The WirED Marketer: The K-12 Events Edition. - 6/16/26

Hey there, Marketing Pals!

Two things.

Thing #1: This edition was taken over by two of my colleagues, Robyn and Emma. They’re event pros, both in the logistical and programming sense, and this one is all about events in K-12. You’re in for a treat.

Thing #2: I’m heading to ISTE+ASCD, and I have an idea.

I wanna host a little WirED Marketer (in real life!) meetup, and I’m hoping you’ll consider joining. Just a small group of readers together for cocktails—drinks on me—to commiserate about all the things outside our control (which is... a lot), swap ideas and meet other marketers in K-12. Seriously, no agenda. Just marketers hanging out. If this sounds interesting to you, hit reply. I’m thinking Tuesday after the exhibit hall closes. Place TBD. Fun guaranteed.

Enjoy this edition.

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Your WirED Marketer,

—Melissa, Senior Director, Marketing at Education Week

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P.S. — I’ll be skipping the next edition because of ISTE+ASCD. So, this one is supersized. 🍟

✨ In this edition you’ll find:

• Building community at your K-12 events
• Liquifying your event content
• Get your ROE (return on emotion) in events

What’s Trending: ✨

Programming that builds community

Our favorite thing to hear at one of our events is, “I needed this.”

In the AI/tech age, community building is invaluable—it’s something computers simply cannot do as well as humans! But more than that, it is a high stress time for K-12 educators and having a chance to vent, brainstorm, and get some affirmation is invaluable. We hear it all the time at our events—"It’s so good to know others are struggling with the same things,” “It’s great to get solution ideas from other educators,” and of course, “I really needed this!”
That’s music to our ears!

Here are some practical ways to add community building moments to your events:

• Prioritize networking breaks. Content is important, but you can read an article or listen to a podcast at any time. Time to chat and learn informally with their peers is an option your audience can only get at a gathering.
• Maximize interactivity. Workshop sessions, roundtables, break-out rooms with open discussions—these can all foster connections and community for your attendees.
• Use polling in virtual events. Something as simple as showing your virtual attendees that others watching are facing similar challenges can be affirming.

Storytelling

Events offer a great opportunity for K-12 leaders and educators to build an emotional connection to your brand through storytelling. A study of 2,000 B2B decision makers on the factors that influence B2B buying decisions* found that 56% of final purchasing decisions are based on emotional factors.* We’ve seen some education companies employ storytelling effectively during their industry perspective session at our in-person and virtual events for district leaders. The sessions that generate the most head nods, “amens,” and appreciative comments are the ones where a district leader speaks authentically about a real challenge they’ve faced and walks the audience through their journey (often including humorous detours) to find a solution.

Here are 3 storytelling techniques that you can use to increase the Return on Emotion (ROE)** of your events:

• Personal anecdotes: Utilize true stories from speakers’ own lives to introduce or illustrate a key point. They reinforce the human connection and build credibility.
• Concrete examples: Use specific illustrations to clarify abstract ideas. For example, instead of saying that a district was struggling with staff retention, say “they lost 20% of their teachers in one school year.” It packs a bigger punch and makes concepts easier to grasp.
• Brief vignettes: Integrate into presentations to help your audience picture a situation vividly, e.g., “Picture a packed school board meeting where parents are up in arms about declining test scores.” They can help set a tone, highlight a challenge, and create empathy.

*Quirks Media, Let’s get emotional!

** PCMA – Why You Should Pay More Attention to ROE

DO THIS: 👇

✨ Liquify your event content. “Liquid content” is the idea that content is not static, but can be adapted based on the viewer’s context, location, time or interaction. So, how can this be applied to K-12 events? Here are 3 ideas:

