June 10-12 marked the completion of the Association of Education Publishers’ (AEP) 2009 Publishing in the World of Free Summit. AEP had their annual Education Summit and NSSEA partnered up with AEP to host their Capitol Hill Event: Competing Globally: Beyond Stale Debates to Learning Solutions. The event was held in the Gold Room in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill. Guest panelists included staff from the House of Representatives and the Senate. Attendees and guest speakers had plenty to say regarding President Obama’s reform ideas for education. One of the hot topics at this year’s Capitol Hill event was the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) re-authorization. The three-day summit included seminars that discussed a wide range of Educational publishing issues.
Some sessions focused on technology in Educational Publishing for example; 75 Ways to Use Social Networking Sites in Education Publishing was a popular session in which participants learned how to utilize social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, and etc. to increase business in the educational publishing industry. Studies show that there has been a 27% increase of social media site users from February 2005 to December 2008. Like it or not, social media is the future of marketing.
The guest speakers at this seminar included: Doug Kolmar from Beginner’s Mind, Andrew Pass from Pass-Ed and Lisa Schmucki from edWeb LLC . The presenters voiced that social media improves performance by enhancing knowledge, authenticity, and relevance to your product. They also mentioned that 47% of teachers are likely to use social media sites within the next year. Social media sites like Facebook can help those in the industry because they increase product sales, retention rates and can possibly close the gap between educators and industry partners. The presenters also suggested that companies and organizations who jump on board now, will have the clear advantage over their competitors.
Another popular session was The Economic Forecast for the Education Market. Chief Economist from the National Education Association (NEA), Dr. Richard Sims led the Q & A session; discussing the fiscal challenges confronting a 21st century economy for example; balancing taxes, school funding, and economic growth. Dr. Sims made it clear that the ability to be able to pay for educational materials is going to be difficult in the years to come. He also pointed out that an economy can not grow unless it has a good education system and an education system needs a working and thriving economy. The two work hand in hand. Education is the driver of any economy. Nations and states that have the best schools and those that spend the most money on education, will have the best economy.
For information about next year’s AEP 2010 Summit please visit http://www.aepweb.org/.
