EVENTS 2026
MEDIA MARKETING, EVENTS & RESEARCH SERVICES OVERVIEW
The Learning Counsel is a research institute and news media hub with 310,000 readers that provides context for educators from ongoing analysis of trends and a deep understanding of new dynamics in technology, systems, and school administration. Our mission-based organization was the first to develop a thesis of education’s future based on tech and cultural evolution — and start helping schools advance systematically with live field events and the direct work of the Learning Counsel Innovation Services division.
“Thank you very much for inviting and including me yesterday. I found the day to be a great use of my time and look forward to more work together in the future.”
“Attending a Learning Counsel event is a good opportunity to create or stretch a vision, is a good opportunity to develop strategies to implement a 1:1 initiative, is a good opportunity to learn about resources and is a good opportunity to network with vendors. It becomes a great opportunity when school districts come in teams because in addition to the information present, your team spends the day collaborating and idea sharing which truly develops a shared responsibility of creating a digitally enhanced educational environment that improves instruction and learning.”
—Eric Godfrey, Superintendent Buckeye Union High School District, Phoenix, AZ
Brian Gatens, Superintendent, Emerson School District,NJ
“There’s always a forward look as to where this could be going. LeiLani’s got a wonderful vision about where things could take us, and so just hearing that is inspiration; there are nuggets I can take back to my own district that we pull out of that to build into our own system and architecture.”
Superintendent Greg Magnuson, Buena Park School District, CA
Learning Futures & Tech Media Meeting
SPRING 2026
Jan. 16 th – Miami, FL – Basecamp
305, 224 2nd St., Miami Beach, FL
Feb. 1 st – San Antonio, TX –
Omni-AI Alliance Meaningful Meal (during TCEA)
Feb. 9 th – Phoenix, AZ – Florence Unified School District
Feb. 11 th – Albuquerque, NM –Berna Facio Professional Development Complex
FALL 2026
Sept. 22nd – Boston/Connecticut
Sept. 24 th – Baltimore, MD
Oct. 1 st – Richmond, VA
Oct. 6 th – Atlanta, GA
Oct. 8 th – Greensboro, NC
Oct. 13 th – Columbia, SC
Feb. 17th – Fresno, CA – Fresno Economic Opportunities Commission
Feb. 18 th – Sacramento, CA –
Omni-AI Alliance Meaningful Meal (during DLAC)
Feb. 24 th – El Paso, TX – El Paso Independent School District
Feb. 26 th – Houston, TX
Nov. 8-10 th – Miami Beach, FL –Omni-AI Alliance Natl. Gathering
Oct. 15 th – Dallas, TX
Oct. 23 rd – Orange County, CA
Oct. 27th – Las Vegas, NV
Oct. 29 th – Denver, CO
Dec. 1 st – Seattle, WA
Dec. 2nd – Portland, OR
The Learning Futures & Tech Media Meeting hosted by the Learning Counsel is both a mobile video studio and regional professional learning event designed to promote innovation and edtech awareness in the field of education. By combining timely research and knowledge of trends, the Learning Counsel facilitates a high-level experience in a single-day workshop format for K12 administrators and teachers that is not far afield for them to attend. Organized around high-level local speakers and collaborative learning structures, the Media Meeting maintains a professional profile in the education field and are seen as visionary by education leaders nationwide. Each Media Meeting is a small-venue, one-day meeting-style event, not a conference. Think of the power of genuine working meetings which just happen to also have national media coverage of featured speakers, and you have the special feel of the Media Meeting
Produced by Learning Counsel News Media & Research, the Media Meeting also puts education companies into the recurring news coming off each location to a mass audience.
Average # of Superintendents Per City: 5
Average # of other top titles including Assistant Superintendents, CIOs, CAOs, Directors Per City: 25
Average Registration Per City: 35
Private Issues — Oriented Meetings
Sponsors have the option of being a Workshop Table Host with a series of table meetings in which they can introduce their company and product before proceeding to discuss a preset issue.
Incredible HighQuality Attendance
Learning Counsel has hosted as high as fifteen local Superintendents in one city, along with many other district administrators. The proportion of buying power is unmatched by any other edtech events for small events.
Unique Networking & Demoing Opportunities
Plenty of breaks, a catered lunch and a post-event networking moment ensure those special side-conversations for any level of sponsorship.
Real Sales Return
Initiated sales for companies averages three-to-five per city, sometimes more, sometimes less depending on sponsorship levels.
Pick Your Priceto-Value Point
A range of sponsorships allow any company to pick their price point by city to see the value they need to generate.
