EDUtech 26: What we learned on the Envoy Stand
Part of the Envoy EDUTech 26 Series
EDUtech 26 brought educators, administrators and learning space designers together from across Australia and beyond, and the Envoy stand was one of the busier destinations on the floor. Over the course of the event, we showcased products from Studiobricks, Framery, Chameleon, A.WORKS and Functionals, and the conversations we had were some of the most revealing we have had at a trade event in a long time.
Here is what stood out.
All it took was a scream!
The highlight of our stand for many visitors was the Studiobricks scream competition.
Nearly 200 people stepped into the booth and let rip for the chance to win a pair of RODE NTH-100 headphones, with the loudest efforts hitting 100dB. It was a crowd-pleaser, particularly with high school students, and it did exactly what we hoped: it put people inside the booth and let the acoustic performance speak for itself.
Schools are serious about podcasting
The bigger story that emerged from the myriad conversations was how rapidly podcasting is growing in primary schools. Teacher after teacher mentioned it as a curriculum activity that has taken off, and the challenge they keep running into is the same one: where do you record? Classrooms are noisy, shared spaces, and even basic podcasting requires a degree of acoustic control. The Studiobricks booth kept coming up as a practical answer to that problem.
Music teachers were equally enthusiastic, though for different reasons. Several raised the issue of multi-classroom setups with adjoining walls, where sound travelling between rooms is a constant problem. For that group, the booths were less about podcasting and more about creating genuinely isolated practice and teaching spaces without major building works.
The demand for quiet spaces in libraries
Framery booths attracted strong interest throughout the event, with library settings emerging as a particularly clear use case. As school libraries evolve into learning hubs that need to accommodate everything from quiet study to small group work, the need for self-contained, quiet spaces within those environments is growing. The Framery range offered a credible answer to that challenge, and visitors responded to it.
Flexible spaces are a genuine priority
The A.WORKS Agile Wall generated real excitement. The ability to reconfigure a learning environment quickly, without permanent construction, speaks directly to how many schools are thinking about their spaces right now. Visitors were drawn to the possibilities it opened up, and it was one of those products that prompted the kind of extended, animated conversations that are hard to manufacture at a trade show.
A lesson in accessibility we did not expect
One of the most valuable conversations at the stand came around the Chameleon boards, and it touched on something that does not get enough attention in classroom design discussions: dyslexia and whiteboard surfaces.
A number of teachers raised the issue of high-gloss white whiteboards and the visual distortion they can cause for students with dyslexia. The high contrast and bright reflective surface can make reading and tracking text genuinely difficult. Chameleon’s range of surface options, with their varied tones and finishes, came up repeatedly as a solution. It is a small design consideration with a meaningful impact on inclusion, and it is the kind of insight that you only get from spending time with the people actually using these products every day.
A global conversation
Visitors came from all around the world, which was a reminder that the challenges schools face around acoustics, flexible space and inclusive design are not unique to Australia. The conversations we had were consistent regardless of where people were from: learning environments need to be quieter, more adaptable and more thoughtfully designed for the range of students using them.
We came away from EDUtech 26 with a clearer picture of where the needs are, and a stronger sense of how the products we represent can meet them. If any of the above resonates with challenges you are working through, we would love to continue the conversation.
Follow up from EDUtech 26
If you met with the Envoy team at EDUtech 26 and would like to continue the conversation, we’re ready to help you find the right fit for your environment.
Talk to us today!
