The Education Insider Podcast

In this episode of The Education Insider Podcast Shorts, host Jacob Hanson riffs on a recent article featuring an administrator’s perspective on vendors in the education sector. He wholeheartedly agrees with Dr. Tracy Daniel-Hardy, a district-level director of technology, who says vendors need to “know what we do, how we do it, what we need to simplify our work, our pain points, and the parameters that guide our work.” Jacob explains how understanding your clients’ needs can translate into more relevant and meaningful outreach and, ultimately, build the deep trust that’s needed to sustain relationships with key buyers. He also introduces PRP Group’s new Anonymous Edvisors service, which offers insider access to education experts.

In a can’t-miss conversation with host Jacob Hanson, Julia Fallon, the executive director at SETDA, delves into the evolving landscape of educational technology, offering valuable insights and actionable advice. She shares thoughts on:

Julia's journey in educational technology spans more than three decades, beginning right after her undergrad years. Her enduring passion for the field is rooted in a never-ending curiosity about the transformative power of technology in education. 

In the episode, she shares her experiences and discusses the benefits of companies working with SETDA, highlighting how the organization provides insights into state-level educational technology trends and policies. Finally, Jacob and Julia underscore the importance of companies preparing for potential cybersecurity threats and crises by developing comprehensive crisis communication plans.

Kristen Plemon, PRP’s director of strategic storytelling & client success (say that ten times fast!) shares her extensive knowledge about how companies can stand out from the competition by building on a short unique value proposition that is truly unique. She also offers practical advice about messaging, the impact of customer stories, and the power of partnerships.

In a lively chat with PRP editorial director Chris Piehler, Susan Enfield, the award-winning Superintendent of Washoe County Schools, shares why she wants to work with “compassionate human beings,” why fall break is a good time to reach her, why AI will never trump human-to-human connection, and the correct way to pronounce “Nevada.”  

Collin Earnst is the founder and managing partner of The EdTech Leadership Collective, which helps K-12 edtech companies build leadership capacity in their middle management. He joined Alison Deutsch, VP of curriculum assessment and data at Lexia Learning, at the T&L Ed Exec Summit. In today’s The Education Insider Podcast Short, Jacob Hanson chats with Collin about the summit and key takeaways from Collin’s presentation.

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On this Education Insider Podcast Short, Jacob interviews Chuck Amos, CEO of The Amos Group, about his panels at the Tech & Learning EdExec Summit, which focused on funding and government affairs. The Amos Group is the parent company of SchoolBondFinder & SchoolNetwork.

SchoolBondFinder is the first comprehensive online database tracking K12 funding projects in the U.S., and SchoolNetwork is a networking platform for K12 District Administrators to view and share funding project documents, review solution providers, and advertise RFPs nationwide.

Show Links
The Amos Group: https://theamosgroup.us/
The Ed Exec Summit: https://www.techlearningevents.com/edexecsummit/home

After a lively couple of days of sessions and networking, PRP’s Kristen Plemon recorded her thoughts live from #TLTechLive! Whether or not you were with us at Chateau Elan, you'll want to check out her 90-second rundown of her most important takeaway from the EdExec Summit!  

“I've ​been ​fortunate ​enough ​to ​speak ​at ​conferences ​around ​the ​world, and ​one ​of ​the ​things ​that ​I ​come ​away ​with ​is ​educators ​around ​the ​world ​are ​all ​trying ​to ​solve ​the ​same ​problems,” says Dr. Charles Khoury, who recently retired after a 49-year career in which he served as classroom teacher, assistant principal, high school principal, assistant superintendent, and superintendent.

On this episode of The Education Insider Podcast with PRP Group, Dr. Khoury shares insights and anecdotes about being on the receiving end of education vendor’s sales pitches, and delves into the importance of the “post-back-to-school” period to educators and education vendors.

About the Guest

Dr. Charles V. Khoury is the former district superintendent of Ulster BOCES. In addition to his role as chief executive officer, he was the New York State Education Commissioner’s representative in the field, the major liaison between local districts and the state education department, as well as the spokesperson for regional education issues. He can be reached at [email protected] or via LinkedIn.

Are you ready for the Tech & Learning EdExec Summit? I'm super excited to come and see all of you!

FYI that there is a ride sharing opportunity from the airport. Reach out to me or Christine Weiser to learn more. It's a bit of a jump from the airport to this wonderful venue, so I encourage you to reach out: [email protected]. So drop her line and she will get you hooked up with Joyce Whitby who is helping to coordinate this.

Where we want to be spending some time today is looking at the agenda and scrolling through here to make sure that you all know where to go and where to look. You can access this information once you've logged in as well. I'm gonna be spending some time this week getting myself scheduled into some sessions. There's some really good ones and some fantastic speakers.

You can see the venue map and kind of check out where you'd like to meet locations, those kinds of things as you're looking to reach out for meetings. I just want to caution you that you actually have to put in a meeting time and date as well as a location like they mentioned up there.

But knowing this is a holiday weekend coming up and we're gonna be there Wednesday, I strongly encourage you all to get moving on, taking a look at some of these things, starting to look through the directory and reach out to folks.

Welcome to the first episode of The Education Insider Podcast Shorts from PRP Group. Our podcast shorts are a new series of 2-minute videos with timely info about what's happening in education, best practices for understanding your customers, and answers to listener questions about our episodes.

In this episode, PRP Group co-founder and CEO Jacob Hanson introduces our podcast shorts and gives a sneak peek into what you’ll get out of them. Spoiler alert: He talks about what you should really be doing during this back-to-school period and the importance of the post-back-to-school period for education vendors.

Episode Links