For seven years in a row Europe's largest conference on new education technologies
gathers the brightest stars in education and EdTech industry from all over the world.
Every year, we invite more than
300 experts, who set the agenda for global education.
Neuroendocrinologist, Professor of biology and neurology at Stanford University, USA
As a boy in New York City, Robert Sapolsky dreamed of living inside the African dioramas in the Museum of Natural History. By the age of twenty-one, he made it to Africa and joined a troop of baboons. Although the life of a naturalist appealed to him because it was a chance to “get the hell out of Brooklyn,” he never really left people behind.
In fact, he chose to live with the baboons because they are perfect for learning about stress and stress-related diseases in humans. Like their human cousins, baboons live in large, complex social groups and have lots of time, Dr. Sapolsky writes, “to devote to being rotten to each other.” Just like stressed-out people, stressed-out baboons have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and hardened arteries. And just like people, baboons are good material for stories. His gift for storytelling led The New York Times to suggest, “If you crossed Jane Goodall with a borscht-belt comedian, she might have written a book like A Primate’s Memoir,” Dr. Sapolsky’s account of his early years as a field biologist.
The uniqueness of Sapolsky’s perspective on the human condition comes from the ease with which he combines his insights from the field with his findings as a neuroscientist. For more than thirty years Sapolsky has divided his time between field work with baboons and highly technical neurological research in the laboratory. As a result, he can effortlessly move from a discussion of pecking orders in primate societies (human and baboon) to an explanation of how neurotransmitters work during stress — and get laughs doing it.
The problem for people, as Dr. Sapolsky explains in his book Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers, is that our bodies’ stress response evolved to help us get out of short-term physical emergencies — if a lion is chasing you, you run. But such reactions, he points out, compromise long-term physical health in favor of immediate self-preservation. Unfortunately, when confronted with purely psychological stressors, such as troubleshooting the fax machine, modern humans turn on the same stress response. “If you turn it on for too long,” notes Sapolsky, “you get sick.” Sapolsky regards this sobering news with characteristic good humor, finding hope in “our own capacity to prevent some of these problems…in the small steps with which we live our everyday lives.”
In addition to A Primate’s Memoir, which won the 2001 Bay Area Book Reviewers Award in nonfiction, Robert Sapolsky has written The Trouble with Testosterone, Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers, and Monkeyluv and Other Essays on our Lives as Animals. His most recent book, Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst, is a Washington Post Best Book of 2017, and also received the Los Angeles Times book prize. Dr. Sapolsky was awarded Rockefeller University’s Lewis Thomas Prize for Writing about Science for 2008. His articles have appeared in publications such as Discover, The Los Angeles Times, The New Yorker, and The Wall Street Journal.
Dr. Sapolsky is a MacArthur “Genius” Fellow, a professor of biology and neurology at Stanford University, and a research associate with the Institute of Primate Research at the National Museum of Kenya. In 2008, National Geographic & PBS aired an hour-long special on stress featuring Dr. Sapolsky and his research on the subject. The humor and humanity he brings to sometimes-sobering subject matter make Dr. Sapolsky a fascinating speaker. He lectures widely on topics as diverse as stress and stress-related diseases, baboons, the biology of our individuality, the biology of religious belief, the biology of memory, schizophrenia, depression, aggression, and Alzheimer’s disease.
“One of the finest natural history writers around.” – The New York Times.
Co-founder and CEO of Summit Public Schools, USA
Diane Tavenner is the co-founder and CEO of Summit Public Schools, an internationally-recognized nonprofit that operates public middle and high schools in the US.
She developed a school model centered on real-world experiences, self-direction, collaboration and reflection - preparing all students to succeed in college, thrive in today's workplace, and lead a secure and fulfilled life. Summit has earned many accolades and distinctions, most notably America's Best High Schools from US News and World Report, America's Most Challenging High Schools by the Washington Post and one of the world's Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Education from Fast Company.
Diane is on the board of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Transcend Education, TLP Education, the Pahara Institute and the Minerva Institute.
Prior to Summit, Diane spent ten years as a teacher, administrator, and leader in traditional public schools. She has a degree in psychology and sociology from the University of Southern California and an MA in administration and policy from Stanford University.
Diane is also the author of Prepared: What Kids Need for a Fulfilled Life. Prepared has been featured on “Good Morning America,” named a bestseller by Amazon and the Los Angeles Times, and recommended by Bill Gates as one of his top books of 2019. All author net proceeds from the sale of Prepared will be donated to the Community High School Foundation to support a college and career scholarship fund.
