How to Succeed in the U.S. Education Market

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
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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.
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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”
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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).
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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.
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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
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