BS: So far we've been asking quite general questions and now I want to talk more specifically about what you actually do and how some of the things that you've been discussing apply to the work that you do. So in terms of the educational side of Techniquest or producing a show, what philosophies do you bring to the way in which you do what you do? Or approaches. Philosophies or approaches.
SB: I think - something we've learned over the years - I mean when we first started doing it we just - we just tried things to see if they would work and - so our ideas are based upon Brian Delf's original ideas. He had the idea of the theme weeks. And he was my boss when I first started. He was - he had Anna Sheridan's job. He was education director. And he was a physics lecturer. And he really believed in shows with nice big demos, with exciting things happening. So, so we've used his his ideas. He came up with ideas of theme weeks to get schools to come down, because, he chose a topic that was in the national curriculum and we've used that idea ever since because it worked well.
Something we - are aware of is, although the shows are for the children - the customers are the teachers, and particularly the head teachers who decide if their schools are going to be allowed to come. So, the actual marketing, all of that, has got to be, towards the head and the science coordinator and the class teacher so they can say "Yes we must go to Techniquest to see this because it is - covering this part of the national curriculum and that's what we're doing this term." That sort of thing. So that's the sort of marketing side.
Um - do we stick purely to national curriculum? No. No way. if there's something really exciting interesting we want to get that in there as well. Because otherwise, um, what's the point really? You know, we do, put a lot of extra things in, hopefully new things that they might not have come across before. Um the children - and the teachers, some of them. So we put a bit of mixture in. We do have to be led by - the national curriculum. Is that, is that what you, you were meaning?
BS: yeah.
SB: So that's not really a philosophy that's just that's just - the fact if we don't do that they won't come.