Digital Discourse / Archives for Karen Billings

Can it be the Ed Tech Industry Summit Already?

January 27, 2011 By

It seems we just finished hosting the recent Ed Tech Business Forum on November 29-30 in New York City (www.edtechbusinessforum.net) and we are already in the midst of planning the next Ed Tech Industry Summit in San Francisco. (www.edtechindustrysummit.net) Since I have been asked frequently about the differences in the two conferences, this seems like a good time to explain them.

Differences. The key difference is that the Ed Tech Business Forum is focused on the business and finance side of the ed tech industry, with the attendees typically being C-level executives focused on growing company revenues and profits, along with strategic investors and venture capitalists interested in growing their portfolios.

The Ed Tech Industry Summit focuses on ALL sides of an ed tech business: sales & marketing, business & finance, and technical & development. Therefore the attendees come from senior and exec staff looking at enhancing their product lines, fine-tuning their sales and marketing efforts, and growing their entire company.

Another key distinction is that the Ed Tech Industry Summit includes the annual CODIE Awards Program and Dinner. (www.siia.net/codies/2011/) We announce winners among the finalist products in the 25 Education Categories. New this year we will award the winners of the six education super categories. We will present the third Ed Tech Impact award to an individual with a high level of accomplishments and contributions to the education technology industry.

Similarities. Both conferences have a full K-20 focus so there are sessions and keynotes that address elementary, secondary and postsecondary markets. Both conferences host the Innovation Incubator Program and the infamous One-to-One Business Connections Program.

Both conferences are open to senior management teams from within the ed tech industry whether the company is an SIIA member or not. We do, however, give significant discounts on the registration fees to our members. At both conferences, you will meet education software companies, platform technology firms, solution providers and distributors, publishers, those in the financial community.

Bottom line. SIIA would, of course, like your company to attend both conferences. But whether you select just one or both, I can guarantee you will be glad you participated and will see the ROI of attending.

Karen Billings, VP Education, SIIA

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Filed Under: Ed Tech Industry Summit, Education Events

The Medium is the Message

September 9, 2010 By

With apologies to Marshall McLuhan, this phrase came to mind when we saw the recent announcement about the death of the floppy. McLuhan argued that the medium that carries a message is an essential part of it. He noted that all media have characteristics that engage the viewer in different ways. It seems then, that as our delivery platforms change for digital code and content, so will our message AND our business models.

Just as the floppy shook up the computer industry in 1971, new mediums like distance learning and cloud computing are redefining how our technology products and services are consumed and interpreted. With the invention of the floppy, ed tech developers suddenly had a quick, inexpensive way to distribute its software on a massive scale. This technological development, however, meant that the market came to expect faster software updates, and new business models were required to keep pace.

Cloud computing is bringing us to a similar juncture. As companies head for the cloud, they will have to find ways to adapt their content and adjust their revenue models to the new medium maintain a viable business. When music went digital, for example, the bottom fell out of the market as the aptly named Pirate Bay and others pioneered the no rules, no royalties model. How our industry decides to manage the growth of e-books or open source LMS may likewise define the fate of our own digital products and services down the road.

What we know for sure is that the education delivery medium is going digital in every direction: from
textbooks to student performance data to interactive whiteboards. As this transition creates new
possibilities, the question is: how will this affect our message and how will we manage the medium?

Posted by Karen Billings, VP Education, SIIA and Alec Wescott, Education Intern, SIIA

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Filed Under: Cloud Computing: Education, Education, Education Events, Mobile: Education

SIIA Events Reflect Evolution of Ed Tech Industry

August 4, 2010 By

In planning two education-focused conferences this summer for SIIA, I was struck by similarities – and of course the differences – in the two events. This week we host, “Innovate to Educate: A symposium on [Re]Design for Personalized Education.” After returning to DC, we go full steam ahead planning the 2010 Ed Tech Business Forum, which will focus on “Re-Inventing Business Models.”

First, the obvious differences: The former conference is our first major component of SIIA’s new initiative on Personalized Learning and is being held in collaboration with ASCD and CCSSO. Two-thirds of the invited attendees represent leadership within the K-12 education sector – school districts, state agencies, professional associations, the federal government and education foundations. Attendees will focus on the policies, practices and technologies needed to enable the redesign of our education system from an industrial-age structure to one that is student-centered to meet each student’s personalized learning needs.

The Ed Tech Business Forum will be 10th annual and has become part of “Education Week” in New York, taking place each year the first week after Thanksgiving. Attendees are primarily from the industry, and represent ed tech platform companies, publishers, and financial firms. They’re there to learn and share information about the shifts they see in their business models.

The similarities: Some of SIIA members will be attending both conferences. While the purpose of the Symposium is to look at system re-design, the Forum will be looking to re-design their business. There’s a cause and effect, and hopefully, they’ll happen in tandem with each other. Our members do react to customer needs … and Personalized Learning is a major one right now. By working with industry colleagues at the Forum, they will gain major insights to Re-Inventing their business models.

Posted by Karen Billings, Vice President, SIIA Education Division

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Filed Under: Education, Education Events, Events, Personalized Learning

Dont get caught up in the shiny stuff

May 10, 2010 By

Taking full advantage of all of SIIA’s offerings, including those in other SIIA divisions, is a great way to maximize your membership benefits. The Content Division recently held a Brown Bag Lunch event, “Beyond eBooks: eReaders and Information Content Opportunities.” And although the session was not geared towards the education market, there was education industry representation (Kaplan) and discussion on topics that were industry-agnostic.

The link to view the recorded session is now live: http://bit.ly/SIIA_Beyond_eBooks

A main theme was a caution about being too focused on shiny new devices. Focus on your customers. All content providers want to deliver content how and where customers want it. But be careful about generalizations, even within the same market. Folks at Wolters Kluwer STM businesses, for example, discovered that Doctors access content VERY differently than Nurses do. (Doctors = mobile / Nurses = Desktop). Kaplan discovered that students actually like PAPER. Unlike the web where students are a click away from a “garden of temptations,” paper is free of distractions. Spending some time delving deeply into your customer’s habits and needs (Kaplan has several pilots going at once) will prevent development dollars from going into the wrong functionality.

Another recommendation was to be “nimble”. Easier said than done in a world of competing and complex approaches to content delivery. Though bets were on Open Source winning the battle, single standard has a lot to offer. For Educational Publishers, converting legacy content isn’t easy, or cheap. Especially if the same content has to be converted multiple times for different formats. (Hence the allure of standards!). But standards issues aside, certain educational content, unlike text-only content, has elements, like complex graphics or tables, that are not well suited for eReaders or Mobile devices. And educational concepts can’t always be disaggregated into neat $9.99 chunks of information. Developing new content that fully leverages interactive capabilities – let’s not even get into geospatial – has a host of training issues for those well-respected authors.. That stuff can’t just be slapped on at the end of a development process.

All that being said, the world is marching forward. FT and Foursquare announced a deal that will be interesting to watch. HTML5 is replacing flash. Zinio, an eBook and digital magazine platform, was ranked as a number 4 App. But with all the shiny new things swirling around, keep focused on your customer. Good advice for any industry.

The Content Division holds periodic Brown Bag Lunch sessions that are run from 11:30am – 1:30pm Eastern and can be attended virtually or in-person at the McGraw-Hill offices in New York City. A current list of upcoming events http://bit.ly/SIIA_Events for all SIIA Divisions is always available.

Written by Paula Maylahn for SIIA.

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Filed Under: Brown Bag Lunch Series, Ed Tech Industry Summit, Education, Postsecondary
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