enlightED 2019: a platform for experts to share the most innovative educational experiences of the Digital Era

The second enlightED, the annual international conference focused on education, innovation and edtech, supported by Fundación Telefónica, IE University, South Summit and Fundación Santillana, will take place in Madrid between October 2-4 at the La Nave conference center in the Spanish capital within the framework of the 2019 South Summit.

Among the topics under discussion will be preparing for the educational challenges we will face in 2030, how schools can rethink educating students in the digital age, how universities can adapt to meet the needs of companies ahead of the emergence of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence and the challenges EdTech faces in responding to the educational and business sector.

Presence confirmed of leading experts to discuss education in the digital age.

Among the speakers who have already confirmed their participation in enlightED 2019 are Niall Ferguson, historian, writer and lecturer at Stanford University and CES Harvard University; Kelly Palmer, co-founder and Chief Learning and Talent Officer at Degreed; Tal Ben-Shahar, bestselling author and lecturer in Positive Psychology, Happiness and Leadership, who formally taught at Harvard University and is a consultant to multinational organizations; Siva Kumari, General Director at International Baccalaureate; Simon Nelson, CEO of Future Learn; Markus Witte, CEO of Babbel; Orlando Ayala, Advisor to the President of Colombia in Education and Technology; Pierre Dubuc, Cofounder and CEO of Openclassrooms; Patricia Kuhl, co-director of the Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences at the University of Washington; Ju-Ho Lee, former Minister of Education of South Korea; and Alex Romero, Founder & CEO, Alto Data Analytics.

Also attending will be the presidents of the supporting organizations, José María Álvarez-Pallete, CEO of Telefónica; Santiago Iñiguez, president of IE University; César Alierta, CEO of Fundación Telefónica; María Benjumea, founder and CEO of South Summit and Ignacio Polanco Moreno, president of the Santillana Foundation.

Interaction and networking

A innovation at this year’s enlightEd is the creation ofdisruptive spaces to further encourage interaction and networking. A range of formats will provide spaces to offersolutions to reinvent education in the digital age:

• Education Speakers' Corner: Focused on innovation, this informal, interactive space will provide a  30-minute platform for attendees to share their experiences in innovative educational projects, after which delegates can exchange concerns and issues in a roundtable format. Anybody wishing to present their project at Education Speakers’ Corner can apply via the website.Sharing their experiences in educational innovation this year will be representatives from Kunskapsskolan (Sweden); Nuvu The Innovative School (USA); Youth Made Initiative (Malaysia) and Robo Rave (Spain). All have been selected for their creativity, implementation, adaptability, impact and their replicability.
• Workshops: There will also be a series of cross-cutting and participatory workshops to generate discussion on new learning opportunities. La Torre Workshops will include Barbara Oakley’s Learning how to learn for children; the Academy of Singapore Teachers’ Math Method; and Lego Robotix: learning STEM competencies through robotics.

enlightED Awards: the quest for the best edTech startupsaround the world

As in 2018, the 2019 enlightED Awards aims to identify the best entrepreneurial education initiatives in edTech around the world. The enlightED Awards will be open to submissions by startups from anywhere, at any stage of development, until August 4 through the enlightED website.

enlightED will award prizes in the following four categories:

• IE University Award for 'Best startup in Higher Education'.
• Fundación Telefónica 'Startup Award with the greatest social impact in Education'.
• Telefónica Digital Education Award for 'Startup with the best technological solution for learning and training'.
• Wayra Award for 'Most Scalable Edtech Startup'.

The winner of the enlightED Awards will also be the winner of the South Summit Startup Competition 2019, and will compete with the rest of the categories to be the overall final winner.

The winning projects will have access to IE University’s Edtech IE Rockets startup incubator, the Wayra international entrepreneurship network and the entire South Summit investment ecosystem, as well as the possibility of collaborating with its partners and collaborators.

In 2018, more than 615 submissions were received, of which 58% were international, coming from more than 40 countries.

enlightED 2018

The first edition of enlightED, held in 2018, brought together more than 10,000 attendees, both face-to-face and through streaming, as well as more than 1,200 corporations and more than 1,100 startups.

The first meeting on educational innovation in the framework of the South Summit attracted thinkers and innovators like Sir Ken Robinson, Barbara Oakley, Jonathan Zittrain, MaysaJalbout and Gerd Leonhard.

Fundación Telefónica, promoting the social side of the digital era

At Fundación Telefónica we have been working since 1998 to be catalysts for social inclusion in the digital era. With this vision, we seek to improve the development opportunities of people through inclusive projects with a digital soul and a global vocation through education, training and the dissemination of knowledge as the fundamental vehicles for social transformation. We develop educational, cultural, employability and volunteering projects that respond to the challenges of the digital world, with the goal of leaving nobody behind.

With a presence in 30 countries – Spain, Latin America, Africa and Asia – over the course of 2018 we reached more than 8.6 million people through our programs.

About South Summit

South Summit is a global platform of full innovation services connecting startups, investors and corporations focused on business opportunities. It is currently a global event, having extended its connection network through the rest of Europe, Latin America, Israel and the United States. The last South Summit meeting in Madrid was held at La Nave between October 3-5 in 2018 and was attended by more than 6,700 founders and more than 175 investment funds with an investment capacity of $55 billion.

About the Fundación Santillana

Since its creation in 1979, the Fundación Santillana promotes educational and cultural projects related to publishing, information and education. With offices in Spain, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Peru, Mexico and Brazil, its work has an impact in 21 Latin American countries. Through its Ed21 program, Fundación Santillana promotes educational debate on the abilities and skills required by our students to meet the challenges of society today, with the objective of generating collective intelligence that brings together the ideas, thinking, proposals and aspirations of the entire Latin American educational community. Furthermore, it promotes, along with the Autonomous University of Madrid, a Masters in Governance and Human Rights, organized by the Professor of Latin American Studies, Jesús de Polanco.