One hundred and thirty assessors met with Kathleen Tattersall OBE, Chair Institute of Educational Assessors, in Birmingham for the second of the Institute's Regional Conferences on 15 May.

Using state of the art voting techniques, delegates were able to give instant feedback on the issues raised by the speakers.

Chair, Kathleen Tattersall, opened the conference by welcoming the assessor delegates into the "brave new world of assessment" and reminded us that "good assessment is an essential part of good teaching".

Delegates were initially addressed by former school's minister, Jacqui Smith who proclaimed that this was a world first for the Institute and how lucky we are to have such a group of people in education in this country

Graham Herbert followed with the first speaker session of the day on The future of assessment. He assured assessors that the Education Reform White Paper would cause "many changes" but stressed that the proposed new qualifications had "to be right for the learner".

Alan Field, Edexcel, followed by outlining innovations in online marking - known as e-assessment - and the impact of this new technology for assessors and learners. This was an interactive speech - Alan asked delegates to use electronic voting consoles to tell him whether they approved of new technology in assessment. Ten seconds later we had the answer . for the answer to this question, please consult the feedback

Post lunch, David Wright - representing the Institute - urged delegates to "try us out" and join - membership fees have been waived for this first year.

Following each speaker, delegates formed into smaller groups to tease out the issues that concerned them.

Click here for the issues raised at this conference.