
DETAILS
DEC. 18, MONDAY
8AM - 6PM
CEO's Backstage Pass to NY Edtech Week (Special Ticket Required)
Purchase a backstage pass now and receive an all access ticket to NY EDTECH WEEK.
This backstage pass for seed to growth stage edtech startup founders will help you:
- Learn how to master and navigate the culture, capital, customers, and connections at NY EDTECH WEEK
- Learn about the funding environment in NYC and learn from investors from some of NYC top VCs
- Build out strategies across sales, marketing, fundraising, and branding based on best practices
- Learn how to craft a message, brand your business and communicate that message in an impactful pitch to clients and investors
- Network with thought leaders, startup founders, and seasoned executives in the NY EDTECH WEEK community
AFTERNOON
Pre-Registration
Avoid the crowds the following morning and pick up your badge and NY EDTECH WEEK essentials
Evening
Embassy Hop
Join us around New York City as embassies of countries with the progressive educational systems host members of the festival community for cocktails. Learn about growing edtech investment and startup ecosystems internationally and how you can be part of that growth.

Dec. 19, morning
The Opening Show
Industry luminaries kick off the festival by spotlighting and defining some of the key issues of education.
Speakers (in reading order):
- Alicia Glen
Deputy Mayor for Housing and Economic Development,
City of New York - David Coleman
President & CEO,
The College Board - Eva Moskowitz
CEO & Founder,
Success Academy Charter Schools - Jeff Rosen
President & CEO,
National Constitution Center - Johnny C. Taylor Jr.
President & CEO,
Society for Human Resource Management - Olga & Michael Block
Co-Founders,
BASIS Curriculum Schools - Eric Gertler
Co-Chairman & CEO,
U.S. News & World Report and Ulysses Ventures - Dominic Brewer
Gale and Ira Drukier Dean,
NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development
DEC. 19, Afternoon
Think Tanks
Industry leaders come together for collaborative discussions on a wide range of topics, ranging from education via games to understanding the role of AI in learning.
TOPICS:
- Games, Learning, Kids — Panacea or Pandora’s Box?
- What’s Working (And Not) In Higher Ed?
- K12 Schools And Ed Tech: What We Have Here Is A “Failure To Communicate.”
- Corporate Learning: Same As It Ever Was?
- Importing & Exporting Education; Why And Why Not?
- AI, Big Data, & Personalized Learning Or Just Plain-Old Common Sense? How Can We Improve Data-Based Decision Making From The Classroom To The Boardroom?
- Will Adult Students Save Higher Ed?
- Fake Ed

Games, Learning, Kids — Panacea or Pandora’s Box?
We’ve heard the hopes and fears around kids, screen time, mobile devices, and learning. We’ve collected a unique and highly qualified set of experts to ponder:
- Is technology improving children's lives, or — as some fear — turning them into zombies?
- Is there any real evidence one way or another?
- Is it possible to have a viable business making high-quality digital materials?
Speakers:
- Warren Buckleitner (Moderator)
Editor
Children's Technology Revew - Kai-Lee Berke
CEO
Teaching Strategies - Robin Raskin
Founder
Living In Digital Times - Carolyn Strom
Early Childhood Literacy Faculty
NYU Steinhardt - Ben Sawyer
Co-Founder
Serious Games Initiative
What’s Working (And Not) In Higher Ed?
Question: Which is closer to the truth?
(A) American higher education is in a freefall, with most colleges and universities poised to be disrupted into oblivion by boot camps and made irrelevant by roboticization.
(B) American higher education remains the envy of the world, home to many of the best universities attracting the finest scholars and students on the planet.
Answer: Both are caricatures, and the reality is that higher education is not nearly as broken as many critics suggest nor as viable as many college leaders pretend.
In this engaging and challenging think tank, we will move past the simple narratives and provide a sophisticated look at the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the U.S. postsecondary ecosystem.
SPEAKERS
- Doug Lederman (Moderator)
Editor & Co-Founder
Inside Higher Ed - Ann Kirschner
Professor
The City University of New York - Bob Johnson
President & CEO
The American College of Financial Services - Michael Hansen
CEO
Cengage Learning - Ted Mitchell
President
American Council on Education
K12 Schools And Ed Tech: What We Have Here Is A “Failure To Communicate.”
