National Union of Teachers Annual Conference 2010

The National Union of Teachers was established at a meeting at King's College London on 25th June 1870 as the National Union of Elementary Teachers (NUET) to represent all school teachers in England and Wales. After toying with the idea of changing the name to the National Union of English Teachers the name National Union of Teachers (NUT) was finally adopted at Annual Conference in April 1889. The National Union of Teachers is now the largest teachers’ union in England and Wales.

The Union organises an Annual Conference where members come together to share ideas and debate policy. This is an important forum for the Union’s democratic process and public image. While it is a closed event for members and invited guests only (some of whom are senior members of government) the Conference receives wide media attention, including television coverage. It usually appears on prime time television news and current affairs.

The conference itself is very much a live event, run by the union’s members. They dictate the agenda and speakers hand in cards literally minutes before they speak on stage. This requires an experienced professional crew who can call a live show whilst the world watches on. The event is covered by all the UK’s major news channels Sky News, BBC, and ITN all require feeds and with key issues like the boycotting of SATs and taking a stand against the BNP this years conference was extremely newsworthy.

Outside of the main conference hall Comtec were also responsible for the production of the National Press office and two fringe meetings. Providing large relay monitors in the National Press office, Conference Office and The Teacher magazine office; and, post event providing a complete audio visual recording of the entire proceedings on DVD.