A Superintendents #ASUGSV19 experience
Late last year (2018) I was asked if I wanted to attend #ASUGSV. I (embarrassingly) had never heard of the event. So, I closed out that email and Google’d the event. The conference website popped up and I saw the list of former and future speakers and rushed back into my email to say I am in if the spot still existed for me. (What other conference can you hear from the likes of Andre Agassi and Reed Hastings within 12 hours of each other)
In November I could not wait for the conference, then life continued to happen and I did not spend a ton of time thinking about the conference until about three weeks out (early March). At that point, I started getting inundated with requests for meetings. This will happen to you as well. My only piece of advice – be discerning and selfish with your time.
Once inundated with invites I started wondering what this conference was really all about. So, I started looking up reviews. One blog I came across said something that stuck with me. It was something to the accord of #ASUGSV is best described as a bunch of 12 year olds in $300 dollar jeans asking a bunch of 22 year olds in $3000 suits for more capital. This refers to the elite youth with their ‘game-changing’ ideas seeking funding from the still shockingly young venture capitalists there to take advantage of the booming ed-tech market. After reading that, I thought I kinda had a grip on what the conference was, but was (at best) only partially correct.
SO, what was #ASUGSV19 really like for an educator?
In a few words the conference was: affirming, challenging, off-putting, humanizing, and game-changing.
I view myself as a progressive in education. So much so I often question my own effectiveness because I do not feel I am leading fast enough or being transformative enough. Well, if you want your radical vision of progress and transformation fueled by technology to be AFFIRMED I believe that there is no single event in education that it does it as boldly as #ASUGSV.
I love public education. I believe in it deeply and truly believe it is foundational to our democracy. Your view on this will be challenged. There is a strong pro-charter element to many segments of this conference and if you do not have thick skin, this can be off-putting. This was not my issue. I felt CHALLENGED, but took away many things from the pro-charter movement that I believe if public schools listened to instead of trying to combat could strengthen their own cause.
You are going to hear people that have no educational experience take major stages and tell you how to do your job better. This was OFF-PUTTING at times. Such are the privileges of the wealthy and powerful. There were times I had to remind myself that I had a choice to sit there and listen and try to learn or head out to a balcony, look at the bay, and make a phone call. If that is the worst part of a conference, it is not that bad of a conference.
As educators, particularly superintendents, conferences are usually a time where you get wined and dined by vendors, but you are under constant ‘attack.’ At #ASUGSV you are not quite an afterthought, but definitely not the focus of the vendors and partners in attendance. Instead, they are working their boards and trying to provide investors with updates of progress in hopes of further financing. By the time you interact with prospective partners/vendors they are so exhausted and HUMANIZED that you actually can have real conversations and connect as humans. It also appeared that at this conference, partners were more interested in hearing feedback on their product than in most other circumstances.
So, what about the critiques – are they real? Yes – this is a super interesting people watching conference. I did not receive the memo that the appropriate #ASUGSV19 wardrobe was a blue blazer, dark blue jeans, rolled, with light brown shoes (no socks if you were extra cool). The one critique a lot of educators were discussing while I was there was that the conference was mostly fluff. I disagree vehemently. There were no practical tactics being discussed, but what was being provided was potentially GAME-CHANGING thought leadership by great minds and / or people that have exhibited greatness in other areas with seemingly limitless bank accounts. We can scoff at that if we want to, but that is REAL and has the ability to produce REAL change.
TIDBITS
In one day . . .
- I had an extensive tour of San Diego Met High School. This is a public school operating on a community college campus and pushing the boundaries on everything that defines a traditional public high school. It was incredible.
- I heard the following people speak
- Tal Ben-Shahar speak on the science of happiness
- Cindy McCain
- Arne Duncan
- Reed Hastings
- Michael Moe
- Michael Crow
- Beverly Tatum
- Met with the Gates Foundation and Chan Zuckerberg initiative to discuss and provide commentary on their current areas of focus in research
- Met with two state level legislators to discuss the impact of technology on the future of education
AND
- Talked with countless vendors/partners and was able to enjoy San Diego nightlife with colleagues from throughout the country.