Why haven’t ed tech products had a transformative impact similar to industries like medicine, entertainment, and consumer tech?
Providers and officials weigh in on how to position ed tech to also have the sweeping, large-scale impact on Americans’ lives other industries have had, the communication breakdown between technology providers and education officials that might be preventing this.
Confirmed SPEAKERS
- Sean Cavanagh (Moderator)
Senior Editor
Education Week - Karen Gallagher
Emery Stoops & Joyce King Stoops Dean
USC Rossier School of Education - Darryl Ford
Head of School
Willam Penn Charter School - Phyllis Lockett
CEO
Leap Innovations - Vikas Gupta
CEO
Wonder Workshop - Stuart Udell
CEO
K12 - Adam Fried
Superintendent
Harrington Park School District
Corporate Learning: Same As It Ever Was?
Learning at and for work involves more money and more learners than the former system, the environment is much less regulated than either K12 or higher ed, and the workplace adopted ed tech almost a generation before the formal system.
That said, there has been less deal-flow in the corporate space than one would expect though it seems to be warming up. What are the issues, opportunities, and obstacles in this space?
SPEAKERS
- Lorri Freifeld (Moderator)
Editor-In-Chief
Training Magazine - Dan Silverburg
VP & GM, Learning & Workforce
Burningglass Technologies - Todd Tauber
VP Product Marketing
Degreed - Mark Cousino
Director of Technical & Professional Learning Solutions
Boeing - Victoria Marsick
Professor of Education
Columbia University, Teachers College - Paul Fama
Corporate Learning Leader
GE
Importing & Exporting Education; Why And Why Not?
In a knowledge economy nothing is more of a comparative advantage than education and as a nearly perfect “good” Ed is the logical strategy for countries that want to grow. Finally, “tech” has gotten to the point where access to education ought to be ubiquitous. Yet while certain countries actually do “export” a lot of education the VAST majority of Ed tech is local. Why? Shouldn’t tech suggest scale and a flat world?
SPEAKERS
- Bill Ridgers (Moderator)
Business Education Editor
The Economist - Andrew Hamilton
President
NYU - Charles Fadel
Founder & Chairman
Center for Curriculum Redesign - Guiseppe Aurichio
Executive Director, Learning Innovation
IESE Business School - Inés Sáenz Negrete
Dean of the School of Humanities and Education
Instituto Tecnológico Y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey - Luyen Chou
Chief Product Strategy Officer
Pearson - Patrick Brothers
CEO
Navitas Ventures - Denise Galluchi
CEO
GEMS Education - Americas
AI, Big Data, & Personalized Learning Or Just Plain-Old Common Sense? How Can We Improve Data-Based Decision Making From The Classroom To The Boardroom?
For the last twenty years, schools and districts have been challenged with using data in the best possible ways. Whether it’s assessments at the classroom level or operational decisions at the systems level, knowing what kinds of data to use for what purpose is never easy. Do we have too much data or not enough? Perhaps we don’t have the right kinds of data, or we just don’t know how to use it well. Josh Starr, CEO of PDK International, will lead a panel discussion of experts in a conversation exploring these issues.
SPEAKERS
- Joshua P. Starr (Moderator)
CEO
PDK International Family of Associations - Satya V. Nitta
Global Head of AI Solutions for Learning
IBM - Chris Rush
Co-Founder & Chief Program Officer
New Classrooms - Jon Supovitz
Director
Consortium for Policy Research in Deucation - Phil Dunn
CIO
Greenwich Public Schools
Will Adult Students Save Higher Ed?
Colleges are under increasing pressures in terms of revenue and tuition is the "go to" strategy; shifting demographics suggest that "non-traditional" students will continue to make up the large majority of college students. This is nothing new, but how much has higher ed “shifted” to meet this market and do they need to? Are they really different? Let’s explore how much have things changed in terms of business models, policy, pedagogy, and student services to meet these students needs. What are the opportunities? What are the obstacles. Join an eclectic group of folks grappling with these issues as we workshop these issues.
