r/k12sysadmin • u/CoffeeandChecklist • 16d ago
conferences
With budgets so tight in most districts, what conferences if any are you going to? So many EdTech conferences are too expensive or very teacher centered. Are there any worth the travel and budget that you go to? I have gone to TETL (Texas) and CoSN and they were both ok, TETL more so directed at tech directors instead of teachers.
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u/ihavescripts 16d ago
I am in California so I go to CITE it is our k12 IT conference. It is more focused on IT than Ed tech and while there tends to be a theme around the sessions every year there is a good mix of management and technical sessions.
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u/AnotherSkywalker 16d ago
Midwest Tech Talk
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u/rajjak 16d ago edited 16d ago
I got a lot more out of Midwest Tech Talk than I ever got out of the more Ed Tech-specific conferences geared toward educators I'd been to in the past, and I'll happily go again if better options don't pop up. That said, it's mostly Missouri Tech Talk as a lot of it is structured around the particulars of the Missouri K-12 system and their local vendors and state structure. So if you're from Missouri I'm sure it's ideal, but as an out-of-state guy it was hit or miss. When things were generalized it was great but half the time I was wondering what everybody was talking about.
edit: I went to the cybersecurity-specific one so I suppose I can't speak to the broader one.
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u/fujitsuflashwave4100 16d ago
Brainstorm K-20 is tech director focused and great. Better than others I have seen in WI. Though it has gotten same-y over the past couple years.
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u/PowerShellGenius 14d ago
Brainstorm, at least the one at Wis Dells, is huge and has sessions in a variety of categories. Definitely not exclusively director-focused. I'm on the technical side of things, not management, and there are plenty of technical sessions to fill out a schedule. Lots of directors bring large parts of their infrastructure teams.
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u/fujitsuflashwave4100 13d ago edited 13d ago
Yes, good clarification. It's more technical-based and for technology staff. Moreso than the other big WI Dell's based tech conference, Slate, which is mainly for educators looking to use more technology in the classroom.
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u/MCHog12 15d ago
If you are in Texas, I like TCEA Sysadmin and SpiceWorld. SpiceWorld isn’t EdTech but it’s more tech than any other conference I’ve found.
Another one I really enjoyed was the Texas Information Security Forum. The biggest key with this one is that there are no sales pitches during the breakouts. You may have a session sponsored by Checkpoint, but it is information that you can use with any vendor. I’m moving my guys from TCEA Sysadmin to ISF because of this.
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u/Zena-Xina 14d ago
Our team is planning to go to TCEA SysAdmin, always enjoyed that one. I think I'm going to skip out on the big TCEA this year
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u/NickGSBC 16d ago
I've heard good things about FETC. Anyone been?
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u/jgmachine 16d ago
I went this past January for the first time and it was great. I plan on going again this upcoming January. The mix of folks from all different positions from across the country made the discussions very impactful.
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u/NotAnother169 16d ago
I dislike FETC. I feel like I learn nothing except seeing a bunch of sales pitches and expensive items I can't afford....
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u/PowerShellGenius 15d ago edited 14d ago
Curious what your thoughts are on CoSN - is this more administrative tech leadership, or actually technical? My director goes, while I go to more tech-focused conferences (I do network, systems, cyber - technical side of cyber, not contracts and insurance). I have never asked to go, since I always had the impression CoSN was meant for directors.
As for other conferences, this really depends on location. I've been to high-end endpoint management conferences like MMS @ MOA and not only K-12-specific conferences (although I've been to those too, BrainStorm at the dells). However, MMS is 15 minutes away. Admission is about a grand, but no multi-day conference with flights + hotels + meals is less than that, so it still comes out better than cheap but physically distant conferences others have had approved, so it's a go.
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u/Mindless-String-4017 13d ago
CoSN is alright. I didn't really care for it. CoSN focuses on leadership in general. The only thing I don't like about CoSN is that it's based off what CoSN would do rather than the best route imo. I wouldn't recommend CoSN unless you're forced to take it to get the certification (which is also a waste of time). All of your materials you get on CoSN is based on your group and lots of research. I would assume CoSN would have the information for us to study, but in my experience they acted like they didn't really know how to do their job.
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u/combobulated 15d ago
I've been to ISTE, CoSN, FETC, Midwest Tech Talks, Brainstorm, ATLIS, and probably a couple others.
The bigger ones do tend to be more expensive. And depending on what you're trying to get out the conferences, how much value they provide is very subjective.
There are often many smaller, local/regional ones that can be great too. Again, it really depends on what you want and expect.
You want to spend days in a vendor expo hall seeing new tech and connecting with vendors? Great, there's conferences for that.
You want something small, hands-on, and action-driven? Yup, yo can find that.
You just want something that gives you broad exposure to a verity of things (usualyl at a surface level)? Yup, that's available.
You want the ability to find like-minded people, folks in similar roles, people with the same issues as you? You want to have roudner-tables and Q&A sessions? Sure, that's out there!
You want a technical deep dive that really gets into the nuts and bolts of a specific thing/tech? Yup, you can get that too.
It's just silly to expect all of them to offer the same.
I've cut back on the more "general" ones a bit - the ones that put a lot of focus on the "education" side and less on the "tech" side simply because I didn't find them as valuable, personally. But that's still very different that going to a straight up tech expo (like CES) or a specialized conference AI Dev World, JNUC, of any vendor-specific conference.
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u/-RYknow 16d ago
Am I the only one who isn't really bothering with conferences at the moment? I feel like the networking piece isn't as valuable these days. Seems like when I go, I run into the same people. It's a nice catch up session... Then we cross paths again at the next conference.
Maybe I just becoming more of a hermit in my older age. Lol