Impressive list of attendees. “Un-conference” format. Amazing venue.
Earlier this year, we began planning and design for an inaugural face-to-face FLEXspace Summit to be held in Philadelphia, August 4-6, 2020, hosted by SUNY and Penn State at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. With campuses and international participants under COVID travel restrictions, we are joining with others in postponing this inaugural face-to-face FLEXspace Summit until July 13-15 2021, still in Philadelphia, which coincides with the SCUP annual conference. In the meantime, we want to share the exciting program format and lineup we have in the works!
The “un-conference” program will bring together thought leaders in higher education and K12 planning/design, AV/IT integration, and pedagogy/research to connect, share, and leave the event with pragmatic, actionable information. A blend of formal and informal sessions include:
- Thematic, interactive expert panels with international leaders
- Individual FLEX-talks
- Brain Dates and Table Talks
Tracks include:
- Space, practices and technologies that encourage inclusion and active learning
- Practices that encourage integrated planning among broad constituencies
- Pipeline issues – how K-12 demographics influence Higher Education planning
- How new technologies (AR/VR/XR) are impacting learning, planning and budgets
- Evolving academic and workplace environments at the intersection of secure physical and virtual environments as well as content delivery
- Blending virtual and physical learning environments for hybrid synchronous active learning in a post-pandemic world
Just prior to the pandemic freeze, we were thrilled by the enthusiastic response received from several high-profile community members who were, and still are, eager to engage with the FLEXspace community as attendees, presenters or panelists. Until we can meet in person, we will offer a brief a webinar, likely with one of originally scheduled panels during the original early August window to keep the momentum building and offer a sample of our intended conference experience. Of course, this is an opportune time to discuss how social distancing and pandemic circumstances affect the planning, design, use and reimagining of physical learning spaces.
Here is a list of those who have already expressed interest in (or committed to speaking at) the Summit:
- Tod Laursen, Provost & Executive Vice Chancellor – SUNY
- Teresa Miller, Vice Chancellor, Strategic Initiatives and Chief Diversity Officer – SUNY
- Susan Whitmer, Researcher at Herman Miller
- Stacy Marrone, Associate Vice President, Learning Technologies – Indiana University
- Sarah Williams Goldhagen, Architect and Consultant
- Robert Dillon, K12 Thought Leader and Author
- Nicholas R. Santilli, Senior Director for Learning Strategy for SCUP
- Nancy Sturm, Principal Consultant at The Sextant Group/NV5 Engineering & Technology
- Mike Moss, President of the Society for College and University Planning (SCUP)
- Michelle Samura, Faculty and DEI researcher – Chapman University
- Malcolm Brown, Director – EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative
- Lev Gonick, Vice President & CIO – Arizona State University
- Kyle Bowen, Director, Learning Experiences – Arizona State University
- Kim Scalzo, Interim Exec Dir. of Academic Technologies & Innovation, Executive Dir Open SUNY
- Julie Johnston, Director of Learning Spaces – Indiana University
- Joseph Way, Director, University of Southern California Learning Environments
- Joseph South, Chief Learning Officer, International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) and former director of the Office of Educational Technology at the U.S. Dept. of Education
- John Augeri, Program Director & Learning Spaces Researcher – Île-de-France Digital University
- Joe Moreau, Vice Chancellor & CTO – Foothill DeAnza District, and EDUCAUSE Board Member
- Jennifer Sparrow, Assoc. Vice President Teaching & Learning with Technology, Penn State
- Jeanne Narum, Executive Director of the Learning Spaces Collaboratory
- James Frazee, Chief Academic Technology Officer, San Diego State University
- Helen Chu, Sr. Director, Learning Spaces – Stanford
- Elliot Felix, Founder and CEO of Brightspot Strategy
- Edward Steinfeld, SUNY Distinguished Professor of Architecture, Direct, IDeA Center
- Derrell Jackson, Director Herman Miller Education
- Dana Gierdowski, EDUCAUSE ECAR
- Chris Sax, Provost & VP Academic & Student Affairs – Maryland U. of Integrative Health
- Caroline Pepper, Executive Board Member of SCHOMS, Loughborough University
- Carey Hatch, Senior Associate Provost, Academic Services – SUNY
- Bryan Alexander, Ed Tech Futurist
- Bob Haelen, Vice Chancellor, Capital Facilities & Planning – SUNY
- Andy Saltarelli, Sr. Director, Evaluation & Research – Stanford
- Andrew Milne, Principal Consultant at The Sextant Group
- Aileen Scales, Executive Dir. – Consortium of Colleges and University Media Centers (CCUMC)
On behalf of the FLEXspace Core Team, Summit Program Committee, and our enthusiastic host partners at Penn State we sincerely thank you for your commitment to launch this important event. Many thanks to SCUP President Mike Moss, and Nick Santilli, Senior Director of Learning Strategy for suggesting we re-schedule the FLEXspace Inaugural Summit immediately following their annual conference in Philadelphia, which will enable significant convenience for many of our participants.
Please stay connected and keep using the FLEXspace portal to upload space exemplars of all kinds and stayed tuned for more information about the webinar panel in the near future.
On behalf of the FLEXspace Core Team and Conference Planning Committee, we wish you and your family the best of health in these challenging times!