Attending an education conference as a district or school leader can be overwhelming – the flood of available programming, the names and faces of people to network with, the miles-long show floor packed with vendors touting their newest offerings.
For companies, there’s often only a small window to capture district officials’ attention before those administrators are diverted to something else.
So what’s the best way for education companies to capitalize on large-scale events, where thousands of leaders from across the country are all in the same space at the same time?
In a recent survey, EdWeek Market Brief asked district and school leaders what gets them interested in a company’s product and who those K-12 decision-makers see as highly effective advocates of those products.
The online, nationally representative online survey was conducted by the EdWeek Research Center in December 2024 of 134 district leaders, 97 school leaders, and 759 teachers.
The survey offers valuable insights for education organizations that count on being able to connect with district decision-makers at major trade shows, which include ISTE, FETC, TCEA, BETT, and many other events targeting administrators and educators with different roles in school systems.
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The results show that a variety of strategies can work for education companies — but that district and school leaders place a particularly high value on having the ability to see how a product works, especially if K-12 leaders themselves are leading those demonstrations.
Strategies That Work
The first question the survey asked was about the types of interactions or experiences at education shows that would lead district and school leaders, and teachers, to want to learn more about a company’s product. The survey respondents could select as many options from a list as they wanted.
Among district and school leaders, the most highly valued type of conference interaction, chosen by 60 percent of respondents, was being able to attend a presentation by a district or school official who is using the product.
The next-most effective form of interaction among district and school leaders is being able to attend a company’s session where administrators can learn how to use a product more effectively, at 47 percent. Attending a session to learn about a new product was ranked third, with 41 percent of district and school leaders indicating that it would entice them to want to learn even more.
Some of the lower-ranked conference interactions, in terms of leading K-12 officials to want to learn more about a company’s product, include an informal social event or party connected to the conference put on by the company, an option chosen by only 13 percent, and an invitation to see a company representative participate in a panel discussion sponsored by the company, 9 percent.
Some companies try to to tout their trade show activities and events on X, LinkedIn, and other platforms to try to spark interest from a broader audience. But just 8 percent of district and school leaders said that seeing social media activity during a conference explaining the usefulness of the product would lead them to want to learn more.
Teachers’ views of the kinds of company activities at conferences that attract their attention differed somewhat from their bosses.
Educators’ highest-ranking answer, when asked what would lead them to want to get to know more about a company’s product, is attending a provider’s session where they learn how to use it more effectively, at 47 percent. Thirty-nine percent indicate that a presentation by a district or school official who is using the product would lead them to want to familiarize themselves with a product, making it the second-highest ranked conference strategy.
Teachers are also more inclined to be drawn to the use of giveaways or “swag,” with 36 percent of classroom practitioners indicating that this would reel them in. Just 29 percent of district and school leaders said that strategy appeals to them.
Dawn Walker is the director of education and learning and the principal of Whatcom Intergenerational High School, a public charter school in Washington, north of Seattle. She has been attending conferences for 10 years and know what appeals to her, and what doesn’t.
She responded positively to a session at a recent conference in which a company chose a few of its district and school users to introduce its platform focused on tracking and improving student attendance and to explain to attendees how they’re using it within different contexts.
Walker said she prefers those types of sit-and-listen information sessions more than interactive roundtable discussions with her peers because she’d rather get direct insights on practical applications and usage from conference presenters.
While she thinks it’s helpful at a trade show to hear about how school districts have leveraged products and services, Walker said companies should also be cautious against choosing district representation with anecdotes that are a little too specific. Niche examples, she said, can deter audience interest.
“If they’re only talking about their specific school, it can be a little disengaging if that school [context] doesn’t align at all with yours,” she said. “They can give a wonderful presentation on results and data, but it can turn people off their product if they can’t see themselves in what’s being presented.”
If a company is going to host a presentation by a school or district official using the product, it would be wise to invite a variety of speakers from different types of districts to capture wider audience engagement, she said.
Champions for the Product
The survey also asked district and school leaders who they see as highly effective advocates on behalf of a company’s products or services at education conferences.
Across all the respondents — district and school leaders, and teachers — current classroom teachers are seen as effective at delivering information at trade shows.
Teachers, however, are more heavily inclined to want their fellow classroom educators, whether they’re currently working in classrooms or they’re now working for education companies, to serve as ambassadors for products and services at trade shows.
Among district and school leaders, current teachers who use the product are seen as highly effective advocates: 73 percent say they are. Teachers agree: 83 percent say their classroom peers are effective.
There’s a significant gap between district and school leaders and teachers when it comes to whether they view current school administrators who use a product as effective advocates at conferences
Sixty-seven percent of district and school leaders indicate that they see current school administrators as effective conference ambassadors while only 22 percent of teachers say the same.
Teachers also take a similarly dim view of district leaders’ effectiveness in advocating for products at conferences.
Forty-five percent of K-12 administrators see district leaders as good advocates for products in conference settings, only 16 percent of educators see district bosses that way.
Teachers are also more inclined to see former classroom educators as effective advocates — 40 percent do — compared to just 29 percent of district and school leader respondents.
Teachers surveyed seem to place trust in their peers – more so than in school or district administrators.
Those whom teachers do not see as effective messengers at conferences include former district administrators working for a company, 4 percent; company sales/marketing staff, 3 percent; and a company CEO or executive leadership, 1 percent.
District and school leaders’ lowest-ranked product advocates at conferences include- company product implementation staff, 14 percent; company CEO or executive leadership, 8 percent; or a person from the company’s sales or marketing team, 5 percent.
‘Authentic Folks’
When the team at Renaissance Learning, a K-12 software company, prepares for a conference, they usually tap into their Renaissance Educator Network, a group of educators who use the company’s products.
Team members will reach out to educators from the network who work in the state where the conference is being held, and elsewhere, to see if they’re planning to attend. If so, the company may ask them to participate in certain presentations or events at those shows, said Kim Shoemaker, vice president of field marketing and loyalty for the company.
“We want to make sure [attendees] are hearing from people who are in the classroom using our product, not necessarily from us,” she said. “So we try to get authentic folks who champion our products to come to these events and speak on our behalf.”
Depending on the conference and the target audience, different educators may be called upon to participate in specific presentations or join the team’s advocacy group, said Linda Germain, vice president of marketing operations at Renaissance Learning.
Ultimately, it’s about providing something meaningful and memorable for attendees so that they come away with an understanding of what Renaissance could deliver to their schools and students, she said.
“You want to be the booth that when the educator walks away, they’re telling their five friends, ‘You have to go talk to them and see what they’re doing,’” Germain said. “That’s the moment you want to have – that you’ve engaged folks enough they they’re sending other people your way.”
Takeaway: When trying to impress K-12 officials at conferences, education companies would be wise to focus on a few strategies.
One takeaway is that district and school leaders, in particular, value presentations given about how to use products, particularly when those sessions are delivered by fellow K-12 administrators. Sessions focused on how to use products, and about new products, also tend to be viewed positively.
If a company’s target audience at conferences is teachers, classroom educators, like administrators, place especially high value on how-to product sessions. That suggests those types of presentations should be a big area of companies’ focus at trade shows.
The EdWeek Market Brief survey also shows differences in who administrators and educators want to hear from at conferences.
Both sets of respondents are especially receptive to current teachers who are using a product. But classroom educators are much less interested in hearing from school and district administrators as conference ambassadors for products.
The results suggest that arranging to have current customers in districts and schools talk about their experience with a company’s tools can be a differentiator at a trade show — as can practical, how-to sessions.