August saw another engaging and insightful edition of Melbourne EdTech Week (MEW), during which sector leaders from across the nation converged on Melbourne to discuss, debate, and showcase how EdTech is at the heart of the innovation the education sector seeks.

Our mission was to showcase members and drive collaboration by breaking down the barriers between EdTech Entrepreneurs, Educators and Industry Stakeholders. EduGrowth hosted or co-hosted events drew more than 2,600 participants from across the sector.

• 29,000 social media impressions
• 2,600+ attendees 
• 59 sector leader speakers 
• 37 EdTech StartUp exhibitors
• 20 hours of live thought leadership content 
• 18 StartUps participating in the Shark Tank Pitch Competition

MEW launched with Innovation Alley @ EduTech on 13-14 August at the Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre.

In 2018 we designed Innovation Alley to ensure that Australian EdTech StartUps are front and centre at EduTech. Innovation Alley is a community of innovators; Australian StartUps with innovative education products helping to solve problems facing educators, students, parents and faculty, domestically and internationally. 

This year we facilitated 37 of Australia’s amazing EdTech StartUps to exhibit, showcase their solution, be part of the action and connect face-to-face with fellow entrepreneurs, education leaders and potential partners.

We also had our Innovation Stage, a 2-day program of true education thought leadership on the trade floor with speakers such as Ralph Saubern, Sandra Milligan, Alan Duffy, Andrew Smith and Elissa Mckenzie plus many more.

In partnership with the Australia India Institute and International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore, we closed out the Australia India ‘InnovEd Series’ on 15 August by facilitating the ‘Building Evidence and Measuring Impact of Online and Hybrid Learning’ Roundtable.

The roundtable provided an opportunity to examine the data and evidence supporting digital education in Australia and India with diverse perspectives shared by academia, government, and industry representatives greatly contributing to the discussions on best practices for integrating and implementing e-learning.

We closed out MEW with Australia’s premier EdTech Summit at Monash College on 19 August where over 400 of Australia’s Education and EdTech leaders came together under one roof either in person or virtually to share their insights and expertise for how the sector can deliver Education at Scale.

Across 12 sessions and 27 speakers, we heard from the likes of Alan Finkel, Linda Brown Mat Tinkler and Cherie Diaz deliver thought-provoking sessions covering topics such as the role of equity within innovation; EdTech enabling new engagement models and how EdTech is delivering education at scale.

The Summit attracted a wide range of delegates from across the sector with the following breakdown:

Outside of these main programs EduGrowth also participated in other events including:

• Melbourne ASK4AI Summit – Technology panel
• Education Innovation Leaders Private Briefing
• Delegation meetings with representatives from the UK, Korea and New Zealand.

We’d also like to acknowledge and congratulate other events that took place during MEW including Ask4Ai, ReimaginED, Education Quality, D2L Summit and CanvasCON.

We must acknowledge the support from our amazing Melbourne EdTech Week Partners; Study Melbourne, Monash College and Study NSW – we thank each one of them for their continued support of the Australian EdTech sector and for enabling our programs to be delivered.

To every speaker who took to the EduGrowth stages, thank you for not only donating your time on the day but also countless hours in prep work you did with the EduGrowth team beforehand.

Finally, to our members, you are the core reason EduGrowth exists and we sincerely thank you for your active participation and support of Melbourne EdTech Week.