Why Top Administrators Attend
Speaking – Educators, especially top administrators, want to be known for their good works. Learning Counsel News Media can get their story out to millions, and contextualize what’s important against the national trends.
Research – As a leading research and media organization, the Learning Counsel maintains one of the most comprehensive data sets of teacher and administrator opinion, edtech purchasing trends, strengths and threats, and forward-facing system evolution in the market. A special briefing gives educational leaders critical insight into the issues and pressures they are facing and provides foundational knowledge they need to inform systemic movement. This research also points to how schools and districts need to organize, the type of investments in advanced technologies they need to make, and helping leaders understand where they are on a maturation cycle against peer institutions.
Collaboration – Collaboration, reflection, and application are built explicitly into each event. By providing a structure for cooperative learning, participants are immersed in sharing of ideas and making meaning specific to their own context.
“Thank you very much for inviting and including me yesterday. I found the day to be a great use of my time and look forward to more work together in the future.”
—Brian Gatens, Superintendent, Emerson School District, NJ
“Attending a Learning Counsel event is a good opportunity to create or stretch a vision, is a good opportunity to develop strategies to implement a 1:1 initiative, is a good opportunity to learn about resources and is a good opportunity to network with vendors. It becomes a great opportunity when school districts come in teams because in addition to the information present, your team spends the day collaborating and idea sharing which truly develops a shared responsibility of creating a digitally enhanced educational environment that improves instruction and learning.”
“There’s always a forward look as to where this could be going. LeiLani’s got a wonderful vision about where things could take us, and so just hearing that is inspiration; there are nuggets I can take back to my own district that we pull out of that to build into our own system and architecture.”
—Superintendent Greg Magnuson, Buena Park School District, CA
—Eric Godfrey, Superintendent Buckeye Union High School District, Phoenix, AZ
“It was a really good day for getting people together that work in the tech industry, having Superintendents come together, and really delving into the data that’s really important to understand (for) not only the trends happening, but what are the motivating factors behind those. It’s a really good place to build community and beginning the conversations about where people have been successful.”
—Dr. Michael Robert, Superintendent, Osborn School District #8 (AZ)
“There was a time during my thirty-one years that I think the stars aligned for us and I’ve been listening to Leilani preach at us for the last few years saying things like ‘Will we let human teachers be human? Will there ever be a day when human teachers are used precisely and fortuitously only for their human qualities? Never leave any student behind but work like maestros of direct instruction?’ When you’re in the trenches you don’t ever get to tell the story, but human relationships are the number one piece.”
—Chris Knutsen, Superintendent, Florence Unified School District (AZ)
“My favorite thing today has been the openness to talk about some of these things that people don’t want to talk about. The fact that education is changing in such a rapid way…whether it is the pandemic that forced that change and people are trying to put the genie back in the bottle, or the fact that it’s just human evolution. The fact that it is changing, and people are out there talking about it and saying, ‘Hey there’s a better way to do this, and we can we move forward in a better light,’ it’s refreshing to see that.”
—Chad Greene, Director - Technology Operations, Klein ISD (TX)
2026 Agenda & Sample Topics
2026: AI Fluency vs. Literacy & the CRAFT Curriculum Trend
Learning Counsel News Media will be onsite to record local leaders sharing good news and providing an incredible day of learning from our national research.
In today’s rapidly shifting educational landscape, schools face eroding trust, instability, and mounting pressure to deliver meaningful outcomes. At the same time, communities are seeking ways to reclaim connection, purpose, and agency. The emerging CRAFT curriculum—Create, Rig, Apply, Fuse, Thrive offers a human-first, locally grounded approach to learning, fostering practical problemsolving, entrepreneurial skills, and pathways to independent livelihoods in the fused world of tech + hands-on fabrication. Find out about crafting your own CRAFT curriculum offering.
The day will also introduce next-level Omni-AI schooling, which integrates multiple AI systems with existing operations, allowing schools to move beyond incremental technology adoption to a paradigm shift in teaching, learning, and decision-making. This is digital fluency, not mere literacy—the ability for students, educators, and administrators to operate seamlessly within an intelligent, interconnected ecosystem where AI enhances personalization, efficiency, and insight.
Join us for an actionable, research-backed exploration of how AI fluency and the CRAFT curriculum can empower schools to build resilient, future-ready learning environments.