Diane co-hosts the Class Disrupted podcast with Michael Horn.
Founder of Khan Academy, USA
Sal Khan is the founder and CEO of Khan Academy, a nonprofit educational organization that offers free lessons in math, sciences and humanities in multiple languages, as well as free tools for parents and teachers to track student progress.
Director for Education and Skills at the OECD, Head of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), France
Andreas initiated and oversees the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and other international instruments that have created a global platform for policy-makers, researchers and educators across nations and cultures to innovate and transform educational policies and practices.
He has worked for over 20 years with ministers and education leaders around the world to improve quality and equity in education. Former U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said that Schleicher “understands the global issues and challenges as well as or better than anyone I’ve met, and he tells me the truth” (The Atlantic, July 11). Former UK Secretary of State Michael Gove called Schleicher “the most important man in English education” – even though he is German and lives in France.
Before joining the OECD, he was Director for Analysis at the International Association for Educational Achievement (IEA). He studied Physics in Germany and received a degree in Mathematics and Statistics in Australia. He is the recipient of numerous honours and awards, including the “Theodor Heuss” prize, awarded in the name of the first president of the Federal Republic of Germany for “exemplary democratic engagement”. He holds an honorary Professorship at the University of Heidelberg.
Internationally recognized thought-leader and author of bestselling book «Finnish Lessons 3.0: What can the world learn from educational change in Finland», Professor at University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia
Pasi Salberg is an education specialist. He works as a teacher, teacher mentor, researcher and education policy advisor in Finland, as well as studying education systems, analyzing education policies and helping design education reforms around the world.
In 2013, his book Finnish Lessons 2.0: What Can the World Learn from Educational Change in Finland won the Grawemeyer Prize for an Idea That Can Change the World. In addition, he received an Education Award in Finland in 2012, the Robert Owen Award in Scotland in 2014, the Lego Award in 2016, and the 2017 Bellagio Resident Fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation.
Previously, Pasi Salberg worked as Chief Education Officer at the World Bank, Leading Education Expert at the European Education Foundation, Director General of the Finnish Ministry of Education, and Visiting Professor of Practice at Harvard University. He chairs the Education Board of the Open Society Foundations, serves on the Governing Board of the University of Oulu and the International College of Educational Advisers (ICEA) of the Scottish government.
His most recent books include Finnish Lessons 3.0: What Can the World Learn from Educational Change in Finland, Hard Questions on Global Educational Change. in education), “Empowered Educators in Finland” and “FinnishED Leadership: Four Big, Inexpensive Ideas to Transform Education” (Leadership in Finnish: four grand and inexpensive ideas for changing education).
Pasi Salberg currently teaches at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia.
Founder of Josh Bersin Academy, USA
Josh Bersin is an analyst, author, educator, and thought leader focusing on the global talent market and the challenges and trends impacting business workforces around the world. He studies the world of work, HR and leadership practices, and the broad talent technology market. He is often cited as one of the leading HR and workplace industry analysts in the world.
He founded Bersin & Associates in 2001 to provide research and advisory services focused on corporate learning. Over the next ten years, he expanded the company’s coverage to encompass HR, talent management, talent acquisition, and leadership and became a recognized expert in the talent market. He sold the company to Deloitte in 2012, when it became known as Bersin™ by Deloitte. He continues to serve as a senior advisor to Deloitte, advising large organizations and contributing to major research initiatives. He also sits on the board of UC Berkeley Executive Education.
Bersin is frequently featured in talent and business publications such as Forbes, Harvard Business Review, HR Executive, FastCompany, The Wall Street Journal, and CLO Magazine. He is a regular keynote speaker at industry events and a popular blogger with more than 700,000 followers on LinkedIn.
Prior to founding Bersin & Associates, Josh spent 25 years in product development, product management, marketing, and sales of e-learning and other enterprise technologies. His education includes a BS in engineering from Cornell University, an MS in engineering from Stanford University, and an MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of two books, The Blended Learning Handbook and The Training Measurement Book, along with dozens of studies on corporate HR, learning, and talent technologies. He currently has a third book under contract with Harvard Business Publishing.
CEO of edX, USA
Anant Agarwal is the CEO of edX, an online learning destination founded by Harvard and MIT. Anant taught the first edX course on circuits and electronics from MIT, which drew 155,000 students from 162 countries. He has served as the director of CSAIL, MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, and is a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT. He is a successful serial entrepreneur, having co-founded several companies including Tilera Corporation, which created the Tile multicore processor, and Virtual Machine Works.
