Educational Technology Strategy for Sydney

Greetings from the Fishburners Co-working Space in Sydney, where SydEduTech is drafting a strategy to make Sydney a world leader in educational technology.

The one page SydEduTech draft Strategic Plan 2015 – 2020, which was distributed before the workshop had:

2020 Outcomes

• A leading global edutech hub
• Vibrant and sustainable ecosystem
• Supporting a portfolio of successful edutech companies
• Broad and engaged community support base
• High awareness of edutech

2020 Targets

• Independent experts agree Sydney is a leader
  Net importer of edutech companies
• Active entrepreneurs and investors
• 600 edutech companies
  45 edutech companies > $10 million
  7 edutech companies > $100 million
  Increase in education exports and GNP
  Jobs creation
  Social Good
• Over 3000 members
• Increased awareness in general community

Strategic Investments

• Online Presence

• Value Add Events

• Ecosystem Re-investment

• Facilitate International Activities

• Partner with Leading Organisations

• Execution Resources

• Create Funnel of Potential

• Engage Wider Community

The one thing which I think Sydney could do to make itself a globally recognized center for educational technology was to have events which are visible on-line. The idea is that when looking for educational technology products and services online, a search will come up with Sydney events on the topic and the searcher will say "It is all happening in Sydney".

One idea raised was to have one big annual event in Sydney. Another was for a hacker-thon event (this weekend is a "Masters of Code Competition" in Sydney).

I joined the table brainstorming how to "Facilitate International Activities". It turned out another participant was part of a startup teaching English to school students in China using computer games.  

A few months ago I was visiting Vancouver for a conference and searched for other education events on there and people to visit. With a little effort I found found plenty to do.

I hope to take a copy of the finalized strategy and change "Sydney" to Canberra". ;-)