The Education Innovation Summit formally launched an ambitious effort April 20-21, 2010 at SkySong, the ASU Scottsdale Innovation Center
This invitation-only conference brought together 370 national/global education leaders including: government officials, investors, foundations and innovative companies and NGOs working on innovation in learning. Keynote speakers included ASU President Michael Crow, education entrepreneur Chris Whittle, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and Chegg.com CEO Daniel Rosensweig. Town-hall style panels of experts addressed policy, funding, trends and marketplace issues and new companies showcased their concepts for investor review.
Mission: To design and build a global education innovation business hub at SkySong.
Vision: To establish SkySong as a robust platform that provides education innovators the resources, connections and support to improve learning outcomes among students in Arizona and around the world.
Background
On December 11, 2009, ASU convened a diverse group of investors, educational institutions, ASU education leaders, charter school representatives, leading educational technology companies, and startups from around the country. This group of education thought leaders brainstormed how to leverage their collective capabilities to attract additional leading educational technology companies and to identify key components necessary to create an education innovation hub in Arizona.
Observations
Arizona has unique set of education innovation and new business formation assets. Arizona is already home to a large number of education tech companies, the largest community college district, a robust for-profit education sector, a vibrant charter school movement and the second largest University campus. ASU is the largest teacher training institution in the US and a majority of those teachers stay in Arizona. Arizona educational institutions are open to new partnership and new ideas. Thus, Arizona provides a unique test-bed for new innovations. In addition to the educational assets from a new business perspective, Arizona has a favorable tax environment, an affordable cost of living, a pool of retired CEOs, demographic, cultural, geographic, educational diversity and the region consistently ranks among the top places to start a business.
The diversity of the group engaged in this effort is unprecedented and includes the full range of educational innovators from investors to teachers. This working group was emphatic that a physical convening point with a critical mass of people and companies is necessary to make the ecosystem functional. Many of the participants are committed to make this vision a reality and have volunteered to assist in the next phase. The success of ASU SkySong provides both a proof of concept and an implementation model for creation of an educational innovation hub at SkySong, ASU Scottsdale Innovation Center.
The working group was emphatic that a physical convening point with a critical mass of people and companies is necessary to make the ecosystem functional. Many of the participants are committed to make this vision a reality and have volunteered to assist in the next phase. The success of ASU's Enterprise Arizona Venture Center provides both a proof of concept and an implementation model for creation of an educational innovation hub at SkySong, ASU Scottsdale Innovation Center.
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