Industry News

New York City Gets Ed Tech Festival

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 10/17/16

New York City will be getting its own education innovation conference. NY Edtech Week is taking place this December at New York University. The three-day event will feature "TED"-style presentations by education celebrities, pitches from ed tech start-ups, field trips to New York education and cultural institutions and other ed-oriented activities.

NYU's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development is teaming up with StartEd Companies to put on the "festival," as the two organizations are calling it. The school brings together multiple disciplines — education, communication, health and the arts — under one roof. StartEd works with ed-oriented companies to accelerate their program development. The festival will provide a platform for companies going through a three-month boot camp run by StartEd to share their work.

"New York is the national center of education innovation with the largest K-12 district, a major community college network, private colleges, education publishers, education investors, media outlets, investors, innovators and cultural institutions," said Jonathan Harber, a managing director of StartEd, in a prepared statement. "This makes the city and NYU the perfect place to bring those people and organizations together to work to improve the opportunities and outcomes in the global education community — that's what NY Edtech Week is all about."

"We're excited to host NY Edtech Week to bring together technology and education thought leaders all working to create new possibilities for how students learn. The Steinhardt School is committed to creating a community of innovation in education here in New York City," added Dominic Brewer, dean of NYU Steinhardt.