“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”
― Charles Dickens on the Explosion of Artificial Intelligence (just kidding – it’s obviously the opening line of A Tale of Two Cities – but it kinda works, doesn’t it?)
It’s conference season in the education space, and spring has blossomed into dozens of acronym-hosted events across the country (ASCD, DLAC, AASA, etc.). Naturally, the acronym du jour, “AI,” dominated every conference agenda.
I was able to attend two of these national conferences – The CoSN Annual Conference and ASU-GSV in April, almost back-to-back and on opposite coasts – so I thought it would be fun to capture a comparison of these two conferences that aim to support innovation in education, but in very different ways.
A caveat: These observations are just my opinions on what I experienced as one veteran education reporter who was only able to collect samples from each conference given the constraints of space and time. I’m sure AI will be able to help me better scale my experience next year!
CoSN & ASU-GSV: Beautiful Location
CoSN
Check! The InterContinental Miami on the waterfront offered spectacular views of blue skies overlooking gently bobbing boats, graceful seagulls, breathtaking sunsets, and plenty of fun things to do in the area.
ASU-GSV
Check! The Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego ticked the same boxes as The InterContinental Miami – just on the opposite side of the country.
Conference Theme
CoSN
Leading for Innovation at Warp Speed
ASU-GSV
Here Comes The Sun
Core Audience
CoSN
K-12 CTOs, companies looking to do business with them.
ASU-GSV
Venture capitalists/private equity/investors targeting K-20 education and workforce, edu startups looking for funding and partnerships, K-20 educators and administrators
Program
CoSN
Plenty of AI, of course, but there was a plethora of other sessions focusing on the work of K-12 tech leaders with data security/privacy coming in at No. 2 for most popular session topic.
ASU-GSV
Ditto on the abundance of AI on the agenda, but the ASU-GSV program focused less on the practical applications of AI and more on the imagining of what it can become in education. This was especially evident in the conference’s new AIR Show – ASU-GSV’s first time hosting a traditional trade show running concurrently with the main conference. There was plenty of passion from the startup founders of these AI companies I spoke to at this event, but I’m hopeful these dreamers take the needed time to ensure their “children” have the time to mature into safe, interoperable young adults that solve new problems in education – or fill niche voids in the current education industry product offerings.
Vibe
CoSN
The size of CoSN (about 1,000) was perfect for meaningful networking. I need to disclose bias here: I have attended this conference for years and many of our T&L advisors and company friends attend, as well. That said, I do think there is a general warmth and friendliness at CoSN. The conference is a good blend of reunion and new networking opportunities. Almost every time I was greeted by a friendly face, I was introduced to at least one new person.
ASU-GSV
The actual attendance numbers at ASU-GSV are likely skewed. Official reg is about 8,000, but I suspect that number increases significantly when you factor in the many opportunists who set up shop in the hotel lobby to take advantage of some guerilla networking. (Not surprising for a conference designed for entrepreneurs!) This conference is all about BUSINESS – making deals, closing deals – you get the idea. Attendees are not unfriendly – they just seemed a bit more hurried and determined. This is not a judgment or criticism as I really enjoyed my conversations at the event. I would just describe the vibe as a bit more serious.
Best Place to Network
CoSN
Hotel lobby.
ASU-GSV
Ditto!
Sample Keynote Speakers
CoSN
– Dr. Susan Enfield, Retired Superintendent, Washoe County School District
– Jean-Claude Brizard, President & CEO, Digital Promise
– Hadi Partovi, Founder of Code.org
ASU-GSV
– Paula Abdul
– Van Jones
– Common
Not sure on the edu connection for some of these choices but heck – it was “straight-up” cool to see Paula Abdul!
Most Frequent Education “Celebrity” Sightings
CoSN
Richard Culatta, CEO of ASCD/ISTE, for the win. He was my first sighting at both conferences and I know he attended many of the other spring acronym events. He also popped into our Utah Leadership Summit for a surprise visit. He always looks refreshed, happy, and welcoming. How does he do it?!
ASU-GSV
Ditto! Runner up: Carl Hooker. As our official Regional Summit emcee, I see Carl about once a month, but know he jet sets as much, if not more, than Richard. He is also always energetic, fun, funny, smart, and welcoming. I have mad respect for this guy!
Some Personal Favorite Moments
CoSN
– Puppies! Yeah – you read that correctly. A local dog rescue group brought in some seriously adorable puppies for cuddling – and ideally adoption. Cuddling these little fur balls was the best mental health break of the day.
– Women in IT Breakfast (image at top): This sold-out session was inspiring – and a bit disheartening. Dr. Ivy Nelson, Instructional Technology Manager, Belton School District (MO), presented some disappointing stats about how few women still represent IT in education (2016: 36% of CTOs were female – this dropped to 33% in 2023). We broke out into small groups to discuss a variety of topics that yielded some emotional, candid conversations about how much work we still need to do in this area. I’d love to see this expanded into a longer program!
– Livestreaming the solar eclipse: Kudos to the conference organizers and sponsor Slooh for interrupting the afternoon keynote to beam in a livestream of the solar eclipse via telescopes in Missouri. The narrator was REALLY into it, which made for good fun. Watch the footage here.
ASU-GSV
– Free ice cream! Okay, so this wasn’t an official part of the conference, but when Ben & Jerry’s gave away free ice cream one afternoon, even the most buttoned up business pros smiled like they were back in kindergarten as they enjoyed their cones by the waterfront under a beautiful blue sky.
– The new AIR Show: Year One for this new conference went pretty well. Attendance was light the day I went (the last of three days), but that day conflicted with the opening of the concurrent ASU-GSV conference that took place at the Grand Hyatt down the street from the convention center. Most people I spoke with said the weekend had a good turnout. The event design was reminiscent of the international education conference, BETT, with sessions taking place right on the show floor with the vendor exhibits. Room to grow here for sure, but a valiant first-year effort.
– Talking with Dr. Richard Charles, CIO of Denver Public Schools (but SO MUCH MORE). I was seriously blown away by the story of Dr. Charles’ life journey, and plan to profile his work soon in T&L. I told him my suggested title for the memoir I hope he writes: “I Wanted to be an Astronaut, Now the Moon is Within Reach: My Life’s Wild Ride.” Intrigued? You should be. I’m humbled and grateful that Dr, Charles has agreed to share a small slice of his incredible life experience in his keynote at our Tech & Learning pre-ISTE Leadership Summit.
“It was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity.”
Back to Dickens’ Tale of Two Cities to bring this full circle. We have certainly entered into uncertain times with the AI Revolution, and it can be easy to get distracted by the “wow factors” of this new technology. But as Dr. Charles said during our conversation at ASU-GSV, schools should proceed with caution before systematically integrating AI too quickly into school programs. Many of these tools capture private student data, so putting guardrails in place to ensure this data stays safe is vital.
Thanks to the event hosts for their hard work on both conferences. Next up: ISTE in Denver!