Agenda (subject to change in each city)
8:00-8:30 am – Welcome & Introductions – Handouts for Workshops
8:30-10:00 am – Workshops
• Intro to CRAFT curriculum
• Omni-AI & Digital Fluency
• Being Human: 5 Characteristics Machines Can’t Do
10:00-10:10 am – Break
10:10-10:40 am – Learning Counsel Research Briefing | The Trends in Perspective
10:40-11:00 am – Guest Speaker, Innovations & Challenges
11:00-11:30 am – New Edtech Showcase
11:30-12:00 pm – Lunch (Video Showcase at 11:50 pm)
12:00-12:30 pm – Guest Speaker, Our AI Journey
12:30-1:00 pm – Scenario setting, AI Problem Solving Co-Design
1:00-1:30 pm – Problem Solving Breakouts
1:30-2:00 pm – Panel Discussion –Pride of Place, Human Branding, Practical AI Takeaways
Sponsor Engagement Levels
Workshop Table Host
As host, you will facilitate a collaborative learning discussion at one of the tables in the room while other discussions proceed at other tables. You will have direct interaction with attending educators in 3 rotations of 25 minutes each time. Each rotation may have 1-5 administrators or more at a time. Each round will typically be members of one district or one school, but not always. Your role will be to spend a few minutes on company and product introduction before leading the group into a topical discussion like those listed above each rotation. Every city will have 3 tables of discussions. Some companies may also request a portion of a separate perimeter table, if available, to display tech or take people over at breaks to do demos.
Sponsorship for each city: $3,000 each table per event, up to 2 representatives / $2,500 each for 3+ cities
Guest Speaker
Present to educators as a guest speaker to show not only what your solution is, but more importantly, how it can help schools and districts achieve the vision for education presented in the Learning Futures & Tech Media Meeting
15-Minute (1 available per city) – Note, when all workshop tables are sold, as speaker you will not be seated during the morning with guests and some guests may not stay for the luncheon.
Sponsorship for each city: $3,000 per event, up to 2 representatives / $2,500 each for 3+ cities
2-Minute Video Showcase
Share a brief promotional video with participants to showcase your solution or be called on to stand and introduce yourself and product or
company to the entire audience. Videos are a great way to augment your participation in the event and give educators a preview of features.
• 2-minute promotional video – $950 per event, 1 representative but not required
Breakfast or Lunch Sponsor & Host Helper
A continental breakfast or catered lunch by a local restaurant is provided for participants and is a fantastic way to support the learning and attendees. You also pick up a role of assisting Learning Counsel at check-in and managing all speakers getting on camera or at their discussion table schedule on time. Company logo on sponsorship plaque at breakfast or lunch table and acknowledgement in event documentation.
• $1,200 per event, 1 representative but not required
Agenda Sponsorship
Your sponsorship gains a Full-Page Ad in the Agenda handout for the events chosen. One representative may attend any city chosen for sponsorship during the luncheon. Single city sponsorships not available.
7
Three Cities (3): $1,200, 1 representative but not required
Packages
Lead Generation Independent Sales Agent Sponsorship — Lead generation and pass from each city, no required representative from sponsor.
We have the relationships with top administrators through twelve years of touring with live meetings. Let us talk your company and product up to get interest started and follow through with an introduction between your rep and prospects after each event.
How it works:
1. Give us a 2-minute video or single powerpoint slide for us to use to introduce your company’s product or services.
2. During the video and introductory showcase, we provide a feedback questionnaire, asking participants on behalf of the sponsor:
• Sponsor’s Logo and 50-word description.
• Rate interest 1-10 with 10 being highest interest.
• Write any questions.
• Write any recommendations on how to proceed if you were this sponsor.
3. Learning Counsel provides the feedback from the questionnaire and what happened in conversations with participating administrators and educators.
4. Learning Counsel sends a thank-you email to all participants with sponsor info and link-back stated again.
5. Learning Counsel sends a personal email to interested participants that tags the sponsor’s representative in a warm introduction after the event.
Typical interested lead passes will be 3-10 per event. Single events sponsorships are $1,300.
• $17,100 for 18 events or $950 per event
• $14,000 for 14 events or $1,000 per event
• $11,100 for 10 events or $1,100 per event
• $7,200 for 6 events or $1,200 per event
“The Learning Counsel has helped produced invaluable relationships for Tynker that we have been able to leverage into new or ongoing business. The meetings are more like co-working with educators with a chance to bring up Tynker’s product alongside research-based topics with data points that Learning Counsel prepares with a handout for each mini-workshop. It’s very productive to meet all the administrators there through several rotations and some of them speaking and during breaks and lunch. Sometimes Tynker chose to be one of the presenters in what we sponsored, or at lunch they show a 2-minute Tynker video as people are eating and everyone watches. The educators get a lot out of the day for themselves, it’s not just about the companies. Because we are discussing important things they care about, afterward we are like part of the family. That makes it a thousand times easier later. The positive revenue impact on our company far outweighed the investment we made into these events.”
