Dear Friend of ISKME,

On behalf of the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME), I'd like to invite you to the inaugural Big Ideas Fest 2009, which will take place December 6-9, 2009 at the Ritz-Carlton in Half Moon Bay, California. This meeting of education stakeholders is the starting point for a movement that supports innovation in education at a time when the need to accelerate high-quality learning is truly essential for our country and our future.

Please join us alongside 250 other education innovators to be inspired, share knowledge, and transform “big ideas” into solutions that scale. The goal of this three-day gathering is to spotlight, challenge and accelerate the ways in which education can be made relevant to learning—not just on the sidelines of society or in the unique classrooms of the world, but by placing learning at the front and center of all that we do.

At the Big Ideas Fest you will have the opportunity to be inspired by engaging keynotes, see great examples of innovation in practice, and participate in a range of activities such as the “do-make-experience labs”, in which participants will work together to identify challenges and opportunities, and then design and prototype real-world examples. You will also have ample time to network with other dedicated and enthusiastic teachers, faculty, researchers, administrators, students, parents and policy-makers, as well as with luminaries and benefactors of education including foundation executives, social investors, and education entrepreneurs.

Why is it called a Fest? Because this is a gathering where innovation is meant to be designed, shared, celebrated and rewarded. As educators, we know that learning often happens when people leave behind their usual modes of problem-solving, as well as when a diverse group of stakeholders have opportunities to interact in different, yet meaningful ways. The Big Ideas Fest is not a conference of PowerPoint presentations and speeches, but an event where a broad group of stakeholders will be empowered to design and pursue solutions to some of the most challenging educational dilemmas we face today. As a social media-inspired event, the Big Ideas Fest will itself be a platform for creating and capturing stories, performances, and other forms of creativity such as video, micro-blogging, podcasts, and so on. An outcome of this effort will be a network of knowledge collaboratives that will be encouraged to work throughout the year to build, refine, and implement solutions to our toughest challenges in education.

We invite you to please consider this commitment to leadership and transformation in education by joining us December 6-9, 2009 in Half Moon Bay, California. The uniqueness of the Half Moon Bay location offers the breakaway feel of a retreat while just 40 minutes south of San Francisco, making the best that Northern California has to offer in a natural setting, style, and comfort available to you for three extraordinary days.
Please register early in order to hold your place for this ground-breaking Big Ideas Fest by going to http://a3.acteva.com/orderbooking/bookEvent/A302915 and typing in your email address and the following password, which is good only for your personal invitation: gen2081.

For more information about the Big Ideas Fest, please go to www.bigideasfest.org.

Your participation is the key.

Sincerely,

Lisa Petrides, Ph.D.
President and Founder, ISKME

More About Your Host
The Institute for Knowledge Management in Education (www.iskme.org), located in Half Moon Bay, CA, is a global leader in research and practice around knowledge sharing in the education sector. An independent non-profit organization established in 2002, ISKME is well-known for its OER Commons initiative (www.oercommons.org), as well as its award winning international research on information and knowledge use in the education sector. Our research and development efforts enable schools, colleges, universities, and the organizations that support them to expand their capacity to collect and share information, apply it to well-defined problems, and create human-centered, knowledge-driven environments focused on learning and success.