Counting down to Communication Works 2024
The year is flying by and it’s not long to go until our annual event Communication Works South a celebration of assistive technology in education.
Date: Thursday 6th June 2024
Venue: Charlton Athletic Football Club, North Stand, The Valley, Floyd Road, London SE7 8B
Time: 9.30am to 4.00pm
We have got a great day planned for everyone with an interesting programme of seminars featuring some of our CENMAC students. They will be demonstrating some of the assistive technology they use to access the curriculum/and or to communicate supported by our CENMAC Advisory Team and assistive technology product specialists. The programme and exhibition hall floor plan will be available soon so follow us on X and Instagram for event updates (#cw2024, #getseen).
Keynote Speaker
The day will open with our keynote speaker Ellise Hayward. Since completing her GCSEs in 2018 Ellise has been spreading cerebral palsy awareness by sharing her communication journey through mainstream school.
Ellise also works as an Inclusion Ambassador and Disabilities Correspondent at The Jill Dando News Centre and The Good News Post. In April Ellise delivered an inspirational presentation about her work with Jill Dando News at the Houses of Parliament at the celebration of The Life and Legacy of Jill Dando.
Ellise was recently featured in a Channel 4 film called ‘Welcoming Differences with Cerebral Palsy – How to Be My Ally’. In the film Ellise highlights that it is important not to assume that just because someone might look a certain way or can’t speak to you in the usual way doesn’t mean that they can’t understand you. “Speak to us as you would anyone else.”
We look forward to meeting Ellise in person.
Keynote Speaker Ellise Hayward presenting at a recent event.
MC – CENMAC Student Ambassador Khamani
We are happy to be welcoming back Student Ambassador Khamani as our MC. Khamani is now studying Film & TV at College after successfully completing his GCSEs last year.
Khamani has also started his own business called KJ’s Craft Time (an idea he came up with during the Covid lockdown). His craft boxes promote creativity, fun and engagement for children while encouraging fine motor skills and as a result of all his hard work he was the winner of the Trulittle Entrepreneur Hero (12 – 18) Award in 2023!
Khamani has been busy interviewing some of our exhibitors ahead of Communication Works so take a look at “Conversations with Khamani“.
MC Khamani on stage at the TruLittle Hero Awards
Exhibitors
The exhibition hall gives our visitors a great opportunity to get up close to the latest innovations in assistive technology with a wide range of technology companies attending including: Ace Centre, Aventido, BrightSign, CENMAC, CandLE AAC, Commtap CIC, Communication Matters (ISAAC UK Ltd), Cosmo by Filisia, Crick Software, Digit Music, Glean, Humanware, Inspiration, IRISBOND, Jabbla UK, KAZ Type Ltd, LGfL – The National Grid for Learning, Liberator Ltd, Nessy Learning, Pretorian Technologies Ltd, ReadingWise, Rahana Life, Rix Inclusive Research, Scanning Pens, Scribeasy Ltd, SeeAbility, Sensory Guru Ltd, Smartbox, Smile Smart Technology Ltd, Stix Mindfulness, Therapy Box, Voca Quest and Widgit.
We’ve also have some international exhibitors including ArithmeType, Floreo, Jimple and Augmental who will be online during the day for virtual meetings with them. They are happy to answer any questions you might have about their technology.
> Find out more about our exhibitors
Experience Zone
This year we will also have an area dedicated to experiencing technology in gaming and social experiences. Thanks to Bob Sagoo at Pretorian for providing these experiences.
Thank you
We would also like to thank Bob Usher at LGfL for the support they are providing including filming during the day.
We look forward to an exciting day and we look forward to seeing everyone there!
Bob Sagoo at the Pretorian exhibition stand at Communication Works