• Transform a research report into a live event. Convene a panel of K-12 leaders to share key findings from the research and analyze their implications for K-12 schools. Then break into groups based on the themes from the report and brainstorm action plans to address major challenges and network. Need help creating a compelling study? The EdWeek Research Center can help.
• Piggyback webinars and whitepapers on live events. Sometimes the conversations at in-person events are so rich that they spawn future events. After our recent State of Teaching Texas regional event in San Antonio, we offered a webinar on Effective Strategies to Lift and Sustain Teacher Morale: Lessons from Texas, and an accompanying whitepaper. Both were informed by the questions and issues surfaced by the in-person audience.
• Mine attendee feedback for future content. The comments offered by event attendees through polls and post-event surveys can offer a wealth of actionable intel if you ask the right questions. On your next post-event survey, ask attendees to share one key takeaway that they’ll bring back to their school or district. Aggregate the top responses into a listicle-style article that you share on your websites and social platforms.

✨ Nurture. Nurture. Nurture. Nurture the K-12 leaders and educators who register for your events by allowing them to submit questions in advance, surveying their interest in breakout room topics, and providing key logistical information, such as transportation information and packing tips. In addition to increasing pre-event engagement, these nurture campaigns will also reduce attrition, which is notoriously high for busy K-12 leaders and educators.

✨ Encourage team attendance. Group registrations are the holy grail for K-12 event organizers—there’s nothing better than a whole table of leaders from the same school district! Here are some strategies to encourage group attendance:

• Offer group discounts for registration.
• Build in opportunities for fun team bonding, like photo booths and selfie stations
• Look at past years’ lists to see which companies sent teams. Incentivize them to return as a group by offering things like special swag, a free downloadable of exclusive content, early access to the event agenda, etc. if they sign up to bring a group again.
• Speaking of attending events as a team, we’ve got a great group discount for the Fall EdWeek Market Brief Summit in Nashville! We hope to see many of you there with your teams.😉

✨ Make sure you’re listening to your audience—not just selling to them. Events are a great learning opportunity for your team. Keep your ear to the ground during workshop sessions and networking moments. Ask more questions and position yourself as a partner who cares—not someone who is just trying to sell them on something in the moment.

✨ Refine your post-event strategy. There’s a mentality among event planners: as soon as this year’s event ends, next year’s begins. Make sure you have a clear and robust post-event plan in place. This can include follow-ups beyond “Take our survey!” Send them some extra resources, proactively invite them to your next event, share photos and takeaways from the event they just attended. Here are some tips:

• Keep up with communication regularly. If you have an annual event, have a drip campaign running throughout the year to keep your event on your audience’s radar. If you run a lot of events, consider weekly or monthly promotional emails to feature multiple upcoming events as a way to avoid inbox fatigue.
• Spend time with your event data looking for trends over time, “power users” you can nurture a relationship with, identify any gaps in your audience reach, etc. If you use AI for this sort of task, remember not to upload your audience’s personal information! Be proactive about protecting their privacy and be cautious about which data fields you add to your prompts.

Events on Our Radar 🎯

The EdWeek Market Brief Summit
November 11-13, Nashville, TN

It’s THE in-person K-12 event of the year. But don’t take it from us, hear what past attendees have to say,

“The EdWeek Market Brief Summit is a cross section between education and the business of education, so many of our customers and other key people that we can interact with are here. We also get to hear real input from educators. We’re hearing from superintendents about what’s important to them and what challenges they have that helps us be a better partner to our customers.”

—Verlan Stephens Managing Partner, Agile Education Marketing

Register here.

ISTE+ASCD EdWeek Market Brief Briefings
Sessions will take place June 29-30 in meeting room #E15 in the expo hall, and you don’t have to be an EdWeek Market Brief member to get in on this!

Briefings include:

• Key Trends to Navigate a Hardened K-12 Market
• Peeking Behind the Curtain: Insights for K-12 Marketing and Sales
• Inside District RFPs: What Administrators Are Trying to Tell Companies
• Data-Driven + District-Ready: What You Need to Know about the CTE Market
• How to Meet District Expectations for Academic ROI 

Grab your spot. It’ll be a packed room.

