Building an Innovation Precinct

Education is changing!  That’s a simple statement which hides the real driver: innovation of education for students, learners, educators, institutions, employers and economies – globally. 

Around the world there are thousands of education conferences and summits.  With more than 10,000 visitors and 100s of companies exhibiting, EduTECH is Australia’s leading education exhibition and sits comfortably amongst the world’s best. 

In 2019 EduGrowth completely reimagined the startup space at EduTECH with the support of our partners – Global Victoria, AWS EdStart, Brightpath, DeakinCo and Navitas Ventures.   

Our goal was simple.  Build a space on the trade floor that showcased education innovation.  

We achieve that and more!

We created the Innovation Precinct that profiled leading Australian EdTech Startups, brought education thought-leaders to the trade-floor and showcased innovation with a multi-day, multi-heat pitch competition connected to a global final in the USA.

Innovation Precinct included – 

  • Innovation Alley featured a community of 35 startups 
  • Innovation Stage hosted 31 speakers and provided 11 sessions of leading Australian education and EdTech thought leadership
  • Innovation Pitch saw 27 founders in a multi-day, multi-round pitch competition, with the finals being showcased on the expo main stage and the winner travelling to the USA and the largest EdTech business plan competition globally. 

I can’t list everyone that made Innovation Precinct possible.  But I need to thank all the startups, the speakers, the partners, the EduTECH team and most importantly the EduGrowth team that worked tirelessly for months to make this all happen.  

Watch this space in 2020! 

Read more about the event and how our community is promoting and accelerating Australian innovation.

EduGrowth's Innovation Alley

Learn more about Innovation Alley and listen to the experiences of some of the startups exhibiting.

Innovation Alley Pitch Competition

EdTech founders each had just three minutes to articulate their innovations, engage the audience and answer questions from the judging panel. 

Thought Leadership

The challenge of change

David Linke from EduGrowth, Amanda Pickrell from the Victorian Government and Glenn Campbell from DeakinCo. shed some light on the changing nature of technology and innovation in Australia’s higher ed sector.

Embracing soft skills

Soft skills from employees and great cultures set by employers, are the future of the workplace as we enter the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

A way forward for edtech

‘Education technology is not new, but it could have played a bigger role than it has’. Tim Praill, Head of Navitas Ventures, talks about the challenges for education into the future and the role EdTech can play. 

A digital future for higher-ed

Wes Sonnenreich, Grainne Oates, Glenn Campbell. and Dror Ben-Naim discussed the future of higher education learning and what that means for the traditional university campus.

The OS student experience

Innovation in the EdTech space is offering higher ed the opportunity to disrupt the current international student recruitment model and remain competitive into the future.

Innovation in assessment

There’s more to what goes on in a classroom than is shown through standardised testing. Technological innovations could give both teachers and parents a more holistic view of a child’s progress.

Social justice at the core

Investors are looking for EdTech innovations with a defined purpose, and a goal set on improving the education of students according to Tim Praill, Joshua Nester, Karen Bohm, Clive Mayhew and Srdjan Dangubic.

New generation of cloud learners

AWS, RMIT University and Skoolbag were invited to share their expertise and discuss the benefits the cloud has had in helping their organisations improve educational tools and adapt, in an ever-changing market-place.