OCS Conference Funding Submission

Event Photo:

EdTech Pals! (Featuring Maeve Holland and Marcia Hu)

Name: Daniel Gunton

Degree Program: MPA IN PUBLIC & NONPROFIT MANAGEMENT & POLICY

Specialization: PNP-Social Impact, Innovation & Investment

Conference Host Organization/Institution: started

Conference/Competition Name: EdTech Week

Conference Term: Fall Conference Start Date: 2024-10-08 Conference End Date: 2024-10-10

What were your takeaways from this conference/case competition?
A major takeaway from EdTech Week was that education is at a pivotal point. Many students feel disconnected from the "one-size-fits-all" approach of traditional education, and parents are increasingly seeking solutions tailored to their children’s unique needs. As a result, numerous EdTech companies are emerging to address different challenges—whether by creating more engaging curriculum for teachers, developing AI-assisted grading tools, or offering online tutoring programs. The conference had an energy of transformation, and I got the feeling that education 10 years from now might be unrecognizable from today.

How will your participation in this conference/case competition support your professional development?
The conference was an intense learning experience and my first exposure to a key part of impact investing: sourcing startups for NIIF. I attended to find promising education-focused ventures, and it taught me a lot about how conferences work, as well as the challenges faced in education by students, parents, teachers, and employers worried about workforce readiness. It also gave me a glimpse into what a career in impact investing might look like. Plus, the networking opportunities were great and felt more organic than other events—I left with around 30 new LinkedIn connections with people in different areas of education.

What are some next steps or action items this conference/case competition inspired?
In a literal sense after meeting with several founders my NIIF team organized several video calls to learn more about their companies as potential investments. But beyond that, Ive been inspired to attend more conferences over the next year, both as an avenue to learn and meet people in fields im interested in.

What are some tips or best practices that you would like to share with other Wagner students who attend a conference/case competition?
Read the full agenda before attending and if you are attending with a group that wants to achieve a certain outcome (like sourcing a company), make a strategy to achieve that outcome. For instance, we wanted to source a company so we made a google sheet of all the events of the agenda that sounded promising for meeting founders relevant to our thesis. We then all signed up for different events to spread out and increase our probability to meet relevant founders. We prepared a deal sourcing intake form to provide to founders if they were interested in next steps.

Wagner Areas of Impact: Education, Inequality, Race, and Poverty, Social Innovation