ISTE Live will be Orlando during the last week of June. The association putting on this event has indicated that over 17,000 educators and industry professionals will show up. An audience of this size calls to mind a packed exhibit hall, a vast collection of providers (including competitors), and a buzz worthy event right
Here is the thing about ISTE that a lot of EdTech vendors discover after their first year: the audience skews heavily toward classroom teachers and instructional technology coordinators. Senior district administrators — the superintendents, CAOs, and CIOs who sign enterprise contracts — are a smaller fraction of the room than the total number suggests.
That is not a knock on the conference. It is structurally accurate, and ISTE publishes the demographics to prove it: half the audience are administrators, technology coordinators, library media specialists, and key influencers for EdTech purchases. The other half are classroom practitioners. If your product sells bottom up through teacher adoption, ISTE is exactly right. If your primary buyer is a superintendent or cabinet level administrator, you are paying top dollar to be in a room where most of the people walking cannot close your deal.
