By Julia Weede and Christina Felton, Senior Vice President and Education Sector Lead, Dallas and Senior Vice President, Austin
With SXSWedu kicking off the annual SXSW Conference and Festival (March 3-6), this year’s lineup features more than 200 diverse and compelling sessions and workshops designed to inspire and engage the forward-leaning community of education influencers. The fast-growing edu portion of SXSW has doubled in attendance each year with 26 countries represented and more than 400 speakers at the 2013 conference. This year, SXSWedu expects more than 8,000 to attend. Historically, the breakdown is comprised of an even mix of representation from K-12, Higher Ed and industry leaders, with discussions skewing toward education technology and innovation.
The conference is becoming known for the interesting tension between those who are looking to create and sell innovative education solutions, and educators who are famously cynical about those who profit from education. Add those who are passionate about the issues and reforms for America’s education system and you have an interesting mash-up worth experiencing.
One of this year’s themes will be shared and open resources with sessions dedicated to “crowdlearning,” breaking down silos to better deal with governmental compliance and leveraging the latest innovations to pave the way for new education models. With the strong collaboration between entrepreneurs and educators, the LAUNCHedu competition has become the not-to-be-missed preview of what’s on the horizon in the rapidly evolving education technology marketplace. SXSWedu is also a place of big launches for innovative ideas. One of last year’s biggest launches, InBloom, a Gates Foundation and Carnegie Corp funded start-up, made national headlines when its innovative solutions for data sharing and insights met the growing national dialog on data privacy and security.
Also, this year marks the second year for the well-received eduFILM with more than 20 film screenings of high-impact documentaries that represent the pivotal, leading-edge spirit of SXSWedu including the groundbreaking film, Girl Rising, using storytelling to deliver a critical truth: educate girls and you will change the world.
For further details on the SXSWedu programming, please visit www.sxswedu.com. And look for Edelman EDU’s sponsorship of Green Rooms and first-ever reporting and content curation from the event itself.
This article originally appeared on Edelman.com.
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