I always land in Austin a few days before SXSW swings into full-blown madness. Call it a ritual, call it jetlag survival. There’s something about this city—part cowboy, part dreamer, always caffeinated— before the conference that makes for the perfect runway into the innovation chaos ahead. Time to see some long time friends in the evening, mornings are for breakfast tacos and deep dives into Austin’s indie coffee scene. Afternoons, throw my neurons into the intellectual blender that is SXSW EDU. It’s my favorite warm-up act. A chance to see what’s brewing in education, where technology, policy, and our future collide.
Let’s be honest, education is everything. The youth isn’t just our future; it’s the only future we have. And if we mess this up, we mess everything up. I get so frustrated when I wander in a school, noticing that the only difference between the classroom of 1875 and today is that the blackboard gave way to a digital screen. The question that matters is, do we give the new generations the chance to prepare for the fast paced, hard fought, and chaotic world we created?
SXSW EDU: where ideas go to play
Education conferences tend to be either dry as a textbook or crammed with a plethora of buzzwords nobody actually understands nor needs. SXSW EDU? That’s a different beast. Since 2011, it’s been a playground for the bold: the educators, startups, researchers; and idealists who know that learning isn’t just about the classroom. It’s about the tools, the policies, the mentorship, the tech support, the platforms, the wild new ideas that might just reshape everything.
This year, the air crackled with a mix of urgency and possibility. Hundreds of sessions, and barely enough hours in the day to skim the surface. Keynotes challenged, workshops inspired, and late-night discussions over craft beer (I can still feel yesterday’s local brew disagreeing in my head) turned into the kind of debates that spark (r)evolutions. Shamil Idriss, CEO of Search for Common Ground, dropped a challenge: what if we taught the next generation to transform conflict into cooperation? And that was a current topic on a lot of other sessions: How about integrating more contrarian thinking? Instead of just churning out degrees, could we build a society, a new generation that actually knows how to work through its differences? That does not anchor itself in unmovable polarized mental trenches? It wasn’t just a speech; it was a provocation.
The team behind PBS KIDS’ Carl the Collector peeled back the curtain on representing neurodivergence in youngsters’ media. More than just storytelling: a roadmap to inclusive, meaningful representation. Mental health took center stage too, with the Girl Scouts of the USA and the National Alliance on Mental Illness digging into the growing crisis among young people. The effect of too much unfiltered social media. The inability to distinct fake from real. The artificial creation of a vision of self, that is so inferior to the projected (un)reality the Met’as and TikTok’s project that is causes real damage to psyche and soul. SXSW EDU is clear: we do not need mumbling hand-wringing. We need solutions. Action. Because talking about the problem isn’t enough. And, there was a lot of talk about responsibility. Platforms? Advertisers? Agencies? Governments? Schools? Influencers? Parents? Don’t just pick one: it takes more than a village to protect the next generation (aged 0 to 26) from the pitfalls and smoke and mirrors.
Then there was the ongoing debate over student debt, which has morphed from a crisis into an immovable economic reality for millions in the US. Experts ripped apart the broken system and sketched out new visions for financing higher education. Not the usual political tap dance, but a real, gritty exploration of what might actually work. Refreshing to see and hear in a country where financial aid to those who are already in or on the brink of need
The future gets its shot
SXSW EDU doesn’t just talk. It puts ideas on stage and lets them fight for their lives. The Launch Startup Competition is where early-stage education startups get a moment in the spotlight: sometimes the moment that changes everything. This is where past winners have walked away with funding, partnerships, and the kind of credibility that turns a scrappy idea into a global movement.
In the Student Impact Challenge: where high school students don’t just pitch ideas, they bring solutions to real-world problems. Climate change, social inequality, mental health… name the crisis, and these kids are already five steps ahead of us. This isn’t hypothetical, these are solid projects. The pitches are delivered with a professionalism and drive that would benefit quiet a lot of “grown-ups” or pro’s! Past winners have made waves. Maro, last year’s standout, is already embedded in schools across the country, using AI to catch mental health struggles early. NaTakallam turned refugee displacement into an opportunity, hiring displaced people as online language tutors, proving that innovation and impact can go hand in hand.
This year’s big wins? Two projects that hit the nerve center of education’s biggest challenges.
College Contact, an Austin-born startup that tackles one of the most overlooked struggles in education: true mentorship. It’s not enough to hand students a career guide and wish them luck. They need real guidance, from people who’ve been there, just a step ahead, speaking their language. College Contact built a digital platform that connects students with young professionals, turning career advice into something living, breathing, and actually useful. This isn’t a LinkedIn-for-kids gimmick. It’s structured, scalable, and already proving that the right thoughtful mentor at the right time can change a trajectory forever.
Spark, straight out of Pittsburgh, with a vision that’s equal parts high-tech and deeply human. Autism education has long been stuck in the past: rigid systems trying to force neurodiverse students into one-size-fits-all models. Spark flips the script. Their platform adapts dynamically, shaping itself to each youngster’s unique needs. Learning paths adjust in real time, caregivers and therapists get data-driven insights, and for once, the system molds itself to the student, not the other way around. It’s a fusion of AI, behavioral science, and pure empathy. The kind of tool that doesn’t just make learning easier: it makes it possible. Integrating something similar in the workplace? I think it might be a good idea!
Every year, SXSW EDU proves me that the future of education isn’t sitting in a policy binder somewhere. It’s here, in the minds of the people who refuse to accept that learning has to be slow, outdated, or inaccessible. It’s in the startups that take risks, the educators who break rules, and the students who demand something better.
In our Media and Marketing world, the students of today are our employees of tomorrow and soon the leaders of the brands and agencies we so cherish. In my cry for “Return On Belgium”, we cannot without that next generation. They are at our doors as we speak. Let’s put our weight and energy in welcoming them SXSW EDU style: not indoctrinating them with our set-way of working, but helping them build the vehicle that will drive them into their future…
That is even more rewarding than an award….