– Venkat, Executive at Tynker
Spend 25% less on your cost-of-sales and actually reach decision makers!
The Learning Futures & Tech Media Meeting averages five solid sales connections/pitches per event with speaking or workshop sponsors. This equates to a value of $792 each, or $3,960 in hard costof-sales without the event to get those live connections.
• Typically, at least one other influencer from those same five single districts or schools also meet the rep, upping the value saved to an estimated $7,920 per event for time saved making connections with the contributing decision makers.
• Events will typically have far more than those five schools or districts your rep will interact with, potentially teeing up interest down the road from follow-through.
• Participation in any one event also reduces time-to-reach in follow-up, another hidden sales cost of manual selling without the effect of the event.
= Single City Workshop Host or 15-Minute Speaker is $4,000 to sponsor versus a $7,920 cost-of-sales, about 50% in savings! Discounted multi-city packages give even larger savings.
Cost of any one event at any level of sponsorship is less than the cost to do traditional manual field selling for even one sales connection. The actual value of subsequent sales made may be more significant because of the top-level titles than from other events reaching primarily teachers or low-level titles.
Doing the Math
In 2023, most edtech reps will tell you they “can’t get in” to see any decision makers in schools and districts. Getting a call scheduled is nigh to impossible. Getting a live meeting, well that is really hard for most reps even in the largest companies. And when it does it is kept short. No hours-and-hours of discussion and demoing. A lot of times there is no follow up afterward, and it just kind of goes nowhere.
First, consider a fair market average of only $75k annual base salary per edtech field rep. Many are far less. They may be given additional income from low percentages of sales. In any case, the average pay is $39 an hour. There may be added cost of healthcare, liability insurance and so forth above this. You might have to figure in manager’s salaries as well, and your hot shots reps are probably a much higher average annual salary.
It costs companies about 15 hours of one salesperson’s time, or $585 to get a meeting or call that is thirty minutes or longer with any prospect in education. Any. Prospect. This is because salespeople lob in an average of twenty emails and phone calls, if they have a number to call at all, and have to craft those each time and keep track of them. There are minutes of considering, finding the address info, trying to write something not too nagging sounding, and different each time, etc. This does not include the huge cost of their fellows over in the marketing department who are coincidentally spending gobs of money to get them leads which also take just as many cycles to reach — if they are ever reached and return communication to set a call. Sometimes calls are never set, and all business is conducted with extreme brevity in cryptic emails such as one-liners by prospects saying “Cost?”— only without telling the poor rep what number of licenses or for where or what. Then the line goes dead for two months longer before another reply just as short.
Remember, too, that despite arduous effort, many salespeople never reach anyone in your prospective accounts. A year’s worth of trying to email in will get them added to filter lists so no one gets their email at all. Calls will not be returned. Administrative assistants will not set up time to speak to the decision maker. Now let’s add some monetary value to the top-level folks in education, you know, the Directors, Assistant Superintendents and Superintendents. Let’s say it’s at least $1,000 to reach them, which is where the final sign-off will be anyway.
Because education institutions usually have several stakeholders, if not dozens, for products, you can plan to 5X either the $585 number of the $1,000 number because multiple calls and multiple meetings will stretch out over half a year or longer. That’s $2925 - $5,000, so take the median value between the two decision levels, and we get $3,962 as a median for enterprise selling. Again, this may have little human interaction and carry on via email or the calls be too short to truly connect and make any sort of trusting relationship. Another way to estimate this is to add $500 for every additional decision maker because of the cross-coordination time and attention to each of those points of interest and their questions.
Because most edtech will also require pre-demoing and an extensive procurement cycle, even some pre-training and possibly integrations and lawyers getting involved in contract language, you can 2X that median multi-decision maker value and get a cost of what it will typically take to get to the final closing. That’s $7,924. It’s roughly 13.5 times the cost just to get the first call. It does depend on the size of the institution. Costs could be slightly lower or much, much higher. Then there is the cost to re-sign subscriptions annually, a re-selling process that is still about the same cost-of-sale as the initial selling.
2023’s costs to sell an edtech product to schools and districts has skyrocketed because there is more distraction than ever before. It used to be that someone would always call you back if you left a message. Being universally polite and service oriented was a national source of pride, but that pretty much ended around 2015. We all got overwhelmed with just too much going on and the added insanity of robo-callers and spam. Staff in all industries will typically not even do a “pass-along” if they got the message so that a rep is connected to the right person in the institution. The right person could then ignore it anyway, but there was at least the identification of the right individual with the decision authority and a phone number. Now, more and more, email is blocked and phone calls in are gated at a central switchboard operator who doesn’t know who to tell you to talk to.