SPEAKERS
- Goldie Blumenstyk (Moderator)
Senior Writer
The Chronicle of Higher Education - Becky Takeda-Tinker
President
Colorado State University - Global Campus - Iris Palmer
Senior Policy Analyst
New America | Education Policy Program - Dr. Colleen Allen
Chief of Accreditation Joint Special Operations University - Gail Mellow
President
LaGuardia Community College - Ulrik Juul Christensen
Executive Chairman
Area9 Group - Jonathan Finkelstein
Founder & CEO
Credly
Is the Lack of Efficacy, Evidence the “Fake News” of Ed Tech?
Policy makers, schools, and solution providers spout statistics on efficacy and improved learning outcomes. Investors and EdTech entrepreneurs boast disruptive business models that can revolutionize learning. Are any of these numbers or models real? Or are they "Fake Ed" ? This engaging discussion will explore the claims, language and data that are used to describe success and failure in education. Who and what can we trust? Does the market care about research? Do investors scrutinize the relevance of internet metrics in the education marketplace? With billions of dollars pouring in to create new schools and Edtech products - where do we turn to separate hype from help? Come join the Fake Ed think tank and workshop this problem!
SPEAKERS
- Bart Epstein
Founding CEO
Jefferson Education Accelerator - Frederick (Rick) Hess
Director of Education Policy Studies
American Enterprise Institute - John Katzman
CEO
Noodle Education - Lauren Henderson
President
tekMountain - Ruth Neild
Director of PERC
Research for Action - Stephanie Dua
President and COO
Homer
DEC. 20, WEDNESDAY
Intro to Angel Investing in EdTech
Learn from practitioners about market opportunities and due diligence frameworks for angel investing in EdTech.
‘Shark’ Tanks
Watch 3-min pitches from seed to growth stage EdTech companies and learn from ‘Sharks’ -- seasoned EdTech investors and industry leaders -- as they use pitches to give context to the biggest opportunities in EdTech.
2017 Shark Tanks:
- Early-Childhood & K-12
- HigherEd
- Career Readiness and Workforce
- Financial Literacy
- Medical Education
- AR/VR + EdTech
‘Shark’ Cages
Get a seat at the table with the ‘Sharks’, and watch ‘Shark’ Tanks with commentary from seasoned experts.
Gallery of Innovation
Browse 50+ seed to growth stage EdTech investment opportunities, play with the most impactful EdTech products, or dive-in by ‘speed dating’ the CEOs to learn more about the company.
Open Labs
Get out of the building and attend intimate Open Labs at innovative education organizations and landmarks around New York City.
- 3:00 - 5:00 PM, New York Academy of Sciences
The Future of Research
How can we leverage scientific Big Data and technology to accelerate research and innovation?
- 3:00 - 5:00 PM, NYU 907
The Future of Work
What does doing your life's work mean in the future? What does the work look like in the future? How will businesses change as they attract and retain talent? A panel discussion on now and later.
- 3:30 - 5:00 PM, NYU
Higher Education & Work-Force Readiness in the 21st Century
The 4 person panel discussion will explore higher education's role in preparing learners for a career and life in the 21st century.
- 10:00 - 12:00 PM, NYU 914
Pearson Pitch Competition at NY EDTECH WEEK
Do you have a venture that provides underserved learners with better access to quality education products and services? Pitch your venture to judges in front of a live audience on December 20, 2017.
- 1:00 - 3:00 PM, Grand Central Tech
OER: Low Cost Alternative or New Model for Learning?
Presented by:- Doug Lederman (Moderator)
Editor in Chief
Inside Higher Ed - Sharon Leu
Senior Policy Advisor, US DOE
Office of Education Technology - David Harris
Editor in Chief
OpenStax - Cheryl Constantini
VP Content Strategy
Cengage - Ash Kaluarachchi
Executive Producer
StartEd - Brian Jacobs
Founder & CEO
PanOpen
- Doug Lederman (Moderator)
- 3:30 - 5:00 PM, NYU 914
My First Computer: Creativity & Computing in K-5 education
1. Description: If computer code is the Lego block of our time – a tool of creation – how do we teach curiosity, joy, and wonder to our kids? And what does Jean Piaget or Montessori have to do with coding? Join us for a workshop to learn the basics of how to bring creative, unplugged technology education to your classroom by the Finnish Hello Ruby methodology that’s in partnership with CS4All's Blueprint.
