And Conrad was featured on the BBC on Wednesday in a segment to do with the Make It Digital campaign. This is a national initiative where all 11 year old pupils will be given a new BBC micro:bit to introduce them to coding in a friendly and engaging way. There's a good video on it here .

Especially for the summit, I think a huge discussion about how CBM would fit within current maths curriculums in schools will be really great - given that schools are now more open to embracing coding (together with these new initiatives).

I'm really interested to see some of the things that come from this next CBM conference. Schools really do seem to be starting to embrace technology, so it's a great time to be revolutionizing other topics. I'd like to see more about how we can develop from Scratch to more advanced programming, it provides a great framework for students to code much more fluently. Having a large percentage of people that are taught programming principles from the start could really make a big difference in how technology advances.

UPDATE: We have two more confirmed speaker names to throw into the hat. These are:

Rachel Linney, Education Officer for the Irish National Council of Curriculum and Assessment. Expect big maths curriculum changes from Dublin soon enough!

Also on the speaker list is Kristian Smedlund of the Finnish National Board of Education. Computer-Based Maths has close links with Scandinavia, having run its pilot in Estonia and having also been adopted by the Fria Laroverken schools in Sweden.

Indeed so, as by all account there is a shortage of people with the right kind of advanced programming skills in the labour market. People with these skills will continue to be the employment success stories for many years to come, and it's time educators were more honest with learners about that. Maybe it is not everybody's calling - don't think it's mine! - but nonetheless learners should be keenly aware of how rewarding those skills can be in the long term