By purchasing the event(s), you will spend an estimated 25 percent less on your cost-of-sales and actually reach decision makers. When you purchase all of the events, it’s like purchasing one more member of your sales staff who is making all the rest of your staff more efficient. In addition, many of the top administrators attending are otherwise unreachable by your sales teams.
How Can You Maximize Your Marketing or Sales Investment?
The Learning Futures & Tech Media Meeting provides authentic professional learning for attendees. As a solution provider, this places your resource squarely in the context of the Learning Counsel’s research, message, and guidance. While the various engagement and sponsorship levels are a significant opportunity to build relationships and connect with educators in decision-making roles, successful companies partnering with the Learning Counsel maximize their participation.
• Invite current customers and prospects to the event. Testimonials go a long way toward building trust and showing relevance. Be sure to also demonstrate knowledge of your field to build trust and set yourself up as a resource.
• Bring your technology to demo at an unmanned side table during breaks, Work with Learning Counsel to get a table or at least a portion of one based on the resources of the facility to place your technology. Get to the event early so that you’re ready for the half-hour breakfast time while people wander around and chat after getting their coffee. Tables available are usually very limited.
• Follow through. Take notes during the event(s) of what you learn about each individual and schools or districts to help your follow-through and making personal connections. Make sure to do the follow through with every attendee and the peers they recommend who may not have attended. Figure out ways to keep a dialog going to grow your relationships.
• Engage in multiple events. Successful partnerships are built over time. Solutions partners that engage in multiple events establish more relationships with educators for the long term.
Sample 2024 Speakers/Panelists
Phoenix, AZ
Michael Neu, CTE Director, Buckeye Union High School District
Dr. Leslie Standerfer, Assistant Superintendent of Academics, Buckeye Union High School District
Jason Stuewe, Assistant Superintendent of Student Achievement, Buckeye Union High School District
San Diego, CA
Dr. Stacey Perez, Principal, Temecula International Academy
Terri Novacek, Executive Director, Element Education
Dr. David Miyashiro, Superintendent, Cajon Valley Union School District
Dr. Benjamin Churchill, Superintendent, Carlsbad Unified School District
San Antonio, TX
Dr. Roberto Basurto, Assistant Superintendent of Academic Services, Edgewood ISD
David Valverde, Principal, RMA Public Schools Midland
Amy Reasons-Copes, Principal - Regency Place Elementary, North East ISD
Becky Landa, Senior Executive Director Educational Technology & Extended Learning, San Antonio ISD
Houston, TX
Dr. Jenny McGown, Superintendent, Klein Independent School District
Chad Greene, Director - Technology Operations, Klein Independent School District
Nashville, TN
Tavis Massey, Principal - Northeast High School, Clarksville-Montgomery County School System
Michelle James Dircksen, Director of Technology, Humphreys County School System
Dr. Robyn Beard, Principal - Alex Green Design Technology Magnet, Metro Nashville Public Schools
Michelle James Dircksen, Director of Technology, Humphreys County School System
Atlanta, GA
Lisa Watkins, Executive Director of Instructional Technology & Innovation, Gwinnett County Public Schools
Bay Area
Cheryl Jordan, Superintendent, Milpitas Unified School District
Benjamin Fobert, Director of Educational Services, Lammersville Unified School District
Crystal Castañeda, Superintendent, Byron Union School District
Baltimore, MD
Dr. Joseph Jones, Superintendent, New Castle County Vocational-Technical School District (DE)
Dr. Joseph Bostic Jr., Assistant Principal - Northwood High School, Montgomery County Public Schools (MD)
Jim Corns, Executive Director, Baltimore County Public Schools (MD)
Philadelphia, PA
Dr. Kelly Murray, Assistant Superintendent of Teaching, Learning, and Innovation, Spring-Ford Area School District
Adam McGraw, Director of Instructional Technology, Conestoga Valley School District
Dr. James Pedersen, Superintendent, Essex County Schools of Technology
Kansas City, MO
Scott Jones, Chief Technology Officer, Kansas City Public Schools (MO)
Dr. Ivy Nelson, Instructional Technology Manager, Belton School District #124
Dr. Judith Campbell, Deputy Superintendent, Kansas City Kansas Public Schools (KS)
Dallas, TX
Carmen Blakey, Director of CTE, Garland ISD
Brandy Schneider, Principal, Gilbreath Reed Career and Technical Center, Garland Independent School District