Anant won the Maurice Wilkes prize for computer architecture, and MIT's Smullin and Jamieson prizes for teaching. He is also the 2016 recipient of the Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize for Higher Education, which recognized his work in advancing the MOOC movement. Additionally, he is a recipient of the Padma Shri award from the President of India. He holds a Guinness World Record for the largest microphone array, and is an author of the textbook "Foundations of Analog and Digital Electronic Circuits."
Scientific American selected his work on organic computing as one of 10 World- Changing Ideas in 2011, and he was named in Forbes' list of top 15 education innovators in 2012. Anant, a pioneer in computer architecture, is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a fellow of the ACM.
He hacks on WebSim, an online circuits laboratory, in his spare time. Anant holds a Ph.D. from Stanford and a bachelor's from IIT Madras.
Vice President of Worldwide Education at Microsoft, USA
In his role leading the worldwide execution of Microsoft’s vision for education, Anthony Salcito aims to transform the way we learn with the support of the best technology to help build critical skills for the modern, global workplace.
Prior to taking current role in 2009, Salcito was general manager of education in the United States, supporting schools and universities across the country. During this time, he helped launch the company’s cornerstone education programs. He was also at the center of Microsoft’s involvement in the creation of the School of the Future – a pioneering partnership with the School District of Philadelphia and now the first of many Microsoft Showcase Schools around the world.
Salcito joined Microsoft in 1992, spending his early years at the company architecting high profile product launches for Windows NT and Windows 95.
Founder of the Center for Curriculum Redesign at Harvard's Graduate School of Education, USA
Charles Fadel is a global education thought leader and author, futurist and inventor; founder and chairman of Center for Curriculum Redesign; visiting scholar Harvard GSE; member President’s Council at Olin College of Engineering; chair education committee at BIAC/OECD; co-author of “Artificial Intelligence in Education”; “Four-Dimensional Education”, “21st Century Skills”; founder Fondation Helvetica Education (Switzerland).
Worked with education systems and institutions in more than 30 countries. Spent 25 years in technology management; formerly Global Education Lead at Cisco Systems, visiting scholar at MIT ESG and Wharton/Penn CLO, angel investor with Beacon Angels. BSEE, MBA, seven patents.
Professor of Engineering at Oakland University, USA
Barbara Oakley, PhD, PE is a Professor of Engineering at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan; Michigan’s Distinguished Professor of the Year; and Coursera’s inaugural “Innovation Instructor.”
Teaches the world’s largest MOOC, Learning How to Learn, through Coursera-UCSD, with over two million registered students. Her work focuses on the complex relationship between neuroscience and social behavior.
Dr. Oakley’s research has been described as “revolutionary” in the Wall Street Journal. She is a New York Times best-selling author who has published in outlets as varied as the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times.
Founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media, Inc., USA
Tim O’Reilly is the founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media, Inc. His original business plan was simply “interesting work for interesting people,” and that’s worked out pretty well. O’Reilly Media delivers online learning, publishes books, runs conferences, urges companies to create more value than they capture, and tries to change the world by spreading and amplifying the knowledge of innovators.
Tim has a history of convening conversations that reshape the computer industry. In 1998, he organized the meeting where the term “open source software” was agreed on, and helped the business world understand its importance. In 2004, with the Web 2.0 Summit, he defined how “Web 2.0” represented not only the resurgence of the web after the dot com bust, but a new model for the computer industry, based on big data, collective intelligence, and the internet as a platform. In 2009, with his “Gov 2.0 Summit,” he framed a conversation about the modernization of government technology that has shaped policy and spawned initiatives at the Federal, State, and local level, and around the world. He has now turned his attention to implications of AI, the on-demand economy, and other technologies that are transforming the nature of work and the future shape of the business world. This is the subject of his new book from Harper Business, WTF: What’s the Future and Why It’s Up to Us.
In addition to his role at O’Reilly Media, Tim is a partner at early stage venture firm O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures (OATV) and on the boards of Maker Media (which was spun out from O’Reilly Media in 2012), Code for America, PeerJ, Civis Analytics, and PopVox.
President at the International Artificial Intelligence in Education Society (IAIED), UK
Rosemary (Rose) Luckin is Professor of Learner Centred Design at UCL Knowledge Lab. Rose’s research involves the design and evaluation of educational technology using theories from the learning sciences and techniques from Artificial Intelligence. She has a particular interest in how AI techniques can be used to enable more effective, continuous, formative assessment processes and tools.
Her 2018 book: Machine Learning and Human Intelligence: The Future of Education for the 21st Century describes how we can best benefit from using AI to support teaching and learning, and how the prevalence of AI in our future means that we need to revise what and how we teach and learn now. She has also published numerous academic articles, authored two monographs and edited two paper collections.