2. Additionally, HundrED, a Finnish non-profit that seeks and shares some of the world’s most inspiring K12 innovations will show elementary school teachers how to easily implement innovations including Hello Ruby into their classroom through its digital platform that also offers 24/7 support, for free.
Masterclasses
Masterclasses are 2-hour seminars for up to 20 individuals presented by an in-demand expert or rockstar faculty member.
Five Ways to Use Emotional Design to Enhance your App
Most app developers understand the need for a carefully designed user experience. But approaches of how to achieve a successful UI/UX design differ, sometimes in fundamental ways. In this class, we will investigate one specific approach, Emotional Design. Coined in 2004 by design guru Donald Norman, Emotional Design focuses on the emotions experienced by users, and is concerned with ways to design products that elicit emotions that create a positive experience for the user. Based on research conducted in my CREATE lab at NYU, we will discuss the foundations of emotional design and explore five ways of using emotional design to enhance your app.Bottom-up Analysis and Evidence-Centered Design
This masterclass in EdTech Analytics focuses on the uses of data to make decisions and draw inferences. Which one leads the way, the data or the question? Exploratory dives into data logs can indeed be revealing (and fun, for some). However, the structure and selection of log data—often from accidental rather than deliberate design decisions—may lead to questions of convenience rather than consequence. As John Turkey said, “better an approximate answer to the right question, which is often vague, than an exact answer to the wrong question, which can always be made precise.” On the flip side, clearly articulated objectives regarding the uses of data can help guide the design of technology on both the back- and front-end.The class will include a brief discussion of evidence-centered design, Bayesian networks, and statistical inference that will help frame a workshop in small groups. Participants should bring examples and case studies from their own projects to workshop in addition to the set that will be offered for consideration by the instructor. Those attending this masterclass should come away with a refined understanding of how designers, data scientists, and developers can work together to improve outcomes for EdTech users.Differentiating your Product through Learning Experience (LX) Design
Learning Experience Design (LX) is an emerging design discipline that embraces the values and goals of User Experience Design (UX) in creating memorable and meaningful experiences, only with a dedicated focus on the design of learning experiences. LX encompasses the design thinking and human-centered design approaches typically associated with UX design while simultaneously integrating what we know about how people learn (as best we know it!). In this workshop, participants will learn valuable design practices that lead to effective and enjoyable learning experiences - whether the focus is on the core function of a product or the peripheral learning that needs to occur to be able to use interfaces and interactivity in purposeful ways. Just as a great user experience can differentiate a product in the marketplace, Learning Experience Design can help a product stand out by enhancing learnability, and in creating theoretically grounded designs that draw from a range of well-established disciplines.
Exploring Global Education
Global Education itself is not a new concept, however, recent world events necessitate the importance of preparing educators, teachers and school leaders, to create learning environments where students acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to live and thrive as global citizens. At The Education Partners and GEMS America, our work is grounded in the dualism of Global Education. Firstly, we see Global Education as a mechanism that actions our deeply held commitment that all children across the world must have equitable access to high quality education-- that education is equitably accessed globally. Across the globe, education is broadly accepted as the means to empower children and adults to fully participate in government, civics, community and the economy, while escaping poverty, compromised health, and other societal woes. Education is critically important for the success of nations which explains why governments (federal, state and local) take on the programmatic and fiscal responsibilities for educating their children and youth. Secondly, and perhaps more commonly, Global Education is broadly defined as curriculum that engages students in understanding the many ways in which our lives are interconnected with other people throughout the world. This definition of Global Education tends to emphasize cultural, political, economic, and environmental factors that influence our lives and others. This humanistic focus to education is grounded in human rights, social justice, inclusion, and collective responsibility, while providing a way for children and youth to further their global competency - to act on their understanding of how their lives are interconnected with others across the globe. For the purposes of our work, we use the term Global Education to mean the former and Global Citizenship Education to mean the later. Taken together, both Global Education and Global Citizenship Education provide a powerful catalyst to change the world. To do this, educators themselves must become globally competent in order to best develop these capacities in their students.