Poll

What do you like most about attending events in K-12?
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Read This 📚

What Actually Gets Educators’ Attention at K-12 Conferences - Data from the EdWeek Research Center shows educators care most about peer credibility and practical, hands-on training when evaluating products and solutions. What they’re less impressed by? Social media buzz, executive meet-and-greets, and sponsored panels. 🤷‍♀️

The takeaway is pretty clear: substance wins. Every time.

Event Everything by Eventastic podcast. Bite sized practical tips in a digestible format—can’t beat that! Here are a couple of our recommended episodes:

• STOP Surveying the People Who Came Back - This is all about optimizing retention.
• What Makes an Event Community Stick – This episode digs into building community and how to make it impactful.

The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters by Priya Parker is a guide to creating more meaningful and effective gatherings by focusing on purpose, intentionality, and specific rules, rather than relying on routine.

Pop Quiz ⚡

Quiz Yourself: How Much Do You Know About Events and PD for K-12 Educators?

According to an EdWeek Research Center survey, which two types of PD were tied as the top educator needs nationally, each with 15% of teachers selecting them?

a. PD on classroom management and PD on technology integration
b. PD on AI and PD on motivating and engaging students
c. PD on content knowledge and PD on compliance
d. PD on state standards and PD on curriculum design

Meet the EdMarketer 🙋‍♀️

Caitlin Radish, Director of Field Marketing, Archer Review

Caitlin’s been in event marketing for over a decade, working mostly for K-12 companies and now in higher education. When she’s not planning the next conference or event, you can find her reading a good book, spending time outdoors with her family, or listening to a true crime podcast. 

What shifts are you seeing in how educators engage with vendors and brands, particularly at events? 
“We’re seeing better attendee engagement with experiential marketing at conferences. We used to take a more passive approach by giving out swag at conferences and having the customer approach us, but now we are focusing on targeted and outreach and more personalized experiences and microevents like coffee meetups between conference sessions, educator advisory boards and focus groups, customer appreciation dinners or breakfasts, small-group led dinners with industry experts and networking circles. We’ve also incorporated wellness events since conferences tend to happen at busy times of the year for educators and are themselves a busy experience. We also prioritize hands-on  learning conference sessions to highlight thought leadership. 

These types of curated experiences create space for authentic conversations and stronger connections than a quick booth interaction typically allows and often better tie back to our goals for the conference.”

What’s something you would like to see more of at events for educators? 
“I’d like to see a greater focus on meaningful engagement over transactional interactions. For years, many exhibitors—including organizations I’ve worked for—relied heavily on badge scans and raffle entries to drive booth traffic. While those tactics can increase volume, they don’t always create valuable connections and convert leads to pipeline or revenue. 

I’ve found that a more personalized approach leads to better outcomes for both attendees and vendors. Today, we proactively reach out to current customers before an event and encourage them to schedule time with their Customer Success Manager or sales team while they’re at the conference. This gives  attendees an opportunity to ask questions, explore new features, share feedback, and get personalized support in a face-to-face setting. 

We’ve also incorporated guided product demos and hands-on experiences into our booth strategy for prospective customers, including 1:1 conversations and small group presentations focused on hot topic issues educators are facing. And we run in-booth campaigns and activations that ask educators about issues they are facing and how our company and solutions can address their specific challenges and goals, as opposed to just hanging out information on a piece of marketing collateral with no context. 

In my experience, these interactions are far more valuable than a quick badge scan. Customers leave feeling supported and heard, and organizations benefit  from stronger relationships, increased product adoption, and more meaningful conversations.”

Say What?! 🦜

“We want to make sure [attendees] are hearing from people who are in the classroom using our product, not necessarily from us,” she said. “So we try to get authentic folks who champion our products to come to these events and speak on our behalf.”

—Kim Shoemaker, VP of Field Marketing and Loyalty for Renaissance Learning

Per EdWeek Market Brief, when the team at Renaissance Learning prepares for a conference, they usually tap into their Renaissance Educator Network, a group of educators who use the company’s products. Read more about their strategies here.

That’s all folks. Thanks for reading.

Your WirED Marketer,
Melissa AND team, because every marketer knows, it takes a village.

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