Rose is also Director of EDUCATE: a London hub for Educational Technology StartUps, researchers and educators to work together on the development of evidence-informed Educational Technology; Specialist Adviser to the UK House of Commons Education Select Committee for their inquiry into the Fourth Industrial Revolution, Co-founder of the Institute for Ethical AI in Education; President-elect of the International Society for AI in Education; a member of the UK Office for Students Horizon Scanning panel, adviser to the AI and Robotics panel of the Topol review into the future of the NHS workforce; a member of the European AI Alliance, holder of an International Franqui Chair at KU Leuven.
Rose was named as one of the 20 most influential people in Education on the Seldon List 2017.
Founder, Chairman and CEO of Minerva Project, USA
Ben Nelson is Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Minerva, and a visionary with a passion to reinvent higher education. Prior to Minerva, Nelson spent more than 10 years at Snapfish, where he helped build the company from startup to the world’s largest personal publishing service. With over 42 million transactions across 22 countries, nearly five times greater than its closest competitor, Snapfish is among the top e-commerce services in the world. Serving as CEO from 2005 through 2010, Nelson began his tenure at Snapfish by leading the company’s sale to Hewlett Packard for $300 million.
Prior to joining Snapfish, Nelson was President and CEO of Community Ventures, a network of locally branded portals for American communities.
Nelson’s passion for reforming undergraduate education was first sparked at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, where he received a B.S. in Economics. After creating a blueprint for curricular reform in his first year of school, Nelson went on to become the chair of the Student Committee on Undergraduate Education (SCUE), a pedagogical think tank that is the oldest and only non-elected student government body at the University of Pennsylvania.
Professor of Educational Technology at the School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences at Newcastle University, UK
Sugata Mitra is a world-renowned educational researcher, the winner of the 2013 TED Prize, a professor of educational technology at Newcastle University, UK and previously a visiting professor at MIT in the US.
Sugata became famous in the 90s for a "hole-in-the-wall" experiment. He installed an Internet-connected PC in one of the poorest neighborhoods in India. The aim of the experiment was to analyze self-organized learning.
Sugata created the School in the Cloud project – a learning lab where children can explore and teach one another, using resources from the worldwide cloud.
CEO of ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education), USA
Richard Culatta, chief executive officer, brings vast experience in education policy, teacher preparation, educational technology and innovation to his role with ISTE.
Culatta is a longtime ISTE member and a past recipient of the ISTE Making IT Happen Award.
Prior to joining ISTE, Culatta served as the chief innovation officer for the state of Rhode Island. In this role, he focused on developing partnerships to improve opportunities for students, including launching a program to make Rhode Island the first state to offer computer science in every K-12 school and creating a state vision for personalized learning.
As the director of the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Educational Technology, Culatta was at the helm of numerous efforts to expand connectivity to schools across the country, promote personalized learning and develop the National Education Technology Plan. He also pioneered new ways for the department to engage with educators and tech developers.
Prior to his role with the Department of Education, Culatta served as an education policy adviser to U.S. Sen. Patty Murray. He was also the learning technologies adviser for the David O. McKay School of Education at Brigham Young University where he redesigned the technology component of the teacher prep program. He also served as the director of operations for the Rose Education Foundation, which brought the first internet connections to schools in rural Guatemala.
Culatta began his career in the classroom as a high school teacher and, across his career, has coached educators and national leaders around the world on using technology as a tool to reimagine learning.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in Spanish teaching and a master's in educational psychology and technology, both from Brigham Young University.
President of Western Governors University (WGU), USA
Scott Pulsipher is a board member of the American Workforce Policy Advisory Board and the American Council on Education. He has served as president of Western Governors University since 2016. WGU is a non-profit online university.
It serves 120,000 students nationwide and aims to expand access to high quality and affordable higher education. WGU, founded by 19 governors in 1997, uses technology to give each student a customized online learning experience.
Before WGU, Pulsipher had more than 20 years of leadership experience in technology-based, including his work as the general manager of Amazon Webstore.
Co-Founder of Coursera, USA
Daphne Koller is an Israeli-American computer scientist, a professor in the Department of Computer Science at Stanford University, a MacArthur Fellowship recipient and one of the founders of Coursera. Her general research area is artificial intelligence and its applications in the biomedical sciences. She has been a member of the National Academy of Engineering since 2011 and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 2014.
