In our next #FinnemoreFireside, we welcome Chris Bradford, Strategy Director at Bee Digital and an education marketing specialist with deep experience across publishing, edtech, product, and school-focused marketing.

Chris has spent his career helping education companies understand how to reach schools with clearer messaging, stronger positioning, and more useful marketing. With experience spanning Harcourt, Pearson, BrainPOP, and Bee Digital, he brings a practical view of what schools respond to, and what gets ignored.

It’s a thoughtful chat, including topics such as:

• Chris shares how a career that started by chance in education publishing turned into a long-term focus on helping edtech companies find their voice
• A look at why working in education feels different to other sectors, and why purpose can both help and hinder commercial success
• An honest reflection on the gap between building a great solution and actually getting schools to adopt it
• A discussion around trust, why it matters more in education than most sectors, and why it takes longer than people expect
• Insight into the reality of school decision-making, and why “budget” is rarely as simple as it sounds
• A closer look at why many edtech products struggle to land, even when the features look strong on paper
• Thoughts on what effective marketing really looks like in this space, and why strategy matters more than channels
• A timely conversation on AI, authenticity, and what schools actually respond to when everything starts to sound the same