Four nationally respected CIOs and instructional leaders from states and districts using leading-edge technology will:

• Describe current innovative practices
• Give perceptions of where technology-based innovation will be needed in the next few years
• Discuss what role they would like to see the industry play in providing innovation

Postsecondary Companies Speak Out

LEADER

Join leading postsecondary companies in the first ever "Postsecondary Feedback Forum". Participants will provide their perspectives on questions and issues key to their market, such as:

• How is digitization of course materials affecting the traditional book store distribution models?
• How are publishers responding to demands for disaggregation of textbook content?
• What are the IP and pricing consequences of new business models?
• What are the barriers to entry for K12 companies transitioning into the postsecondary market?

Education Foundation Leaders: How Innovation is Supported

MODERATOR

Hear leaders in key education foundations describe the type of support they offer to education institutions, non-profits, and education technology developers. They will discuss the need for innovation in schools and describe success stories around the development and implementation of innovative products and services.

Open Content and Open Technology for K20

MODERATOR

Where is the gold in free? Investors are putting money into open source, and publishers are partnering with open content providers. This panel will consider questions such as: what are the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of open source and open content?

Trends that Impact Customer Spending...and Your Company's Future

MODERATOR

Technology advancements, the impact of the economy, emerging markets - all things that keep us up at night. This panel will bring their market and strategic expertise into a comprehensive discussion of how these items and more can impact your company's future. What are the business and economic trends that you need to pay attention to? How are schools equipped and what are their future plans? What is the fast growing emerging market? All that and audience participation - a session that can help you make decisions about your company's future.

Acquiring Innovation: Build, Borrow, or Buy?

MODERATOR

Innovation can be totally home-grown--or it can be acquired, either product by product or in one fell swoop through acquisition of a company. This discussion will focus on the decisions a company makes around feeding a steady pipeline of innovative products and services into the marketplace. When does a company invest in organic growth (people and other resources) and when is it both cheaper and faster to look outside? What are the potential risks and rewards of each strategy? What would a blended strategy look like?

Developing for Transition: Building Learning, Teaching, and Management Tools

MODERATOR

At a time when students have transitioned to a digital lifestyle outside of school, is today's classroom what's really left behind? Should publishers and developers continue producing disruptive technologies to help educators make the transition to a fully integrated learning environment? This highly engaging panel of experts will discuss the market's emerging tools and their potential for ubiquity and improved efficiency in education. They will speak from their diverse backgrounds and address the best ways to reach both teachers and students with single tools and how the industry can help make non-traditional learning tools mainstream.

Selling on Value, Price, or Both

MODERATOR

Schools, like other public-sector markets, present particular challenges when it comes to pricing strategy. Purchasing and bidding policies, RFPs, state contracts, and bid lists add complexity and may leave you with a pricing conundrum. You may find yourself debating, do we compete or value, price, or both? Our panel will share their perspectives and help you choose the best approach for your situation.

Innovation and Business Efficiency -
New Products, Services, & Approaches to Help Maximize ROI

MODERATOR

Innovation is not only about products and markets; it's also about innovation in business practices and company infrastructure. Examples are abundant in areas such as supply chain management, outsourcing, training, and hiring of how investment in operational efficiency and bottom-line performance can separate the great from the good. Panel will look at some of the new products, services, and approaches that help companies maximize ROI.

Tuesday, May 20

Technical and Development Foundations for Innovation

MODERATOR

The explosion of web-delivered software and learning games, user generated content, and social networking promises innovative tools for teachers and faster time to competency for students. Is this new convergence a reason for hope, or is it just hype? This panel of industry insiders will examine the development path and business models of several emerging products, and discuss whether they'll gain traction or fall by the wayside in the next year.

Education Policy in an Election Year

MODERATOR

Public policy continues to profoundly shape the education market. In this election year, a panel of policy wonks will highlight the education issues and debates that are part of the 2008 campaign cycle and political discussion, and look forward to how that may translate to legislation in 2009 in Washington, DC and state capitols around the country.

Integrating Innovation: Changing Engines in Mid-Flight - Avoiding Buy and Kill

MODERATOR

Having invested in innovation--either internally or through acquisition--how does a company prevent it from being squashed? How does it protect its core markets while trying to be cutting edge? The education industry is full of examples of highly innovative companies that were acquired by text publishers and others who (sometimes without meaning to) implemented a "buy and kill" strategy. Other companies have grown on a foundation of innovative products, which then became so successful that they discouraged continued investment in new products. What practices and processes can be implemented to prevent this?

Managing Digital Assets - How Developers Work with Customers to Innovate for Growth

MODERATOR

We are all familiar with digital assets. The theory is simple: reuse assets for efficiency. What are some effective ways of working with customers to make an asset multi-purposeful? How can vendors challenge their customers to be innovative and think beyond the one-content, one-asset mindset? This panel will answer these and other questions as they discuss product development under the influence of technology.

International Markets

MODERATOR

Is the international education market right for your company? There are plenty of opportunities for innovative education products to succeed in overseas markets, but is the possible profit worth the effort? What is the best positioning for a company to enter the international education market? This panel will speak from their experiences of working around the world and offer advice on marketing education products in today's global economy.

Leadership and Innovation: Fostering a Culture of Innovation

MODERATOR

In light of recent research, leadership is becoming recognized as an accurate indicator of innovation performance and traction. Notably, employees see a direct link between innovation and leadership. In an interactive discussion, this panel will explore this relationship. Based on their unique and diverse experiences, the panelists will share their perspectives on why a culture of innovation is important as well as helpful strategies for encouraging innovation across the education technology industry.

Profiles in Innovation

MODERATOR

What are the elements of successful partnerships for developing innovative products and services for the education market? Representatives from the non-profit arena and the for-profit world will explain how and why they are collaborating with each other. Learn how these partnerships work and how they benefit each of the partner's available resources and help the companies to positively grow their business

Interoperability: Coopetition in the Digital World

MODERATOR

This session will examine coopetition -- the intersection of competition and cooperation -- between educational content providers, data standards committees, and application providers in our industry. Topics will include SIF (the Schools Interoperability Framework) and IMS/GLC (the Instructional Management Systems Global learning Consortium); specific questions will include the changing nature of software in an open source market, and the effect of public data providers such as Google on our industry.

Web 2.0 Marketing

MODERATOR

What's the best way to use Web 2.0 marketing strategies? This hypothetical case study will explain the various definitions of Web 2.0 and help you weigh the benefits of the affordable marketing approach many of your competitors have already incorporated. Can the public really market for you? Can a self-produced web page produce the same results as a direct mail piece? Do you have the time to dedicate to making these new tools effective? Find out.

Year in Review:
Rewarding Innovation - New Perspective on Major Education Acquisitions, Investments, and IPOs

MODERATOR