Daphne grew up with her parents: her mother was an English teacher and her father was a botanist. In 1981, at the age of 12, she spent a year at Stanford University with her father. There she began programming on a Radio Shack PC. Upon returning to Israel, Daphne told her father that school was boring for her and she wanted to do something more interesting at the university. Six months later she managed to convince her father and began to study computer science and mathematics at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
At the age of 17 she received a bachelor’s degree and started teaching at the same university. Next year she received her master's degree and then was called up for military service in Israel. She completed her PhD at Stanford in 1993 under the supervision of Joseph Halpern and did postdoctoral research at University of California, Berkeley from 1993 to 1995. In 1995 Daphne joined the faculty of the Stanford University Computer Science Department.
In February 2004 Koller was featured in an article by MIT Technology Review titled "10 Emerging Technologies That Will Change Your World" concerning the topic of Bayesian machine learning. She was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2004. In 2008, Koller was awarded the first ever $150,000 ACM-Infosys Foundation Award. In 2009, she published a textbook on probabilistic graphical models together with Nir Friedman. She made a free online course on the subject on Coursera in February 2012.
She and Andrew Ng launched Coursera in 2012.
CEO of Burning Glass Technologies, USA
Matt Sigelman is CEO of Burning Glass Technologies, a leading labor market analytics firm. For more than a decade, he has led Burning Glass in harnessing the power of data and artificial intelligence technologies that have cracked the genetic code of the job market.
Powered by the world’s largest and most sophisticated database of jobs and talent, Burning Glass delivers real-time data and breakthrough planning tools that inform careers, define academic programs, and shape workforces. Burning Glass has helped to fill millions of jobs and its data drive initiatives for more than a dozen state and national governments. Matt is consulted frequently by national media, by researchers, and the White House. He previously served with McKinsey&Company and Capital One.
He holds an A.B. from Princeton University and an M.B.A. from Harvard.
WHAT’S NEW AT
Last year EdCrunch was held online for the first time and brought together
14 000 participants and 500 speakers from 60 countries on its interactive platform.
EdCrunch 2021 is going even more global. For the first time in eight years, the conference will be held on three venues:
- Russia, Skolkovo
- Almaty, Kazakhstan
Skolkovo innovation center is one of the most famous global science parks — a dream for many digital enthusiasts.
Guests of the Innovation Center will have a wonderful opportunity to experience the atmosphere in which hundreds of startups known far beyond Russia were born, and a chance to meet their creators in person.
Being one of the most promising global EdTech clusters, Skolkovo is an ideal platform for experience sharing, networking and learning about new educational technologies and products.
Almaty is officially one of the most promising centers of digital and creative technology development — embrace this opportunity to personally witness the potential of this city, network with the brightest EdTech community members, open new markets and opportunities.
Kazakhstan is known as the bridge between Europe and Asia — get a chance to feel the mesmerizing effect of the blend of two cultures, which can be seen in every detail.
The venue for EdCrunch 2021 in Almaty will be announced soon.
- Blended format
LEARN ABOUT THE CONFERENCE
FROM OUR SPEAKERS
"I'm shocked with how interesting the environment is here. It is good to see how much excitement there is around creating great distance learning materials".
"I was impressed with the conference. The way you bring together higher education, school, and government authorities. Other conferences usually have one thing only. It is great that you unite all these people".
"The most fascinating thing that happens between sessions is communication with each other".
"The most interesting and exciting thing about EdCrunch is that it brings together people from all over the world. They are rooting for learning and creating a better future. Everyone has a great desire to explore what works, how to improve the situation".
"The people gathering at the EdCrunch conference help me understand how the Russian system of higher education works and how to build into it".
"You always come to the conference hoping that some interesting thought comes to your mind. If you have learned one new thing a day, it means that day was not in vain. So, today has not been wasted either".
"EdCrunch brings together people who think about what education will be like tomorrow. The social graph that emerges after each EdCrunch is the most important thing worth coming for".
"It's crazy awesome that international experts come to EdCrunch and you can just chit chat or have a coffee with them. The concentration of cool people per square meter is mind-blowing".
"An opportunity to sit down with someone and exchange impressions, whether it is a pure delight or a righteous indignation, a chance to go to lunch together. It is very important if you want to develop".
"Previously, the speaker used to ensure 95 % of the conference success. Now, it seems the rate is only 5-10 %. Rarely do people come to listen to someone's brilliant idea. Everybody comes to meet like-minded people".
"EdCrunch for me is an opportunity to see many people from very different fields of education, to feel their vibe and energy".
If you wish to become a partner with EdCrunch 2021, please email us and we will contact you to discuss the details.