How to Succeed in the U.S. Education Market Wednesday June 26 2013 Enterprise Ireland Offices, Eastpoint, Dublin 3 08:30 Registration & Breakfast 09:00 Welcome and Opening Session Adam Newman, co-founder of Education Growth Advisors will frame the seminar by providing key insights on the current state of play in the U.S. education market; including major opportunities, influential trends and common challenges. 10:10 Entering a changing US Education market: an Irish company’s perspective and recent experience. David Collery, CEO, CCKF 10:40 Learnovate Centre: Driving innovation for the Irish edtech industry Dr Martyn Farrows, Director, Learnovate Centre 11:00 Coffee and Networking 11:30 Parallel Breakout Sessions • Selling to the U.S. Higher Education Market, Part 1 Farimah Schuerman, Founding Partner, Academic Business Advisors • Selling to the Early Education and K-12 Markets, Part 1 Glen McCandless, Founder and President, Focus Marketing 13:00 Light Lunch 14:00 Parallel Breakout Sessions • Selling to the U.S. Higher Education Market, Part 2 Farimah Schuerman, Founding Partner, Academic Business Advisors • Selling to the Early Education and K-12 Markets, Part 2 Glen McCandless, Founder and President, Focus Marketing 15:30 Coffee Break 15:45 General Session: Navigating the Edtech VC Funding Landscape Adam Newman, Co-Founder and Managing Director, Education Growth Advisors 17:00 Networking Reception and Irish Edtech Idol Join us for a fun – and informative – closing session as volunteers from several participating companies “sell” their offerings. These short pitches will be evaluated by a panel of judges – including all summit speakers. After each presentation, judges will provide valuable feedback and suggestions. See Speaker Biographies Below SPEAKER BIO’S _____________________________________________________________________ ADAM NEWMAN Founding Partner Education Growth Advisors www.edgrowthadvisors.com Adam Newman is a founding partner of Education Growth Advisors, a strategy consulting and advisory firm and investment bank focused exclusively on the education sector. Education Growth Advisors delivers strategy and operational advisory services with an emphasis on accelerating growth, enhancing core business functions and preparing clients for capital market activity. Clients include senior executives from leading and emergent companies, organizations serving the pre-K-12 and post-secondary markets and professional and lifelong learning sectors, as well as investment firms and foundations. Adam has more than 15 years of experience in consulting and market research, management, banking, and teaching across all segments of the education sector. Prior to the founding of Education Growth Advisors, Adam was a director at Berkery, Noyes & Co., a leading investment bank. In this role, Adam originated the firm’s strategic advisory practice for education companies and investors, supported the Education and Training Practice’s transactional activities, and launched the Education Growth Summit, an annual event convening the most dynamic and innovative early-stage companies and entrepreneurs across the preK-12, post-secondary, corporate training, and consumer markets. Adam also served as a managing vice president at Eduventures, Inc. and taught middle school and high school English in Boston and New Orleans. _____________________________________________________________________ DAVID COLLERY CEO CCKF www.cckf-it.com David Collery graduated from University College Dublin in 1971 with a B.Sc., and Higher Diploma in Education. He spent 14 years teaching Mathematics in deprived inner city Dublin schools, and with a passionate belief in the natural ability and right of any student to learn, irrespective of background, led his students to attain the highest academic standards. In the mid seventies he was one of the first graduates of the then highly innovative Diploma in Computing in Education from Trinity College Dublin, and is a true pioneer of school-based computer learning courses. He founded CCM Software in 1986 and led the company to develop and market a school & college administrative and scheduling system that is still used by all of the schools in Ireland, schools in the UK, as well as universities and colleges in the UK and Far East. He led the sale of CCM software to Serco Plc in 2002. Returning to his roots in teaching and learning, in 2007 he co-founded CCKF on the belief that intelligent, adaptive systems will provide the engine to power the delivery of personalized learning and has led its development to date. David provides the dynamism and imagination to envisage the new learning paradigm and has led CCKF through two rounds and funding and a highly successful implementation at a major US education provider. An autodidact, speaking a number of languages, he is strongly of the view that learning is within reach of each individual and that “There is no number, no mark; there is only a continuously changing belief in the capacity of the individual” _____________________________________________________________________ FARIMAH SCHUERMAN Founding Partner Academic Business Advisors www.academicbiz.com Farimah is a founding partner of Academic Business Advisors, a consultancy begun in 2005 that focuses on helping companies grow, scale, and successfully sell to the U.S. education market. Academic Business Advisors works with a widely diverse range of organizations – from start ups to Fortune 500 companies. Clients include Citigroup, Dow Jones Education Group, Kaplan Education, Limgo Media, SmartThinking, and Symbaloo. Prior to the formation of Academic Business Advisors, Farimah was an independent consultant and specialized in helping companies with product strategy, acquisitions and sales, and the formation of strategic relationships with powerhouses such as with companies such as The New York Times, Apple Computer, IBM, and Pioneer New Media. She also served as the executive marketing manager at Pearson Education Distance Learning, where she was instrumental in moving Pearson to the forefront of online education. Farimah brings to clients a wealth of experience in education technology. She offers market analysis, product development guidance, sales strategy, and market planning for K-12, college, and for-profit higher education. She is on the board of directors for ClassLink Technologies and the editorial board of Learning Times, is a senior fellow at the Center for Digital Education, and co- chairs the Higher Education Board of the Education Division of the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA). _____________________________________________________________________ GLENN MCCANDLESS President Focus Marketing www.educationmarketexperts.com Glen is the founder and president of Focus Marketing, which provides strategic planning, channel development, and marketing services to managers of companies seeking to build sales and profits in the U.S. education markets. Glen has more than 25 years of experience marketing and selling instructional technology and the digital transformation of teaching and learning. Prior to his consulting career, he held executive positions in education sales, marketing and channel development for Apple. He also led sales and marketing for an educational technology start up and was instrumental in its highly successful IPO. McCandless also serves as the leader and sponsor of SellingToSchools.com, an online community established in 1998 that caters to thousands of sales and marketing professionals who work in the educational technology market. Glen also hosts STS Radio (www.blogtalkradio.com/sellingtoschools) and the STS LinkedIn group. Glen is a member of the Educational Writer’s Association, the Association of Educational Publishers and the Software, and Information Industry Association’s Education Division. He also served on the faculty for New York University’s executive course on digital publishing and e-learning. He is a frequent contributor to publications such as Software Publisher/Developer, Syllabus, EduTech Report, CAUSE/Effect, Community College Week and About-Campus, and Education Channel Partner and a contributing author for The Expert’s Guide to the K-12 School Market. DR MARTYN FARROWS Director Learnovate Centre www.learnovatecentre.org Martyn brings over 15 years’ experience in learning technologies to the role of Director at the Learnovate Centre. He has successfully delivered a wide variety of research and product development projects and has been engaged as an expert consultant to government agencies and departments on the use and deployment of technology-enhanced learning. More recently, Martyn cofounded a network of web-based authoring tools and implemented a new digital content strategy for one of Ireland’s leading education publishers. _____________________________________________________________________ About Enterprise Ireland: Enterprise Ireland is the government organisation responsible for the development and growth of Irish enterprises in world markets. We work in partnership with Irish enterprises to help them start, grow, innovate and win export sales on global markets. In this way, we support sustainable economic growth, regional development and secure employment. We have three offices in the Unites States located in New York, Boston and Mountain view. For more information visit enterprise-ireland.com _____________________________________________________________________