childcare Expo came around we had a better idea of what to expect. We filled the stand with bags of u-nu ready to take away. We even enlisted the help of a deputy head from a local primary school to answer questions about u-nu in early years. Visitors to the stand were able to understand from his first-hand experience the way our product contributes to achieving the early learning goals laid out by the EYFS. There was a fabulous buzz around our stand as other exhibitors and practitioners alike came to talk to us and to find out more. By the end of the show we were taking orders for delivery the next week, having sold out of our stock early on the second day. Following the show, we were delighted to discover we had been voted runner-up in the Star Product Award.’

‘In June we exhibited at Childcare Expo Manchester. By this time we had come to the attention of the great Alistair Bryce-Clegg from ABCDoes.com who visited us on our stand. We were able to get feedback from some of our customers who told us what they’d been doing with u-nu in their settings. This was invaluable and we were able to go away from another successful show with the inspiration to build a set of teaching resources designed to maximise the learning opportunities with u-nu.’

‘We’ve now developed our EYFS activity cards and will be launching them as a free giveaway on our stand at the London’s 2017 Childcare Expo.’

Pop along to stand E46 to experience u-nu for yourself and be among the first to sample their brand new EYFS resources.