Why BRILLIANT Feels Different: Zaitoon Bukhari on Collaboration, Classroom Strategy and Real Conversations

Zaitoon Bukhari

Building Something Different for the North

When Zaitoon Bukhari came into contact with the BRILLIANT team, the conversation was simple.

There was a feeling that the north needed something different.

Not another large-scale education event trying to replicate what already existed elsewhere, but something with its own identity. Something grounded in the realities of schools, teachers and communities across the region. Something focused less on spectacle and more on meaningful conversations about how technology can genuinely improve education.

For Zaitoon, that vision immediately stood out.

“Martyn [BRILLIANT’s festival director] talked about creating something for the north that wasn’t just recreating another event,” she explains. “It was about putting a unique stamp on how technology is actually being used in classrooms here.”

As part of the advisory board in BRILLIANT’s early development, Zaitoon helped shape discussions around the topics schools were really grappling with. The conversations centred on the issues educators were actively trying to solve and how technology could support those challenges in practical ways.

That included areas such as AI, SEND, esports, leadership, governance, classroom innovation and teacher perspectives.

More Than Presentations

But just as important as the topics themselves was the format.

“We didn’t want an event where people just sat listening to presentations all day,” she says. “We wanted people to experience things, take part and feel what a student might actually go through.”

That interactive approach remains one of the things Zaitoon believes makes BRILLIANT different from larger education events.

Teachers are not simply passive attendees moving from keynote to keynote. Instead, the event gives people the freedom to navigate their own pathway through the day depending on their role, interests and priorities. A classroom teacher can see what other teachers are doing in practice. Leaders can explore strategic implementation. Attendees can test equipment, interact with tools and have real conversations with vendors and educators alike.

Importantly, Zaitoon says the environment never feels overly commercial.

“At BRILLIANT, the vendors are approachable because there’s no hard sell,” she explains. “It feels collaborative rather than transactional.”

That creates richer conversations and more meaningful follow-up after the event itself.

“At larger events, you can speak to someone and then disappear into thousands of attendees. At BRILLIANT, conversations are more personal. People remember you, remember your school and remember what you were trying to achieve.”

Seeing What Good Practice Actually Looks Like

For teachers, that practical accessibility is hugely valuable.

“You can actually see what good classroom use looks like,” she says. “And you can ask the really difficult questions.”

Those conversations often go beyond success stories.

“What’s great is being able to ask, ‘Where did this go wrong?’ or ‘What would you do differently?’ You learn so much from those honest discussions.”

For Zaitoon, even the opportunity to spend time directly with experts from companies such as Google proved invaluable.

“Being able to go to a stand, speak to an expert and properly understand a tool gives you so much more confidence about how it could work in your own school.”

CPD That Feels Relevant and Real

That practical focus extends into the CPD experience too.

Zaitoon describes BRILLIANT as an opportunity to move beyond theory and social media conversations and instead see ideas working in real school environments.

“You hear about these topics online all the time,” she says. “But at BRILLIANT, you can actually see them in action and take away a strategic understanding of what you need to do next.”

That relatability matters.

During one live session, Zaitoon shared the digital tools her Trust had implemented, explaining not just what they used, but how much it cost, how they sourced it and the customer service experiences they had along the way.

“It was important to show the reality of how we got there,” she says. “People need honest conversations around budgets, implementation and impact.”

For schools already using technology but struggling with long-term adoption, those insights can be transformative.

“A lot of schools used tools during Covid and then stopped,” Zaitoon explains. “But hearing how others continued using them strategically — and the impact it had on pupils — helps you realise you may already have the tools you need. What’s missing is the strategy.”

That strategic clarity, she says, allows schools to break implementation into manageable short-term and long-term plans without necessarily spending additional money.

The Power of School-to-School Collaboration

But perhaps the biggest impact of BRILLIANT has been the connections created between schools themselves.

Following one of her panels, Zaitoon was contacted by several teachers facing similar challenges around Google tools and digital implementation. Those conversations quickly developed into school visits, shared learning and collaborative support networks between nearby schools.

“They came to see our classrooms in action, spent half a day with us and had strategic conversations with leadership,” she says. “It became about schools learning from each other rather than everyone trying to figure things out alone.”

That collaboration had wider consequences too.

Zaitoon’s schools are now Google Reference schools and the Trust is on the road to becoming a Google Reference MAT, welcoming visitors from across the UK wanting to learn from their approach.

“We didn’t actually realise how strong our practice was until other schools started visiting us,” she says.

The networking opportunities created through BRILLIANT have since continued far beyond the event itself, including further AI-focused events and ongoing partnerships between educators.

A Stronger Sense of Community

For Zaitoon, that sense of community is one of the festival’s greatest strengths.

“At bigger events, you often end up speaking to the people you already know because the scale is overwhelming,” she explains. “At BRILLIANT, you’re more likely to discover people closer to you geographically who you can actually continue working with afterwards.”

That local connection matters.

“You might hear amazing ideas from schools six hours away, but you can’t realistically pop over and spend half a day with them. At BRILLIANT, those opportunities feel much more accessible.”

She also believes the event’s atmosphere plays a huge role in making people feel comfortable and engaged.

“It’s very well organised, accessible and easy to move around without feeling overwhelmed,” she says. “There’s space for people to have conversations properly.”

And then, of course, there’s the unexpected side of BRILLIANT too.

“The gorilla and the T-Rex definitely stand out,” she laughs. “The children absolutely loved that.”

Improving Education Together

It is that balance that makes BRILLIANT what it is. It’s practical but creative, strategic but welcoming, professional but human.

For her, the event succeeds because it keeps the focus where it belongs.

“Everyone there shares the same interest,” she says. “Improving education together.”